My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES S. PAYNE, the well known and equally well-liked proprietor of the Brocton House, an ex-steamboat captain, and horticulturalist, is a son of Samuel and Laura (Elmer) Payne, and was born in Conway, Franklin county, Massachusetts, July 22, 1832. The Paynes came from the Scotch race, that hardy, honorable, persevering people, who have taken such an important part in the populating of this country. Samuel Payne was born in Massachusetts in 1801, and lived there, a tiller of the soil, for half a century. In 1852 he brought his family to the town of Stockton, where he continued to farm and speculate in various commodities with the capital that he had brought with him. He married Laura Elmer in Massachusetts, and had several children. Mrs. Payne was a woman of marked force of character, which was transmitted to her children to a great degree. Mr. Payne was a strong democrat and a gentleman of pronounced ideas. He died in 1855, his wife following him to her last resting place in 1859. They were members of the Universalist church and highly respected.

Charles S. Payne was educated in the common schools of Massachusetts, which was largely supplemented, however, by observation and inquiry in after life. When a young man he filled the position of traveling agent for a nursery house, following it for a number of years, then changing to the same capacity for a Jamestown furniture house. In 1870 Mr. Payne navigated Lake Chautauqua as captain of one of the steamboats which plowed those waters, following it for several years and becoming a part owner in a boat, but in 1888 he tired of this and came to Brocton and bought the hotel building which bears the city’s name. The advent of his taking charge of this hostelry was marked by great improvements in its every department, and today the Brocton House and Boniface Payne have the friendship of all the traveling men who come to the city. Connected with the hotel, he operates a first-class livery stable, and is engaged in the growing of grapes.

He married Jennie Martin, a daughter of Hiram Martin, who lives in Portland town, and they have one child, a son: George Porter.

C. S. Payne is an active worker in the Republican party, taking more than ordinary interest in the elections. He is one of the foremost citizens of Brocton in all improvements that point to this city’s advancement; is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and of the Free and Accepted Masons.