---
aliases:
- Oliver Hazard Payne
- Oliver H. Payne
- Oliver Payne
- Col. Oliver H. Payne
- Colonel Oliver H. Payne
- Colonel Payne
- O. H. Payne
born: 1839
category: Business & Finance
created: 2026-10-26
died: 1917
location: Cleveland, Ohio; New York City
relations:
- end: 1884
  fn: 12
  role: treasurer until 1884
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Standard Oil]]'
- fn: 12
  role: board of directors after 1884 per the Yale record; the Evening World reported
    that he withdrew from the directorates after the antitrust decrees
  start: 1884
  type: director_of
  with: '[[Standard Oil]]'
- fn: 15
  role: stockholder, 180 shares
  start: 1872
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[South Improvement Company]]'
- end: 1885
  fn: 17
  role: trustee in the first term of the 1882 trust agreement
  start: 1882
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Standard Oil Trust]]'
- fn: 19
  role: named among the seven individual defendants
  start: 1911
  type: subject_of
  with: '[[Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States]]'
- fn: 50
  role: director, per Yale obituary record
  type: director_of
  with: '[[American Tobacco Company]]'
- fn: 50
  role: director, per Yale obituary record
  type: director_of
  with: '[[Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company]]'
- fn: 51
  role: named among the individual defendants
  start: 1911
  type: subject_of
  with: '[[United States v. American Tobacco Co.]]'
- fn: 53
  role: member of the Tennessee Coal syndicate (10,300 shares per the committee counsel's
    list), creditor of the firm and lender of securities to it
  start: 1907
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Moore & Schley]]'
- end: 1865
  fn: 9
  role: first lieutenant, then lieutenant colonel and colonel; brevet brigadier general
    of volunteers March 13, 1865
  start: 1861
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[124th Ohio Infantry]]'
- fn: 76
  role: gifts, including $4,000,000 per the Weill Cornell history, and a bequest of
    a permanent endowment of $500,000
  type: funded
  with: '[[Cornell University Medical College]]'
- end: 1917
  fn: 82
  role: bequest of one million dollars by will
  type: funded
  with: '[[Yale University]]'
- end: 1917
  fn: 82
  role: bequest of one million dollars by will
  type: funded
  with: '[[New York Public Library]]'
- end: 1917
  fn: 82
  role: bequest of one million dollars by will
  type: funded
  with: '[[Lakeside Hospital]]'
- fn: 6
  role: son
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[Henry B. Payne]]'
- fn: 2
  role: sister
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[Flora Payne]]'
- fn: 2
  role: brother-in-law
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[William Collins Whitney]]'
- fn: 3
  role: uncle
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[Payne Whitney]]'
- fn: 2
  role: uncle
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[Harry Payne Whitney]]'
- fn: 3
  role: uncle
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[Dorothy Payne Whitney]]'
summary: Standard Oil treasurer and trustee, uncle of Payne Whitney and son of Ohio
  senator Henry B. Payne, who sat on the boards of American Tobacco and Tennessee
  Coal, Iron and Railroad.
tags:
- Person
- Payne
- StandardOil
- Whitney
- Yale
- AmericanTobacco
- TennesseeCoal
- Philanthropy
- Cleveland
- CivilWar
updated: 2026-10-26
---

Oliver Hazard Payne (July 21, 1839 to June 27, 1917) was a Cleveland oil refiner who served as treasurer of [Standard Oil](/organizations/standard-oil/) until 1884 and then sat on its board in New York. He was the son of Henry B. Payne, a United States senator from Ohio, and the brother of Flora Payne, who married William Collins Whitney. He entered [Yale University](/organizations/yale-university/) with the class of 1863 and left in October 1861 for the Union Army.[^1] His sister Flora was the mother of his nephews [Payne Whitney](/people/payne-whitney/) and Harry Payne Whitney, who were sons of the [Whitney family](/people/whitney-family/).[^2][^3]

[Antony C. Sutton](/people/antony-c-sutton/), in his book on [Skull and Bones](/organizations/skull-and-bones/), placed the Payne family under Standard Oil among the families of new wealth in his chart "Hypothesis Number One," beside the old-line Whitney family.[^4] Sutton wrote that William C. Whitney "married Flora Payne, daughter of Standard Oil Treasurer Oliver Payne," and that adding "the Payne piece of the Standard Oil fortune made Whitney's fortune that much larger."[^5] Payne Whitney's Yale record gives his mother as Flora Payne, and Oliver Payne's Yale record lists one of his sisters as the wife of William Collins Whitney.[^2][^3]

### Early life and Yale

Payne was born in Cleveland on July 21, 1839, the son of Henry B. Payne and Mary (Perry) Payne, a daughter of Nathan Perry.[^1] The Yale record gives his father's career as a Cleveland lawyer for twelve years, a member of the Ohio Senate from 1849 to 1851, the Democratic candidate for United States Senate in 1851 and for governor in 1857, a member of the Forty-fourth Congress, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1880 and 1884, and a United States senator from 1885 to 1891.[^6] Oliver Payne was prepared for Yale at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.[^7]

He remained in the class of 1863 only until October 1861, when he left to accept a commission as first lieutenant in the 124th Ohio Infantry.[^7] The Yale Corporation voted him the degree of B.A. in 1878, and from that date he was enrolled in the class of 1863.[^8] His brother, Henry W. Payne, graduated from Yale in 1867 and died in 1878. One of his sisters, Flora Payne, was the wife of William Collins Whitney (Yale 1863), and another was the wife of Charles W. Bingham (Yale 1868); a niece was the wife of Dudley S. Blossom (Yale 1901).[^2][^3] The Yale record states that he never married.[^2]

### Civil War service

The Yale record says that Payne rose to the rank of colonel in the 124th Ohio and that on March 13, 1865 he was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers.[^9] The Heitman register of Army officers gives the regiment and dates in more detail. It lists him as lieutenant colonel of the 124th Ohio Infantry from September 11, 1862, colonel from January 1, 1863, and brevet brigadier general of volunteers from March 13, 1865 for faithful and meritorious service, with a resignation dated November 2, 1864.[^10] The Yale record says that he returned to Cleveland "after completing his service in the Army."[^11] The two records agree on the March 13, 1865 brevet. They differ on whether his service ended in 1864 or 1865.

