Henry B. Payne was born on November 11, 1810 in Hamilton, Madison County, New York, United States. He was the son of Elisha and Esther (Douglass) Payne and the descendant of Thomas Paine (or Payne) who settled in Yarmouth, Massachussets, and was admitted freeman of Plymouth Colony in 1639. Both parents were natives of Connecticut. In 1795 his father removed to Hamilton, New York, where Henry was born.
In 1832 Henry B. Payne was graduated from Hamilton College at Clinton. Sometime after he graduated from college he added the middle initial "B" to his name to give what he considered a more pleasing effect. For a period he studied law under John C. Spencer of Canandaigua, New York, at that time forming an acquaintance with Stephen A. Douglas that deepened into intimate friendship.
In 1833 Henry B. Payne settled in Cleveland, Ohio, then a village of 3, 000 people, continuing his law studies and, after his admission to the bar in 1834, entering a law partnership with his old classmate, Hiram V. Willson, later a federal district judge. His success in the practice of law was phenomenal, but in 1846 he began to have hemorrhages from his lungs, which necessitated his retirement from active practice. During these early years he held various municipal offices; later, he was a member of Cleveland's first water-works commission, and as a sinking fund commissioner from 1862 to 1896 he rendered noteworthy service in reforming the city's finances. One of the founders of the Cleveland and Columbus railroad in 1849, he served as its president from 1851 to 1854, when he resigned and became interested in the Cleveland, Painesville, and Ashtabula railroad.
Serving in the Ohio Senate from 1849 to 1851, Henry B. Payne displayed such skill as a parliamentarian and party leader that he became the Democratic choice for United States senator in 1851. Protracted balloting resulted in a few Free-Soilers eventually turning the balance in favor of Benjamin Wade. In 1857 as Democratic candidate for governor he lost the contest to the incumbent, Salmon P. Chase, by a narrow margin. He helped nominate Buchanan in 1856 and at the Democratic convention of 1860 reported the platform which, when adopted, prompted the withdrawal of delegates from the lower South. During the war he was an ardent Unionist. In 1872 a Greeley supporter, he was chairman of the Ohio delegation to the Democratic convention at Baltimore. Elected to Congress in a normally Republican district two years later, he served on the committees on banking and currency and on civil service reform, and he was instrumental in preventing legislation to regulate interstate commerce.
In 1876 - 1877 Henry B. Payne was chairman of the House committee on the electoral count at Tilden's request and was influential in the passage of legislation providing for the electoral commission, of which he became a member. He was a director in twenty corporations and a politician devoted to the interests of business. Although a leading presidential candidate at the Democratic convention of 1880, progress in his behalf was thwarted by the commitment of the Ohio delegation to Allen G. Thurman. Three years later a Payne movement for the senatorship suddenly developed. He received a majority vote in the Democratic legislative caucus and was promptly elected. He served from March 4, 1885, to March 3, 1891.
It was asserted that Henry B. Payne's son, Oliver H. Payne, tresurer of the Standard Oil Company, had spent $100, 000 to obtain the election. The Republican lower house of the next state legislature ordered an investigation. Fifty-five witnesses were examined, and the evidence was turned over to the federal Senate, which ultimately refused to act. While the charges were never absolutely proved, the absence of satisfactory denials in the face of reiterated accusations, convinced a large portion of the country that Payne's promoters had practically bought his seat.
In the Senate Henry B. Payne's principal work was as a committee member. Over eighty at the end of his term, he retired to the Euclid Avenue mansion in Cleveland that was his home for sixty years and died of paralysis five years later on September 9, 1896.
Henry B. Payne was an affable and courteous, with kindly eyes, smooth-shaven face, gentle voice, and a clerical-cut coat. He appeared more like a minister than the shrewd, active man of affairs.
In 1836 Henry B. Payne was married to Mary, the daughter of Nathan Perry, a merchant of Cleveland. They had five children, among them, Flora, who married W. C. Whitney, and Oliver H. Payne. Sereno Elisha Payne was his nephew.
