John Barton Payne

Time cover, 12 May 1923

Payne was born on January 26, 1855 in Pruntytown, West Virginia, the son of Amos Payne, who was a doctor and farmer, and the former Elizabeth Barton.[1]

Admitted to the bar in 1876 in West Virginia, Payne entered politics five years later as the chairman of the Preston County Democratic Party. He moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1883, and was elected in 1893 to the Superior Court of Cook County, which he served on until resigning from that post in 1898.[2] After resigning his judgeship, Payne was the senior partner in Winston, Payne, Strawn and Shaw. A successor firm still exists. He was the president of the Chicago's South Park Board from 1911 to 1924.

John Barton Payne in the Chicago Eagle newspaper, 1910[3]

After the outbreak of World War I, Payne went to Washington, D.C., to act as the counsel for the Emergency Fleet Corporation and was the national railroad administration. From 1919 through his appointment to Wilson's cabinet in February 1920, Payne served as the Chairman of the U.S. Shipping Board.

From October 1921 until his death, Payne served as the Chairman of the American Red Cross. In May 1921, Payne pledged funds for the permanent structure for the Warrenton Library[4] in Fauquier County, Virginia.

Payne was a founder of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond in 1911, and he donated 50 paintings to the museum in 1919.[5] Some of his personal papers were given to the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William & Mary.[6]

Payne married Kate Bunker on October 17, 1878. She died after a long illness. Payne married his second wife, the former Jennie Byrd Bryan (daughter of the late Thomas Barbour Bryan), on May 1, 1913. Jennie Payne died in 1919, and he remained a widower in office.

He died of pneumonia after an operation for appendicitis on January 24, 1935, at the age of 79. Two days later, an Associated Press obituary ran in the Chicago Tribune. Payne was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C., next to his second wife.

In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS John Barton Payne was named in his honor.

• John B. Payne, Ex-Member of the Cabinet, Dead, Chicago Tribune, p. 1, Jan. 24, 1935
• American Red Cross website
• Fauquier County Public Library - Library History

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Barton Payne.

• American President.org - Secretary of the Interior: John B. Payne (1920 - 1921)
• Fauquier County Public Library - Library History
• International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement History - John Barton Payne 1922-35
• Finding aid for the John Barton Payne Papers