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Notable people · Clergy · Educator

Daniel Payne

Born free in Charleston, South Carolina, Payne became the sixth AME bishop (1852). He helped found Wilberforce University and became its president in 1863 after the AME Church acquired it; Wikipedia calls him the first African American college president in the U.S.

Daniel Payne
from New York Public Library, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
1811-02-24
Died
1893-11-02
Education
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Gettysburg, PA, 1830s, ordained 1835
Known as
Clergy, Educator
Organizations
African Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilberforce University

Life story

Daniel Payne was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1811 to free Black parents. He opened his first school at eighteen, and when South Carolina banned teaching free people of color to read and write in 1835 he left for the North.

He studied at the Lutheran seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and was ordained in 1835. In 1842 he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1848 he became its historiographer, and in 1852 he was elected its sixth bishop.

In 1856 the church helped buy and found Wilberforce University in Ohio. Payne was involved from the start, and in 1863 he became the school's president, the first African American college president in the country.

He led Wilberforce until 1877 and remained a bishop until his death in 1893. He wrote Recollections of Seventy Years (1888) and The History of the A.M.E. Church (1891). He is buried in Baltimore.

Timeline

  • 1829: Opens first school (Charleston, SC) source
  • 1835: Ordained as Lutheran minister (Gettysburg, PA) source
  • 1842: Joins African Methodist Episcopal Church (Baltimore, MD) source
  • 1848: Named AME historiographer (U.S.) source
  • 1852: Elected sixth AME bishop (U.S.) source
  • 1854: Marries Eliza Clark of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) source
  • 1856: Helps found Wilberforce University (Wilberforce, OH) source
  • 1863: Becomes Wilberforce president, first Black college president (Wilberforce, OH) source
  • 1877: Leaves presidency; stays bishop (Wilberforce, OH) source
  • 1893-11-02: Dies (U.S.) source

What Daniel is known for

  • Sixth bishop of the AME Church, 1852
  • President of Wilberforce University from 1863
  • Founded the Bethel Literary and Historical Society 1881
  • Recollections of Seventy Years (1888)
  • The History of the A.M.E. Church (1891)

Honors and things named for them

  • Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio
  • Daniel Payne College, Alabama (1889-1979)
  • Pennsylvania historical marker at Gettysburg College

Family

  • wife: Eliza Clark

Places in Ohio to see

Ohio places

Where Daniel Payne was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

  • Disputed: He is called the first Black college president. Whether that is true depends on how the title is defined, since he led Wilberforce under the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

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