Oil on canvas, Cecilia Beaux, 1912, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

PAYNE, Sereno Elisha, a Representative from New York; born in Hamilton, Madison County, N.Y., June 26, 1843; attended the Auburn (N.Y.) Academy and was graduated from the University of Rochester, N.Y., in 1864; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1866 and practiced in Auburn, N.Y.; city clerk of Auburn in 1867 and 1868; supervisor in 1871 and 1872; district attorney of Cayuga County 1873-1879; president of the board of education of Auburn 1879-1882; appointed a member of the American-British Joint High Commission in January 1899; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1887); elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative Newton W. Nutting and reelected to the twelve succeeding Congresses (December 2, 1889-December 10, 1914); chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries (Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Ways and Means (Fifty-fifth through Sixty-first Congresses); majority leader (Fifty-seventh through Sixty-first Congresses); had been reelected to the Sixty-fourth Congress; died on December 10, 1914, in Washington, D.C.; interment in Fort Hill Cemetery, Auburn, N.Y.