 He served in that position for the rest of his life.Together with Lewis Woodson and two other African Americans representing the AME Church, and 18 European-American representatives of the Cincinnati Methodist Episcopal Conference, Payne served on the founding board of directors of Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1856.Among the trustees who supported the abolitionist cause and African-American education was Salmon P. Chase, then governor of Ohio, who was appointed as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court by President Abraham Lincoln.