The full biographical sketch as printed in 1920, transcribed from the public-domain book. Spelling and wording are the original author’s; a few scanning errors may remain.
IRA T. PAINE, who is one of the sub- stantial business men of Grand Island and is at the head of one of the city's important enter- prises, has been a resident of this city forty- six years and has taken a keen interest and im- portant part in much of its development.
Mr. Paine is a native of Ohio but is of New England ancestry and of Revolutionary stock, his paternal great-grandfather, Eleazer Paine, having been a soldier in the patriot army in his native state, Connecticut. Mr. Paine's maternal great-grandfather, Ira Tuttle, also a native of Connecticut, was a justice of the peace for many years in Ohio. Among the young lawyers practicing in his court, were Frank and Benjamin F. Wade, whe became distinguished in public life in the Buckeye state.
Ira T. Paine was born at Painesville, Ohio, January 31, 1847, the son of Henry and Har-
riet (Tuttle) Paine, both of whom were born in northeastern Ohio, and spent nearly all their lives on a farm, passing away there in old age. Henry Paine was a son of Hendricks Paine, a native of Connecticut who moved to Ohio in 1802. Henry Paine was a man of prominence in Lake County, a justice of the peace, and for nine years was a county commissioner. He and wife were pillars in the Methodist Episcopal church and worthy people in every relation of life. Of their family of eight surviving children out of the original ten,but two reside in Grand Island, Ira T., and Miss Carrie M. Paine, who lives with her brother.
In the countrj' schools and at Painesville, Ira T. Paine obtained his education, in the meanwhile working on the home farm until 1873, when he came to Grand Island, Ne- braska. He arrived with but a small amount of capital but as he was frugal, a hard worker and had early acquired industrious habits, he soon found employment and for six years worked in a lumber yard after which he went into the railway mail service where he remained seven years. In the spring of 1888 he embarked independently in the monument business, a con- cern which has developed into a stock company of large importance, under the firm name of the Paine-Fishburn Granite Company, oper- ating with a capitall stock of $64,000. Mr. Paine is president of the company and much of its success is due to his careful, conserva- tive guidance of its affairs. He is a Republican in politics and at all times is an earnest citi- zen, but he has never had any ambition for political honors, in the proper regulation of his own business affairs finding a satisfying life.
Mr. Paine was married June 9, 1870, to Miss Ella M. Huston, who died October 21, 1911, survived by one child who is Judge Bayard H. Paine of Grand Island. Mr. Ira T. Paine has been for more than twenty-five years the chairman of the board of trustees of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Grand Island.
Source: History of Hall County, Nebraska (1920. See the original pages at the Internet Archive.
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