SERENO ELISHA PAYNE
PAYNE, SERENO ELISHA, graduate of the University of Rochester, 1864; lawyer, city clerk of Auburn, New York; supervisor of Auburn; district attorney Cayuga county; president Auburn Board of Education ; representative from New York in the United States congress in ten congresses, 1883-1904, and in the last named year elected for the term to expire in March, 1907, member of the committee on Ways and Means of the United States house of representatives sixteen years, chairman seven years, and reappointed; helping to frame the McKinley and Dingley bills; author of the Porto Rico tariff act and the Cuban reciprocity act which passed the house in 1902 and formed the basis of the reciprocity treaty with Cuba; director of banks and manufacturing companies in Auburn, New York; speaker pro tempore of the United States house of representatives, and member of the American and British Joint High commission; was born in Hamilton, New York, June 26, 1843. His parents removed to a farm near Auburn, New York, in 1844 and he has made that city his residence except when duty as a representative in congress forced him to reside in Washington. His father, the Honorable William Wallace Payne, was a prosperous farmer, a member of the state assembly from the first district of Cayuga county in 1858 and 1859 and a man of strong intellect, vigorous body, great powers of conversation, able to discuss forcibly the political questions of the day, and interested in the affairs of city, state and nation. His mother, Betsey Sears, was a daughter of David and Thankful (Irish) Sears and a lineal descendant of Stephen Hopkins who came to America in the Mayflower, 1620. His grandfather, Elisha Payne, was the founder of the village of Hamilton, having migrated thither from Connecticut and married Esther Douglass. His great grandfather, David Irish, was a pioneer preacher in central New York and all his ancestors were God-fearing men and most of them members of some christian church. Sereno E. Payne worked on his father's farm when not in attendance at the district school and Auburn academy, and was able to do a man's work when
