O.H. Payne - New York and Northern Railway Co. - Stock Certificate

Stock signed on back by O.H. Payne.

Oliver Hazard Payne (July 21, 1839 – June 27, 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. His father, Henry B. Payne, was a businessman and politician. His mother was Mary Perry. He was named for Oliver Hazard Perry, a relative of his mother. He was the uncle of (William) Payne Whitney and Harry Payne Whitney. He was also the uncle of Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton (1885–1977). Payne was educated at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1859. He attended Yale University, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. In 1861, at the outbreak of the American Civil War of 1861-1865, Payne enlisted in the Union Army. By 1863, he was colonel of the 124th Ohio Infantry during which time he was grievously wounded. He was Brevetted Brigadier General March 13, 1865. Following this he became involved in oil refining and founded the company Clark, Payne & Co. In 1872 it was purchased by John D. Rockefeller. Payne became the treasurer of Standard Oil and one of the wealthiest men in America. He constructed his mansion in 1909-1911 on the same site as Waldorf, John Jacob Astor III’s somewhat less grand Renaissance-style residence that was razed. Known as the Col. Oliver Hazard Payne Estate, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and is now the home of Marist College's Raymond A. Rich Institute for Leadership Development. Payne never married nor had children. Upon his death in 1917, the house passed to one of his nephews, Harry Payne Bingham. Bingham donated the 484 acre estate to the Episcopal Diocese of New York in 1933, which established the Wiltwyck School for Boys, serving troubled children from 1937-1966. Its leaders included Eleanor Roosevelt, and its alumni included boxing champion Floyd Patterson. Payne 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. Payne was a yachtsman and built the steam yacht Aphrodite in 1898. Aphrodite was one of the finest yachts of the time with Payne making a round the world cruise aboard and took the yacht to Europe every summer from 1908 until outbreak of war in 1914 limited his cruises to American waters.

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