Fifty Years of Payne Journeys to North America,
1880 : Farming at Bladensburg in Maryland

Poster for The AMERICAN LINE Image © and by kind courtesy of The Ships List After arriving at Philadelphia on 2 March - according to Hallam - they ‘took up’ a farm at Bladensburg, about four miles north-west of Washington D.C.  They must have moved fast to find the farm and get the crops planted by late April or early May, although the census on 7 June shows a farm labourer Thomas Cash boarding with them, and he may well have helped.

In early 1880, Henry had another try at settling in the United States, perhaps stimulated by a subscription to the periodical Sidney’s Emigrant’s Journal: Information, Advice and Amusement for Emigrants and Colonizers, a copy of which survives in the Payne family papers. It is also possible that the decision to travel to the U.S. may have been stimulated by news of the death of his cousin Lucy in Pennsylvania in May 1879.  This time his eldest son Charles Vincent, then aged 12, accompanied him, and they left England from the port of Liverpool in late February, aboard the S.S. British Crown.  This brand new steam ship of the American Line had only come into service four months earlier, and travelled directly to the port of Philadelphia. The BRITISH CROWN, 1881, by Antonio Jacobsen (1850 - 1921) Image © and by kind courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc. Click on the picture to view detailed image of and more information about the ship

The HIBERNIAN of the Allan Line Image © and by kind courtesy of The Ships List Click on the picture to view detailed image of and more info about the ship	Port of Baltimore c. 1875 Image © and by kind courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society Library

Henrietta had given birth to their fourth son Fred at St. James' Road in Normanton in December the previous year, and probably waited in Derby for Fred to get a little older, and word from her husband, before setting out to join them.  After setting out from Liverpool in late June, they arrived at the port of Baltimore - via Norfolk and Halifax - on 7 July aboard the SS Hibernian, and must have joined Henry and Charlie at the farm shortly after.  Even after the rigours of an Atlantic crossing, they do not seem to have had much time for rest and recuperation. Only two days after their arrival, Hallam fell out of ‘the buggy’ and broke his right arm, resulting in a 'four or five week stay in hospital in Washington'.  In the meantime, Charlie was attacked by two ‘niggers’ on his way back from Washington.  Of far greater importance, however, was the fact that the climate did not agree with Henrietta's health.  They returned to England fairly soon after Hallam's recovery, leaving all the crops in the fields, and the census shows them again running the grocery at 38 St. James' Road in Normanton by 3 April 1881.  The trip seems to have been something of a disaster, and Henry apparently gave up any ideas of leaving England again.
 

1872 : Henry Payne in Virginia & Nebraska

1890-1892 : Chicago, Pullman & The Worlds Fair