### Cleveland refining and the Standard Oil combination

After leaving the Army, Payne entered the oil refining business in Cleveland with James B. Clark. John Huntington later became a partner.[^12] The Yale record says that the business was absorbed by the Standard Oil Company, that Payne was its treasurer until 1884, when he removed to New York City, and that he had been on its board of directors since.[^12] The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History names the firm as Clark, Payne & Co., describes it as the largest Cleveland competitor of the Rockefeller, Andrews and Flagler firm, and says it merged into the Standard Oil Company in 1872, with Payne becoming its treasurer.[^13]

Ida M. Tarbell wrote that Payne was "one of the thirteen original members of the South Improvement Company," and "one of the rare Cleveland refiners who had a strong enough stomach to go into the Standard Oil Company when it swept up the oil trade of Cleveland in 1872."[^14] Her list of the South Improvement Company's stockholders gives "O. H. Payne, Cleveland" 180 shares, the same holding as H. M. Flagler, William Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller. She wrote that Payne and J. A. Bostwick "soon after became stockholders in the Standard Oil Company."[^15]

Tarbell also described Payne as treasurer in the House inquiry of 1879. She wrote that the Committee on Commerce summoned "O. H. Payne, treasurer of the Standard Oil Company" with the railroad officers, and that Payne "refused also to furnish the committee with information."[^16] She names his father as an ally in the same matter: "Congressman H. B. Payne, of Cleveland," through whose good offices the matter was referred to that committee.[^16]

### The 1882 trust and the trustees

The trust agreement of January 2, 1882 vested the stock of the Standard Oil companies in nine trustees, under what is called here the Standard Oil Trust. The Ohio Supreme Court reproduced the agreement in its 1892 decision in the state's suit. It named as trustees for the first term, ending in April 1885, "J. D. Rockefeller, O. H. Payne and Wm. Rockefeller," together with "J. A. Bostwick, H. M. Flagler and W. G. Warden," and "Chas. Pratt, Benj. Brewster and Jno. D. Archbold."[^17] The same decision lists "O. H. Payne, trustee" among the holders of trust stock.[^18] Two of the nine places went to members of the [Rockefeller family](/people/rockefeller-family/), John D. and William Rockefeller.

In the Supreme Court's 1911 decision in the government's suit, the seven individual defendants were John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefeller, Henry H. Rogers, Henry M. Flagler, John D. Archbold, Oliver H. Payne and Charles M. Pratt.[^19] The Court's statement of the trust agreement names the same trustees as the Ohio decision.[^19]

### The 1884 Ohio Senate election of Henry B. Payne

The Ohio legislature elected Henry B. Payne to the United States Senate in January 1884, after the Democratic caucus of January 8, 1884 gave him 46 votes on the first ballot, against 17 for Durbin Ward, 15 for George H. Pendleton and one for Booth.[^20] His credentials were received in the Senate, and he took his oath on March 4, 1885.[^21]

Tarbell wrote that the Payne candidacy was promoted at the Neil House in Columbus by his son, "Oliver H. Payne, at that time treasurer of the Standard Oil Company," and by "Colonel Thompson, a prominent personage in the same concern." She wrote that a rumour held that Oliver Payne said the election cost him $100,000, and that it was claimed that a check for $65,000 had been cashed in Cleveland by a man prominent in the Payne boom and spent in Columbus.[^22] Tarbell quoted newspapers that blamed the Standard for the result, among them the Butler County Democrat, the Columbus Times, and a New York Sun letter headed "Was Payne's Election Bought?"[^23]

A Republican legislature took office in January 1886. On January 13, 1886 the Ohio House of Representatives adopted a resolution creating a select committee of five (Thomas A. Cowgill, chairman, George C. Rawlins, Emmett Tompkins, Charles M. Le Blond and E. B. Hubbard) to inquire into charges that the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette had printed on the authority of S. K. Donavin against four named House members.[^24] The committee took the testimony of fifty-five witnesses between January 20 and April 6, 1886, and the testimony and the committee's reports were laid before the United States Senate on April 27, 1886 and printed as Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 106.[^24]

The testimony, as printed, names Oliver Payne and officers of the Standard Oil Company in the following passages.

L. A. Russell, a Cleveland lawyer and Democrat, testified that on the afternoon of the caucus he watched members of the legislature go from the Payne headquarters in room 32 of the Neil House to the room of David R. Paige, "where Colonel Oliver Payne and Colonel Thompson were most of the time or at least where I frequently saw them as I passed."[^25] Asked whether he recognized "the principal officers of the great corporation known as the Standard Oil Company" among the leading workers for Henry B. Payne, Russell answered: "there was Oliver H. Payne, Henry B. Payne's son, who was the leader and manager of the Payne forces. At least that was our understanding at the time that he was, and was certainly supposed to be by anybody that knew anything about the way matters were conducted here. Oliver Payne was at that time treasurer of the Standard Oil Company." He added that Thompson "was employed by the company in some capacity at that time" and "has since been made treasurer himself, since Payne's resignation."[^26]

L. C. Cole, a Democratic member of the legislature, testified: "The Standard Oil Company, with its officers and workers, were here in force. The secretary and the treasurer of the company were here, and there was the unlimited use of money to bring the friends of every member of the legislature here from their own county for the purpose of laboring with them to support Mr. Payne." Cole said that his own conjecture was that the result was brought about "not by corrupting members, not by purchasing them, but by the unlimited use of money to bring men here upon the ground, and to be kept here and to nurse these members."[^27]

James Boyle, the Commercial-Gazette correspondent, testified that a member from Hamilton County told him he had dined at the Neil House "on tickets which were distributed by the hundred by Oliver H. Payne, and the men associated with him in the election of his father." Boyle also testified that Representative L. A. Bruner told him that the only thing he received was a promise from Oliver Payne of help if he needed it, and later that he had "either borrowed or got Mr. Payne to indorse a note" for about $3,500.[^28] Boyle described two members elected as workingmen's representatives who arrived at the Neil House "with some gentlemen who were pointed out to me by residents of Columbus as officers of the Standard Oil Company," Thompson and, he believed, Huntington.[^29] W. A. Taylor testified that "Mr. Huntington and Mr. Thompson and others of the Standard Oil Company" were "here who were the most prominent figures in the canvass."[^30]

D. C. Coolman, a Parkersburg banker, testified that Paige deposited between ten and twelve thousand dollars with his firm in 1883 and drew drafts on it to county committees across Ohio. Asked whether he had heard that Oliver Payne contributed to the fund, he answered: "I know that Oliver Payne contributed some, but I don't know how much."[^31]

W. L. Matthews, a member of the legislature, testified that Bruner told him that Oliver Payne asked him to come to Cleveland, asked whom he would support if Converse did not run, and then "wrote out a check for $150" with the request that he go to Washington and see Converse.[^32] S. K. Donavin testified to a report that Bruner said "he borrowed $3,500 from Col. Oliver Payne, and that it was given him on account of services that he had time and again rendered the family."[^33] Bruner did not testify before the committee.[^34]

