Oliver Hazard Payne

Oliver Hazard Payne (July 21, 1839 – June 27, 1917) 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.

Personal life

Payne was a yachtsman. He chartered the steam yacht Eleanor in 1897 and liked her so well that he contracted with her builder, Bath Iron Works, to build an even larger yacht along the same lines. Payne's steam yacht Aphrodite was the largest yacht ever built in the United States when she was launched 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.

Payne died at his home, 852 Fifth Avenue in New York City, on June 27, 1917. His estate was valued at in excess of $32,000,000.

His estate at the hamlet of West Park, New York, known as the Col. Oliver Hazard Payne Estate, 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.