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Up for sale a RARE! "Postmaster General" Henry Clay Payne Cut Signature.
ES-396A
Henry Clay Payne
(November 23, 1843 – October 4, 1904) was U.S. Postmaster General from 1902 to 1904
under Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. He died in office and was
buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was also a
chairman of the Republican National Committee. Payne
was born in Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts,
on November 23, 1843, though his birth is sometimes listed incorrectly as
September 23. He spent his youth in Massachusetts,
and attempted to enlist for the Union Army,
but he was rejected from service due to poor health. In 1859, he was graduated
from the Academy of
Shelburne Falls. In 1863, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he found work
as a dry goods merchant. In 1872 he began his political career with the Young Men's
Republican Club of Milwaukee County. He worked his way up to become
secretary and then chairman for the organization. In 1876, Payne was appointed
Postmaster of Milwaukee, a position he held for the next ten years.[2] He transferred his organizational skills to his next position as president
of Wisconsin
Telephone Company in 1885, and successively served as director for
the First
National Bank of Milwaukee and president of the Milwaukee and
Northern Railroad, The Milwaukee
Electric Railway and Light Company and the Milwaukee and
Cream City Traction Company. In his duties as president of Milwaukee
Electric Railway and Light, Payne instituted free park concerts at many of
Milwaukee's parks, including Lake Park. In 1893 he was elected president of the American
Street Railway Association in recognition for his service to the
street railways of Milwaukee, and later in August 1893, he was appointed
receiver for the bankrupt Northern Pacific Railway.