James E. Fisher, a newspaper correspondent, testified that he published a list of members said to have been paid, and that "one day when I was in Cleveland the Standard Oil Company, or Col. Oliver Payne, said he didn't approve of lists being published, and I never published any lists after that." Fisher said the list "was guess-work, or a good part of it was."[^35]

Other witnesses gave testimony that did not support the charges. Joseph W. Brewster, who testified that he knew Oliver Payne and slept in the room of John R. McLean, a Payne supporter, testified that he saw no money paid and heard no discussion of the use of money; he said Payne's conversation with him "was on the general subjects of politics, with a view to give me a very favorable opinion of himself as always having rewarded his friends."[^36] Asked whether he ever received money from Colonel Oliver Payne, the witness George L. Johnson answered, "No, sir; I never received a dollar," and the witness W. H. McLyman said he "had my mind fully made up to vote for Mr. Payne before I ever saw Oliver."[^37]

The majority of the select committee (Cowgill, Rawlins and Tompkins) found that the charges against the four named members were not sustained. They reported "a general concurrence of testimony" that Henry B. Payne's candidacy was not publicly announced until well after the October 1883 election, that suspicion of illegal means was prevalent and "in many instances amounted almost to conviction," and that there were "numerous remarkable changes, difficult to account for without assuming the use of unusual inducements." They reported that "leading actors in behalf of the successful candidate" had "kept themselves beyond the jurisdiction of the House and the process of the committee," and recommended that the testimony be sent to the Senate.[^38] The minority (Le Blond and Hubbard) found nothing "whatever to cast any reflection" on the four members and reported that the testimony created no suspicion against Henry B. Payne's election.[^39]

Ex-Lieutenant Governor Mueller's account of the Paige room, which Hall repeated to the committee, ended with Mueller telling Henry B. Payne that money was in use, and with Payne's reply: "You don't suppose I would indorse anything of that kind, do you?"[^40] Henry B. Payne wrote to the chairman on January 22, 1886, "My private correspondence and books of account will be cheerfully submitted to your inspection if you desire it." Cowgill replied on January 25 that if any testimony tending to inculpate Payne was received, his request to appear before the committee would be granted.[^41]

Henry Demarest Lloyd, in *Wealth Against Commonwealth* (1894), wrote that the Ohio memorialists, John Little and Benjamin Butterworth, presented to the Senate committee charges that "among the chief managers of Mr. Payne's canvass, and those who controlled its financial operations, were four of the principal members in Ohio of the oil trust: its treasurer, the vice-president of one of its most important subordinate companies, its Cincinnati representative, and another." Lloyd wrote that one of the four "carried $65,000 with him, 'next to his skin,' to Columbus," that the cashier of a Cleveland bank would testify that the money was procured on a check given by the treasurer of the oil combination, and that "the treasurer of the oil trust and other wealthy Democrats" contributed $10,000 to $13,500 before the legislative election. He also wrote: "No charge was made to connect Senator Payne personally with the corruption."[^42] Lloyd wrote that the Senate committee voted against investigating, "Senators Pugh, Saulsbury, Vance, and Eustis voting against Hoar and Frye."[^43]

Albert H. Walker, a Hartford lawyer, wrote in a pamphlet of 1886 that Oliver Payne's payment of $150 to Bruner and the later "loan" of $3,500 to him called for "a thorough investigation of the true character" of the advance, and he called the $150 payment "an undeniable case of bribery." Walker noted that Bruner "did not himself testify before the committee."[^44]

The Senate referred the Ohio papers to its Committee on Privileges and Elections on May 11, 1886.[^21] The Ohio Senate's resolution of May 14, 1886 stated that the election "was procured and brought about by the corrupt use of money paid to or for the benefit of divers and sundry members" of the legislature, and on May 18, 1886 the Ohio House adopted a resolution that the testimony warranted the belief that the seat "was purchased by the corrupt use of money."[^45] The committee's report of July 15, 1886, submitted by James L. Pugh for four Democratic members, held that the testimony taken by the Ohio House was "merely cumulative and speculative" and that it did not justify an investigation. The majority recommended that the Senate make no further investigation.[^46] Three Republican members, Henry M. Teller, William M. Evarts and John A. Logan, submitted separate views recommending against an investigation, on the ground that the testimony showed no fraud, corruption or bribery affecting the votes "in the caucus or in the legislature" sufficiently to vitiate the election.[^47] According to the Senate's historical summary, a minority of two Republicans urged an investigation. On July 23, 1886 the Senate voted 44 to 17 to drop the matter.[^21]

Tarbell quoted George F. Hoar, who said, "The most unfortunate fact in the history of the Senate," and she wrote that the failure to investigate "rather intensified the convictions that Payne's seat was bought by the Standard Oil Company."[^48] She also wrote that "It was never proved that his seat was bought," and that "In the minds of great numbers this silence was a confession of guilt."[^49]

### Directorships: American Tobacco and Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad

Yale lists his directorships as the American Tobacco Company, the Virginia and Southeastern Railway Company, the Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company, and the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company.[^50] The Supreme Court's 1911 opinion in the government's suit against American Tobacco lists "Oliver H. Payne" among the twenty-nine individual defendants.[^51] The same opinion states that before the merger that created the American Tobacco Company, the Consolidated Tobacco Company had acquired nearly all the common shares of the old American and Continental companies, and that "a majority of whose $40,000,000 share capital was held by J. B. Duke, Thomas F. Ryan, William C. Whitney, Anthony N. Brady, Peter A. B. Widener, and Oliver H. Payne."[^51] The list includes William C. Whitney, Payne's brother-in-law.

