In addition to his successful horticultural work, Dr. John H. Bayne played leading roles in politics, medicine, education, agriculture, and church life. In 1841, he entered Maryland politics and was elected to the House of Delegates as a Whig. By 1861, as a member of the Unionist Party, he was elected to the State Senate, where he voted against secession but supported resolutions seeking federal payments to slave owners whose slaves would have been freed. A graduate of the Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore in 1825, he maintained a medical practice at Salubria, published at least one scholarly paper in the American Journal of Medical Science, and during the Civil War was appointed by Secretary of War Stanton to a voluntary U.S. Army staff position as a surgeon and officer with duties at Fort Washington and Fort Foote. In public education, he often supported legislation for improvement while serving in the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate, was appointed president of the Prince George’s County Board of School Commissioners in July 1865, toured the county’s primary schools, both black and white, two years later to identify needed improvements, and resigned in November 1868 because of ill health. As president of the county’s Agricultural Society, he emphasized educating farmers in soils, fertilizers, weather, pollination techniques, and grafting, contributed articles to trade journals, and helped found the Maryland Agricultural College, which later expanded into the University of Maryland at College Park. Throughout his adult life, he was also active in St. John’s Episcopal Church at Broad Creek, represented it at the Episcopal Convention in Baltimore in 1860, and in July 1854 transferred ownership of almost 20 acres of his land to the church’s rector, the Reverend John Martin.