Despite being born in the American South during the time of slavery, Chris rose to a prominence achieved by few, regardless of race. He was the only child of Thomas & Barsheba (Ellison) Payne, 2 of the earliest free Blacks married lawfully in Monroe Co, about 1845. The 2005 "Africana Encylopedia", edited by Henry Louis Gates & Anthony Appiah, says Barsheba was the daughter of slave owner James Ellison. She was born about 1816 when her Black mother Fanny was about 21 and White father James was 59. He died in 1839 and his widow Elizabeth in 1841, when his Will freed Fanny & Barsheba & gave them his house near Red Sulphur Springs with furniture & 2 acres for a garden & pasture with livestock. Some people read (JE)anny in his Will, but Carol Hayne's "Free Inhabitants of Monroe Co", says it was Black (F)anny who lived with mulatto Barsheba in the census reports of 1850 to 1880. When Thomas died of smallpox driving cattle to Baltimore about 1850, Barsheba devoted her time to teaching Chris as James taught her and Chris was an excellent and fast learner. In 1861 at age 12, Chris was forced into the Civil War as a free body servant or orderly, maybe at Red or White Sulphur Springs Confederate Hospitals. He visited home on passes until he was released in 1864, then he worked on Vincent Sweeney's Buffalo Creek Farm for 2 years. It included Steer Island in the New River, where Indians captured James Ellison a half day in 1780. Here Chris met Vince's slave Ann Delilah Hargo, who was freed Feb. 3, 1865, when WV abolished slavery, then they married in early 1866, when she was 27 & he a mere 17. She clung to him in adversity, honored him in prosperity & bore him 6 children, Martha in late 1866, Mary in 1869, James in 1872, Charles in 1874, Cyrus in 1877 & the last, Christopher Hansen in 1881, who graduated from Howard U. as a Doctor & practiced in Hinton, WV, until he died at 33. In the summer of 1866, Chris walked 80 miles alone through the mountains to attend Black night school in Charleston, then he worked on a stern wheel steamboat on the Kanawha & Ohio Rivers in WV, Ohio & Kentucky until the school opened. Then he farmed during the day and carried his math book while plowing, to memorize its rules while his horse rested & some nights he walked 2 or 3 miles for help. He finished school in 1867, then went home & taught 4 month terms at Black schools south of Hinton in Monroe & Mercer Co's, then at Summers Co's 1st Black school, when it split from Mercer Co. in 1871. He taught & farmed until he was baptized in Indian Creek near his birth on Oct. 14, 1875 by Black Baptist G.W. Deskins. Chris was licensed to preach Feb. 22, 1876, ordained May 29, 1877, then entered Richmond Theological Institute, now Virginia Union U. He took 1878 off for lack of money & organized the Hinton 2nd Baptist Church, where their first 8 Blacks met at Henrietta Hastler's house. He also organized & preached in Black Baptist churches at Alderson, Brushy Ridge, Eagle, Mt. Carbon, Quinnimont, Union & Ronceverte, where the Black school was later named for him. In 1880, he became the preacher at Moore Street Baptist Church in Richmond, resumed studies at the Institute & graduated with honors in 1883. The American Baptist Publication Society offered him the Eastern Virginia Sunday School Missionary area & he gave a highly praised acceptance speech at their convention in Saratoga Springs, NY. He worked there a year before quitting due to ill health, then moved to Montgomery, WV in 1884. There he preached at the Coal Valley Black Baptist Church until 1897, except for 7 months in 1889 at Norfolk, Virginia's Black Baptist Church. Chris preached over 1500 sermons, converted over 500 Black Baptists & presided for 16 years at the WV Black Baptist Conventions. He often spoke at White Baptist national assemblies & in May of 1890, the Louisville, Kentucky State U. made him a Doctor of Divinity. In 1885, he started the "WV Enterprise" in Charleston, then 1st WV Black newspaper, next "Mountain Eagle" in Montgomery and then 1891 Huntington "Pioneer". He also wrote for the "Richmond Planet", "Virginia Star" & other Black & White papers. Irving Garland Penn wrote in The Afro-American Press & its Editors, "As a preacher & orator, Christopher is dignified & eloquent. As a writer, he is to the point with diction pure & style graceful and the most representative Negro in WV, both in religion & politics." By 1870, he was a Lincoln Republican who made over 100 speeches in WV, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio & Missouri during some campaigns. He was their 1884 National Convention alternate & 3rd Congressional District Representative in their 1888, 1892 & 1900 conventions. WV Republicans endorsed him Liberia Ambassador in 1890, an African country of freed slaves. That position went to the Black Abolitionist Alexander Clark & Chris was IRS Deputy Tax Collector in Charleston. In 1891, Black Professor Byrd Prillerman & Chris persuaded the Legislature to establish the WV Colored Institute 8 miles west of Charleston, now the mostly white WV State U.. The 1990 book "Coal, Class & Color" by Joe Trotter says Chris allied with Fayette Co's White Sheriff, Nehemiah Daniels, to be elected as the 1st Black Delegate in the WV Legislature in 1896, when he was also the 2nd Black lawyer admitted to the WV Bar. In 1898, Chris raised a company of 100 Black volunteers during the Spanish-American War & organized them at Gov. Atkinson's War Camp on the north bank of the Kanawha River, 1/2 mile below the mouth of the Elk River. Chris' sons Charles & James & son-in-law Robert Trent served there until the Camp closed in 1899. When his term in the legislature ended in 1898, Chris moved to Huntington, WV with Ann & preached at the Black Baptist Church. Martha lived with them since Robert was in the Army & Ann may have needed care, since she died about 1900. The "Africana Encyclopedia" says Chris' 2nd wife was A.G. Viney, a Gallipolis, Ohio Black teacher. They married before the issue of the Feb. 14, 1903 Washington D.C. Colored American. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Chris as Danish Indies General Consul on May 1, 1903 for his Republican service, then Chris spoke to Blacks in elections by visiting the USA from the Indies through Ellis Island in NYC. James Miller & Maud Clark's 1908, "The History of Summers Co. to the Present Time" credited Chris for Blacks voting Republican, but wrongly said he was Consul to Liberia. The passenger list to Ellis Island on the Oct., 1906 Trinidad Steamship says A.G. was 18 years younger than Chris, so she was about 35 & he about 53, when they married about 1901. Chris then came alone to the USA on the Parima in Sept, 1908, the Guiana in Sept, 1912 & Oct, 1915 & the Parima again in Apr, 1917. Presidents Taft & Wilson renewed Chris' position until the USA bought these Islands in 1917 & renamed them the U.S. Virgin Islands. Chris was in the 1916 "Book of Who's-Who", then was elected Judge Advocate at Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas Island in 1917 & 1919. In 1921, he opened a law firm with Black lawyer Thomas McCants Stewart, then Chris died on Dec. 5, 1925 at 77. He was buried on St. Thomas, but his grave location has been lost. Chris was honored in 2003 on the Montgomery, WV road sign above, which wrongly said he was born a slave. Chris was also placed upon the Fayetteville, WV Court House Wall of Honor on July 3, 2013.