The *Evening World* of New York wrote at his death that Payne and his father had lent John D. Rockefeller the capital that started him in the oil business, that Payne was one of the largest Standard Oil stockholders and was heavily interested in American Tobacco and in railroads, and that after the government's antitrust suits had reorganized the Standard Oil and tobacco "trusts" he withdrew from the directorates.[^52]

### The Tennessee Coal syndicate and the 1907 panic

The House Committee on Investigation of United States Steel Corporation, chaired by Augustus Owsley Stanley, took testimony in 1911 and 1912 on the acquisition of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company by the United States Steel Corporation in November 1907. The firm of Moore & Schley held a majority of the Tennessee Coal stock on behalf of a syndicate that included Payne.[^53]

J. W. Gates testified that "the majority of the stock was bought by a syndicate. Col. Oliver Payne was in that syndicate, and I think Mr. J. B. Duke and Mr. E. J. Berwind." Gates put the syndicate at "in the neighborhood of 200,000 shares, perhaps more," and said that "in the original participation, I think Payne, Kessler, Berwind, Schley, Duke, and myself each had 18,000 shares."[^54] In the testimony of Elbert H. Gary, chairman of United States Steel, the committee's counsel, Mr. Littleton, read a list of the syndicate: "O. H. Payne, who had 10,300 shares," with L. C. Hanna, J. B. Duke, E. J. Berwind, Gates, A. N. Brady, G. A. Kessler, Oakleigh Thorne and G. B. Schley, each with the same number, and smaller holdings for the rest, a total of 118,300 shares. Gary answered that the list was correct "except I do not think Kessler was in the original syndicate."[^55] A report of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 1909 (Senators Culberson, Kittredge, Overman, Rayner, Bacon, Nelson and Foraker), reprinted in the hearings, printed the same list under the heading O. H. Payne 10,300 and stated that in 1905 a number of persons at the suggestion of Grant B. Schley purchased a controlling interest in the company.[^56]

Lewis Cass Ledyard, a New York lawyer, testified that he had been Payne's counsel "for many years, and am still," and that Payne "had retired from active business many years ago." Ledyard testified: "within the last week of October, 1907, Col. Payne said to me that the firm of Moore & Schley were very largely indebted to him, and that he was very much concerned over their condition." Payne told him that "he did not see any way for Moore & Schley to be saved, except through the acquisition of that stock by the United States Steel Corporation," that the stock "could be best brought to the attention of the United States Steel Corporation through Mr. Morgan," and that "he intended to suggest to Mr. Schley that I be asked to see Mr. Morgan."[^57] Ledyard described the loans: "Col. Payne would lend them Northern Pacific and Great Northern and standard railroad stock, and they would secure that by giving him uncurrent and unactive securities." He testified that Payne had a million dollars of profit out of the transactions, was "quite angry at having a profit," and asked him to cancel them.[^58] Ledyard testified that Payne held 25,000 shares of Tennessee Coal, 10,000 of his own and 15,000 received from Moore and Schley as collateral, that the shares were turned into United States Steel bonds, and that Payne loaned those bonds to Moore and Schley, who "again had an extra $2,500,000."[^59] He testified that his object was "to save Col. Payne's very large interest in that house as a creditor."[^60] Ledyard also testified that Morgan proposed that three men, one of them Payne, put up securities with [J. P. Morgan and Company](/organizations/j-p-morgan-co/) against a cash credit of a million dollars each, to be used in Morgan's discretion to support Moore and Schley, and that "Col. Payne has his credit of a million dollars for the purpose."[^61]

The Republican minority's supplementary report, signed by H. O. Young, states that "Col. Oliver H. Payne, one of the syndicate, who was a warm friend of Mr. Schley, loaned Mr. Schley, for the use of Moore & Schley, from $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 of standard securities to use in supporting their loans, taking as security therefor uncurrent securities of Moore & Schley." The loan was later changed into an exchange. The report states that Payne, "becoming alarmed at the situation, urged Mr. Schley to dispose of his Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. stock as the only possible means of relief," that this urging "continued for about a month," and that "at Col. Payne's solicitation Mr. Schley finally sent for Mr. Ledyard, and asked him to go and see Mr. J. P. Morgan." It records Ledyard's account of the meeting with Morgan on the day after October 31, 1907, that Morgan telephoned Gary and Henry Clay Frick, and that Gary "expressed great reluctance to buy the stock, saying it was not worth over $60 or $65 per share."[^62] The same report states that Payne, Baker, president of the First National Bank of New York, and one other tendered $1,000,000 each of securities to Morgan.[^63] The majority report of the committee (Stanley) states that Schley, with "$6,000,000 or $7,000,000 of current securities, the property of O. H. Payne, in his possession, had hypothecated them to save his imperiled credit, and had afterwards given Payne 'uncurrent' securities in their stead."[^64] The majority report quotes Ledyard that "Col. Payne, who had a lot of this stock did not want to sell it."[^65]

Gary testified before the Stanley committee: "Commodore Ledyard was the counsel of Col. Oliver Payne. Payne was one of the syndicate members. I understood that Mr. Schley, or Moore & Schley, were indebted to Col. Payne in a considerable amount," and that Ledyard "was acting for and in behalf of the interests of Mr. Schley, because that would benefit Mr. Payne, who was a creditor of Moore & Schley."[^66] Of the sale, Gary said: "Mr. Ledyard was the attorney of Col. Payne. Col. Payne was one of the customers of Moore & Schley and, I think, was a large creditor of Moore & Schley. ... It was he who first suggested, I think, the possibility of the United States Steel Corporation buying the stock." Gary also said: "we had nothing to do except to accept the statement of Commodore Ledyard that Moore & Schley could be relieved only by the purchase of the securities of the syndicate, represented, in the way I have suggested, through Col. Payne, and from him through his lawyer, Mr. Ledyard."[^67] Gary also said that "Commodore Ledyard said Mr. Payne would provide a million dollars, and other parties, I remember, about two millions more," and that United States Steel then offered to add a loan of five or six million dollars.[^68]

On November 4, 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte that Gary and Frick had called on him on behalf of the Steel Corporation, that a business firm "will undoubtedly fail this week if help is not given," that "among its assets are a majority of the securities of the Tennessee Coal Co.," and that "I answered that while of course I could not advise them to take the action proposed, I felt it no public duty of mine to interpose any objection." In his message to the Senate of January 6, 1909 he wrote that "I was personally cognizant of and responsible for its every detail."[^69] The seven senators on the Judiciary Committee who signed the 1909 views wrote: "In our opinion the President permitted and sanctioned the acquisition and merger."[^70]

### Yachting and residence

The Yale record says that each summer from 1898 to 1914 Payne went to Europe in his steam yacht Aphrodite, and that the war led him to confine his cruising to American waters.[^71] A news dispatch of July 7, 1917 described the yacht as then "in commission for the federal government."[^72] Payne lived in New York City, where he died at his home.[^73]

### Philanthropy

The Yale obituary names his most notable gifts as those to the Cornell Medical School, and it records that in 1887 he endowed the Loomis Laboratory, "an institution organized for the promotion of original research in chemistry, biology, and pathology."[^74] The obituary also lists gifts to the University of Virginia, Western Reserve University, the New York University Medical College and the Post-Graduate Hospital of New York City.[^75]

