Oliver Hazard Payne

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For the British contemporary artist, see Oliver Payne and Nick Relph.

Oliver Hazard Payne (1839 - 1917) was an American businessman, organizer of the American Tobacco trust, and assisted with the formation of U.S. Steel, and was affiliated with Standard Oil. He is considered one of the 100 wealthiest Americans, having left an enormous fortune. [1].

The son of businessman-politician Henry B. Payne, he studied at Yale University. At the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861 he enlisted in the Union Army, though he could have afforded to pay someone to go in his stead. Upon the end of the war, he began his career, investing in iron and then oil refining. His oil interests were the first acquired by Standard Oil, and he became a trustee of that firm and acted as a lobbyist. He was charged with bribing members of the Ohio Legislature to attain a Senate seat for his father (before the U.S. Senate was directly elected), and with bribing the Democratic Party to name his brother-in-law United States Secretary of the Navy, though the charges were dropped.

He was the uncle of Payne Whitney. He was also the uncle of Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton (1885-1977). He was named for Oliver Hazard Perry.