The Weill Cornell Medicine history of the medical center states that after the affiliation agreement between Cornell University Medical College and the Society of the New York Hospital, "the college's benefactor, Oliver Hazard Payne, donated $4,000,000 to Cornell University Medical College."[^76] The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History puts his anonymous lifetime gifts at "more than $8 million."[^77]

### Death, will and estate

Payne died at his home in New York City on June 27, 1917, after an illness of eight months due to spinal rheumatism, and was buried in Cleveland.[^78] The *Evening World* of June 28, 1917 reported his death in his town house and described him as a bachelor and the brother of the first wife of William C. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy under President Cleveland.[^79]

According to the news dispatch of July 7, 1917, his will left cash bequests of more than $7,000,000 to charitable and educational institutions, the largest being $1,000,000 each to Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland, Yale University and the New York Public Library, and a permanent endowment of $500,000 to Cornell University Medical College.[^80] The *Evening World* of July 7, 1917 listed further bequests of $200,000 each to St. Vincent's Charity Hospital in Cleveland, the Cleveland Jewish Orphan Asylum, Hamilton College and the University of Virginia, and a bequest to Phillips Academy.[^81] The Yale obituary states that the bequests of a million dollars each to Yale, the New York Public Library and Lakeside Hospital were made by will.[^82] The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History lists the Lakeside gift among his gifts and bequests.[^77]

The same dispatches state that Payne Whitney received most of the household and personal effects, including the yacht Aphrodite, Greenwood Plantation at Thomasville, Georgia, and all real estate except a country place in Ulster County, which went with a legacy of $2,000,000 to his nephew Harry Payne Bingham, and that Harry Payne Whitney received a painting of Payne. Lewis Cass Ledyard, one of the executors, was bequeathed $100,000.[^80] The *Evening World* wrote that the residue of the estate went equally to nephews and nieces: Payne Whitney, Pauline Whitney Paget (who had died the previous fall, leaving two daughters), Harry Payne Bingham, William Bingham 2d, Elizabeth R. Blossom and Frances Bolton.[^81] The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History gives the estate as estimated at $190 million and says it was distributed, after the bequests, among nieces and nephews.[^83]

According to the Washington Daily News, which reported the New York appraisal of Payne Whitney's estate in November 1928, the larger part of that estate was a half interest in the Northern Finance Corporation. The paper said the holding grew from a fund set aside by Payne Whitney's uncle, Col. Oliver H. Payne, whom it described as a director of Standard Oil of New Jersey, and who established the fund to be relieved of the care of large blocks of Standard Oil and subsidiary stocks and of tobacco shares.[^84]

### Payne Whitney, Harry Payne Whitney and the Whitney line

Payne Whitney, born in New York City on March 20, 1876, was the son of William Collins Whitney and Flora Payne. He graduated from Yale in 1898. The Yale obituary lists him as a member of "Hé Boulé, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Skull and Bones."[^3] He took an LL.B. at Harvard in 1901, was a director of the Great Northern Paper Company, and was director and vice president of the Northern Finance Corporation from 1911 until 1927.[^3] He married Helen Hay, daughter of John Hay, in 1902, and gave $2,000,000 to the New York Public Library in 1923.[^3] He died in Manhasset, New York on May 25, 1927.[^3]

The Weill Cornell history says that Payne Whitney's will provided $12,400,000 for the New York Hospital, $6,200,000 for the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic and $2,800,000 for the medical college.[^76] Oliver Payne's gifts to Cornell University Medical College and his nephew's bequest to the same medical center therefore appear in one institution's history.

Harry Payne Whitney, Yale 1894, is the other nephew of Oliver Payne named in the Yale record.[^2] Sutton's text gives the two brothers as Harry Payne ('94) and Payne Whitney ('98) and states that they "went to Yale and became members of The Order." His index of members by class year prints them in reverse order, listing Payne Whitney as 1894 and Harry Payne Whitney as 1898.[^85] The Yale records give Harry Payne Whitney 1894 and Payne Whitney 1898.[^2][^3] Sutton wrote that Harry Payne Whitney "inherited two Standard Oil fortunes from the Payne and the Whitney families."[^86] The 1917 Yale entry names a third nephew as Henry Payne Bingham, Yale 1910. The 1927 entry for Payne Whitney calls him "Harry Payne Bingham" and a cousin.[^2][^3]

[Dorothy Payne Whitney](/people/dorothy-payne-whitney/), a niece of Oliver Payne and the sister of Payne Whitney, appears in the 1927 record as the sister who married Leonard K. Elmhirst of Yorkshire.[^3]

[^1]: Yale University, *Obituary Record of the Graduates of the Undergraduate Schools, Deceased 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, B.A. 1863, pp. 295 to 296 (birth July 21, 1839; death June 27, 1917; class of 1863; commission in the 124th Ohio; the Standard Oil treasurership and board). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^2]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, pp. 295 to 296 (brother Henry W. Payne, Yale 1867, died 1878; sisters Flora, wife of William Collins Whitney, Yale 1863, and the wife of Charles W. Bingham, Yale 1868; nephews Harry Payne Whitney, Yale 1894, Payne Whitney, Yale 1898, and Henry Payne Bingham, Yale 1910; "never married"). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^3]: Yale University, *Obituary Record of the Graduates of the Undergraduate Schools, Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1927*, entry for Payne Whitney, B.A. 1898, pp. 171 to 172 (birth, death, descent, Yale relatives including "Oliver H. Payne, 63" as an uncle and "Harry Payne Bingham, '10" as a cousin, the listing "member Hé Boulé, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Skull and Bones," the Harvard LL.B., Northern Finance Corporation, the New York Public Library gift of 1923, the marriage to Helen Hay, and survivors including a sister, Mrs. Leonard K. Elmhirst). https://archive.org/details/obituaryrecordof00yale_4.
[^4]: Antony C. Sutton, *America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones* (1983), chart "Hypothesis Number One: A Secret Society Dominated By Old Line American Families And New Wealth Has Existed From 1833 To The Present Day," with the spokes WHITNEY FAMILY (1635, Watertown, Mass.), PAYNE FAMILY (Standard Oil) and ROCKEFELLER AND PAYNE (Standard Oil). https://archive.org/details/americas_secret_establishment-skull_and_bones.
[^5]: Sutton (1983), section on the Whitney family, passage beginning "William C. Whitney married Flora Payne, daughter of Standard Oil Treasurer Oliver Payne." https://archive.org/details/americas_secret_establishment-skull_and_bones.
[^6]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 295 (parents Henry B. Payne and Mary Perry Payne; Henry B. Payne's Ohio Senate service 1849 to 1851, candidacies of 1851, 1857, 1880 and 1884, Forty-fourth Congress, Senate 1885 to 1891). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^7]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 295 (preparation at Phillips Academy, Andover; departure from the class in October 1861 for a commission as first lieutenant in the 124th Ohio). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^8]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 295 (degree of B.A. voted by the Corporation in 1878; enrolment in the class of 1863 from that date). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^9]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 295 (rank of colonel in the 124th Ohio; brevet of brigadier general of volunteers on March 13, 1865). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^10]: Francis B. Heitman, *Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, from its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903*, vol. 1 (Washington: GPO, 1903), entry "Payne, Oliver Hazard. Ohio." (Lt. col. 124 Ohio inf. September 11, 1862; col. January 1, 1863; brevet brigadier general of volunteers March 13, 1865; resigned November 2, 1864). https://archive.org/details/historicalregist01heitrich.
[^11]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 295 (return to Cleveland "after completing his service in the Army"). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^12]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, pp. 295 to 296 (oil refining with James B. Clark, John Huntington as later partner, treasurer of the Standard Oil Company until 1884 and member of its board thereafter). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^13]: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, "Payne, Oliver Hazard," Case Western Reserve University (Clark, Payne & Co.; the 1872 merger into Standard Oil; treasurer). https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/payne-oliver-hazard/.
[^14]: Ida M. Tarbell, *The History of the Standard Oil Company*, vol. 2 (New York: McClure, Phillips, 1904), p. 112 (Payne as one of the thirteen original members of the South Improvement Company, and as one of the Cleveland refiners who joined the Standard in 1872). https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar02tarbuoft.
[^15]: Tarbell, *The History of the Standard Oil Company*, vol. 1 (1904), p. 57 (the South Improvement Company subscription list: "O. H. Payne, Cleveland 180"; "O. H. Payne and J. A. Bostwick, who soon after became stockholders in the Standard Oil Company, also had each 180 shares"). https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar01tarbuoft.
[^16]: Tarbell, *The History of the Standard Oil Company*, vol. 1 (1904), p. 168 (the Committee on Commerce summons of "O. H. Payne, treasurer of the Standard Oil Company," his refusal to furnish information, and the reference of the matter through "Congressman H. B. Payne, of Cleveland"). https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar01tarbuoft.
[^17]: *State, ex rel. Attorney General v. Standard Oil Company*, 49 Ohio St. 137 (1892), statement of the trust agreement of January 2, 1882 (nine trustees; first term to the first Wednesday of April, 1885). https://cite.case.law/ohio-st/49/137/.
[^18]: *State, ex rel. Attorney General v. Standard Oil Company*, 49 Ohio St. 137 (1892), list of holders of trust stock naming "O. H. Payne, trustee." https://cite.case.law/ohio-st/49/137/.
[^19]: *Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States*, 221 U.S. 1 (1911), opinion of White, C.J., statement of the bill and of the decree (the seven individual defendants, including "Oliver H. Payne," and the trust agreement of 1882 with its nine trustees). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/221/1.
[^20]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Privileges and Elections, Report No. 1490, 49th Cong., 1st sess., July 15, 1886 (submitted by Mr. Pugh), "Ohio Senatorial Election," p. 9 (caucus of January 8, 1884: Booth one vote, Pendleton fifteen, Ward seventeen, Payne forty-six). https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/pdf/75_Jul_15_1886_Payne.pdf.
[^21]: U.S. Senate, "Henry B. Payne (Ohio)," Contested Senate Elections (oath March 4, 1885; referral of April 27 and May 11, 1886; reports of July 15, 1886; minority of two Republicans favoring investigation; vote of July 23, 1886, 44 to 17, to drop further investigation). https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/075Henry_Payne.htm. The page cites Anne M. Butler and Wendy Wolff, *United States Senate Election, Expulsion, and Censure Cases, 1793-1990*, S. Doc. 103-33 (1995).
[^22]: Tarbell, *The History of the Standard Oil Company*, vol. 2 (1904), pp. 112 to 113 (the Payne boom at the Neil House; "Oliver H. Payne, at that time treasurer of the Standard Oil Company," and "Colonel Thompson"; the rumour of $100,000; the $65,000 check). https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar02tarbuoft.
[^23]: Tarbell, *The History of the Standard Oil Company*, vol. 2 (1904), pp. 113 to 114 (newspaper comment from the Butler County Democrat, the Carroll County Chronicle, the Columbus Times and the New York Sun, "Was Payne's Election Bought?"). https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar02tarbuoft.
[^24]: U.S. Senate, Mis. Doc. No. 106, 49th Cong., 1st sess. (April 27, 1886), "Ohio Senatorial Investigation," pp. 1 to 2 (House resolution No. 28 of January 13, 1886; committee of Cowgill, Rawlins, Tompkins, Le Blond and Hubbard; House resolution No. 75 of April 16, 1886 directing transmission to the Senate) and p. 10 ("fifty-five witnesses have been examined"). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/SERIALSET-02346_00_00-008-0106-0000. The dates of January 20 to April 6, 1886 for the testimony are from Senate Report No. 1490 (1886), pp. 1 to 3.
[^25]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of L. A. Russell, pp. 216 to 217 (the Payne headquarters in room 32 of the Neil House and Paige's room above it on the afternoon of the caucus; Colonel Oliver Payne and Colonel Thompson in the headquarters). The passage is also quoted in the select committee's report, pp. 4 to 5.
[^26]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of L. A. Russell, p. 221 (answer on the principal officers of the Standard Oil Company; Oliver Payne as treasurer; Thompson's employment and later treasurership).
[^27]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of L. C. Cole, p. 42 (the Standard Oil Company "in force"; the secretary and treasurer present; Cole's own conjecture). The first sentences are quoted in the select committee's report, p. 3.
[^28]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of James Boyle, pp. 57 to 58 (Bruner's statements about the promise of help and the note or loan of about $3,500; Cummings and the dinner tickets distributed by Oliver H. Payne), and recalled, p. 60 (Bruner "had either got Mr. Oliver H. Payne to indorse a note, or he had loaned him the money").
[^29]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of James Boyle, p. 61 (Mooney and Roach arriving with gentlemen "pointed out to me by residents of Columbus as officers of the Standard Oil Company. Mr. Thompson was one, and I believe Mr. Huntingdon").
[^30]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of W. A. Taylor, p. 124 ("There was Mr. Huntington and Mr. Thompson and others of the Standard Oil Company here who were the most prominent figures in the canvass").
[^31]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of D. C. Coolman, pp. 62 to 65 (funds deposited by Paige with Coolman & Paige in 1883 and drawn on for county committees; "I know that Oliver Payne contributed some, but I don't know how much," p. 65).
[^32]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of W. L. Matthews, pp. 66 to 67 (Bruner's account of the visit to Cleveland, the question about Converse, the check for $150 and the journey to Washington).
[^33]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of S. K. Donavin, p. 84 (a report from a person on the cars that Bruner "borrowed $3,500 from Col. Oliver Payne, and that it was given him on account of services that he had time and again rendered the family").
[^34]: Albert H. Walker, *The Payne Bribery Case and the United States Senate* (Hartford: Clark & Smith, 1886), p. 17 ("Bruner did not himself testify before the committee"). https://archive.org/details/paynebriberycas00walkgoog.
[^35]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of James E. Fisher, p. 26 (the Cleveland remark and the list "guess-work").
[^36]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of Joseph W. Brewster, pp. 44 to 46 (rooms; Payne's room "on the first floor, nearly opposite the elevator"; no money seen; Payne's conversation on rewarding friends).
[^37]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), testimony of George L. Johnson, p. 243 (no money received from Colonel Oliver Payne), and of W. H. McLyman, p. 257 (conversation with Oliver Payne before the caucus; no inducements); testimony of George W. Hull, recalled, p. 115 (no recollection of a conversation with Oliver H. Payne about money).
[^38]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), report of the select committee majority, pp. 2 to 11 (the charges against the four members "not sustained"; the three points of "general concurrence of testimony"; leading actors "beyond the jurisdiction of the House"; recommendation of transmittal to the Senate, p. 11).
[^39]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), minority report of the select committee (Le Blond and Hubbard), pp. 12 to 16.
[^40]: Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106 (1886), select committee report, p. 4 (testimony of J. J. Hall repeating the account of ex-Lieutenant Governor Mueller of Paige's room and Henry B. Payne's reply).
[^41]: U.S. Senate, Report No. 1490 (1886), p. 10 (letter of Henry B. Payne to Thomas A. Cowgill, Washington, January 22, 1886; reply of Cowgill, Columbus, January 25, 1886). https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/pdf/75_Jul_15_1886_Payne.pdf.
[^42]: Henry Demarest Lloyd, *Wealth Against Commonwealth* (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1894), pp. 374 to 381 (the memorial of Ohio presented by John Little and Benjamin Butterworth; "No charge was made to connect Senator Payne personally with the corruption," p. 377; the four oil trust principals, the $65,000, the Cleveland bank cashier and the $10,000 to $13,500, pp. 377 to 381). Lloyd cites Report No. 1490 and Senate Mis. Doc. No. 106. https://archive.org/details/cu31924079612051.
[^43]: Lloyd, *Wealth Against Commonwealth* (1894), p. 383 (the committee vote). https://archive.org/details/cu31924079612051.
[^44]: Walker, *The Payne Bribery Case and the United States Senate* (1886), pp. 16 to 18 (the case of L. A. Bruner, citing Mis. Doc. 106 at pp. 57, 66 and following). https://archive.org/details/paynebriberycas00walkgoog.
[^45]: U.S. Senate, Report No. 1490 (1886), pp. 1 to 4 and 14 (Ohio Senate resolution of May 14, 1886; Ohio House resolution of May 18, 1886). https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/pdf/75_Jul_15_1886_Payne.pdf.
[^46]: U.S. Senate, Report No. 1490 (1886), pp. 6 and 8 (majority of Pugh, Saulsbury, Vance and Eustis: testimony "merely cumulative and speculative"; recommendation that the Senate make no further investigation; requirement of personal participation by the sitting member).
[^47]: U.S. Senate, Report No. 1490 (1886), pp. 12 to 15, "Views of Mr. Teller, Mr. Evarts, and Mr. Logan" (no evidence "which purports to prove that fraud, corruption, or bribery was employed in the election of Mr. Payne" "in the caucus or in the legislature"; recommendation against investigation). https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/pdf/75_Jul_15_1886_Payne.pdf.
[^48]: Tarbell, *The History of the Standard Oil Company*, vol. 2 (1904), p. 116 (quotation of Senator Hoar, "The most unfortunate fact in the history of the Senate"; the sentence on the failure to investigate). https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar02tarbuoft.
[^49]: Tarbell, *The History of the Standard Oil Company*, vol. 2 (1904), p. 118 ("It was never proved that his seat was bought"; "In the minds of great numbers this silence was a confession of guilt"). https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar02tarbuoft.
[^50]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 296 (directorships: American Tobacco Company, Virginia and Southeastern Railway Company, Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company, Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^51]: *United States v. American Tobacco Co.*, 221 U.S. 106 (1911), opinion of White, C.J., statement of the defendants (the margin list of twenty-nine individuals, including "Oliver H. Payne") and of the Consolidated Tobacco Company's share holdings before the merger. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/221/106.
[^52]: "O. H. Payne Dies in His Town Home," *The Evening World* (New York), June 28, 1917, p. 15. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1917-06-28/ed-1/?sp=15.
[^53]: U.S. House of Representatives, *Hearings before the Committee on Investigation of United States Steel Corporation*, 62nd Cong., vol. 1 (1911), testimony of Elbert H. Gary, pp. 128 to 129 (Moore & Schley holding a majority of the Tennessee Coal stock for a syndicate). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste02corpgoog.
[^54]: Hearings, vol. 1, testimony of J. W. Gates, pp. 5 to 6 (Col. Oliver Payne in the syndicate; "in the neighborhood of 200,000 shares, perhaps more"; 18,000 shares each for Payne, Kessler, Berwind, Schley, Duke and Gates). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste02corpgoog.
[^55]: Hearings, vol. 1, testimony of Elbert H. Gary, pp. 128 to 129 (Mr. Littleton's reading of the syndicate list with "O. H. Payne, who had 10,300 shares"; Gary's answer that Kessler was not in the original syndicate; "118,300 shares"). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste02corpgoog.
[^56]: Senate Committee on the Judiciary, "Absorption of the Tennessee Coal & Iron Co.," S. Rept. 1110, pt. 2, 60th Cong., 2d sess. (March 2, 1909), views of Messrs. Culberson, Kittredge, Overman, Rayner, Bacon, Nelson and Foraker, reprinted in *Hearings before the Committee on Investigation of United States Steel Corporation*, vol. 2 (1911), pp. 1124 to 1125 (the 1905 purchase "at the suggestion of Grant B. Schley"; "O.H. Payne 10,300"; total 118,300). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste03corpgoog.
[^57]: Hearings, vol. 2, testimony of Lewis Cass Ledyard, pp. 932 to 934 (counsel for Payne "for many years"; Payne's statements in the last week of October 1907). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste03corpgoog.
[^58]: Hearings, vol. 2, testimony of Lewis Cass Ledyard, p. 935 (Payne's loans of Northern Pacific, Great Northern and standard railroad stock against uncurrent securities of Moore & Schley; conversion into exchanges; the million dollars of profit and Payne's request to cancel). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste03corpgoog.
[^59]: Hearings, vol. 2, testimony of Lewis Cass Ledyard, p. 939 (Payne's 25,000 shares of Tennessee Coal, "10,000 shares of his own" and 15,000 as collateral; conversion into steel bonds and loan to Moore & Schley). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste03corpgoog.
[^60]: Hearings, vol. 2, testimony of Lewis Cass Ledyard, p. 943 ("My object was to save Col. Payne's very large interest in that house as a creditor at the time"). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste03corpgoog.
[^61]: Hearings, vol. 2, testimony of Lewis Cass Ledyard, p. 950 (three gentlemen, one of them Col. Payne, to put up securities with J. P. Morgan & Co. against a cash credit of a million dollars each; "Col. Payne has his credit of a million dollars for the purpose"). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste03corpgoog.
[^62]: U.S. House of Representatives, H. Rept. No. 1127, pt. 3, 62nd Cong., 2d sess. (August 2, 1912), "Investigation of United States Steel Corporation," views of the minority, supplementary report on the facts by H. O. Young, pp. 55 to 56 (Payne's loan of standard securities; his urging of the sale; Ledyard's account of October 1907; Morgan, Gary and Frick). https://archive.org/details/cu31924002403917.
[^63]: H. Rept. No. 1127, pt. 3 (1912), Young, p. 63 (Payne's 25,000 shares converted into steel bonds; Payne, Baker and one other tendering $1,000,000 each of securities to Morgan). https://archive.org/details/cu31924002403917.
[^64]: H. Rept. No. 1127, pt. 1, 62nd Cong., 2d sess. (August 2, 1912), report of the committee (Stanley), p. 191 (Schley and the securities "the property of O. H. Payne"). https://archive.org/details/cu31924002403917.
[^65]: H. Rept. No. 1127, pt. 1 (1912), p. 178, quoting Ledyard, Hearings, p. 963 ("Col. Payne, who had a lot of this stock did not want to sell it"). https://archive.org/details/cu31924002403917.
[^66]: Hearings, vol. 1, testimony of Elbert H. Gary, p. 177 (Ledyard as counsel of Col. Oliver Payne; Payne as a syndicate member; Moore & Schley indebted to Payne). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste02corpgoog.
[^67]: Hearings, vol. 1, testimony of Elbert H. Gary, pp. 184 and 191 to 192 (Ledyard as Payne's attorney; "It was he who first suggested, I think, the possibility of the United States Steel Corporation buying the stock"; Ledyard's statement that Moore & Schley could be relieved only by the purchase of the syndicate's securities). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste02corpgoog.
[^68]: Hearings, vol. 1, testimony of Elbert H. Gary, pp. 133 to 134 (exchange with Mr. Gardner on Payne's offer of a million dollars and the later loan proposal). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste02corpgoog.
[^69]: Message of President Theodore Roosevelt to the Senate, January 6, 1909, enclosing his letter of November 4, 1907 to Attorney General Bonaparte, reprinted in Hearings, vol. 2, p. 1122. https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste03corpgoog.
[^70]: S. Rept. 1110, pt. 2, 60th Cong. (1909), views of Messrs. Culberson and others, reprinted in Hearings, vol. 2, p. 1123 ("we think it was, in effect, a direction to the Attorney General not to interfere"; "In our opinion the President permitted and sanctioned the acquisition and merger"). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesste03corpgoog.
[^71]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 296 (summers in Europe in the steam yacht Aphrodite from 1898 to 1914; cruising confined to American waters). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^72]: "Col. Payne Left $7,000,000 in Gifts," *Brattleboro Daily Reformer* (Brattleboro, Vt.), July 7, 1917, p. 1 (yacht Aphrodite "now in commission for the federal government"). https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86071593/1917-07-07/ed-1/?sp=1.
[^73]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 296 (residence in New York City; death at his home). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^74]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 296 (gifts to the Cornell Medical School; endowment of the Loomis Laboratory in 1887). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^75]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 296 (gifts to the University of Virginia, Western Reserve University, the New York University Medical College and the Post-Graduate Hospital). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^76]: Weill Cornell Medicine, "History of the Medical Center" (undated PDF, Weill Cornell Medicine Library), passages on the affiliation with the Society of the New York Hospital and the gift of Oliver Hazard Payne ($4,000,000 to Cornell University Medical College), and on Payne Whitney's will (provisions of $12,400,000 for the hospital, $6,200,000 for the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic and $2,800,000 for the medical college). https://library.weill.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/history_of_the_medical_center.pdf.
[^77]: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, "Payne, Oliver Hazard," Case Western Reserve University (anonymous lifetime gifts of "more than $8 million"; gifts and bequests including Lakeside Hospital). https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/payne-oliver-hazard/.
[^78]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 296 (death on June 27, 1917 after an illness of eight months due to spinal rheumatism; burial in Cleveland). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^79]: "O. H. Payne Dies in His Town Home," *The Evening World*, June 28, 1917, p. 15 (death in his town house; his sister Flora as the first wife of William C. Whitney; "Col. Payne was a bachelor"). https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1917-06-28/ed-1/?sp=15.
[^80]: "Col. Payne Left $7,000,000 in Gifts," *Brattleboro Daily Reformer*, July 7, 1917, p. 1 (bequests of $1,000,000 each to Lakeside Hospital, Yale and the New York Public Library; permanent endowment for Cornell University Medical College; Payne Whitney's inheritance of the yacht Aphrodite and Greenwood Plantation; Harry Payne Bingham's $2,000,000; Ledyard as executor with $100,000; Harry Payne Whitney's painting). https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86071593/1917-07-07/ed-1/?sp=1.
[^81]: "Col. Payne Left Public Bequests," *The Evening World*, July 7, 1917, p. 2 (institutional bequests, residue to nephews and nieces and the names printed). https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1917-07-07/ed-1/?sp=2.
[^82]: Yale, *Obituary Record 1915 to 1920*, entry for Oliver Hazard Payne, p. 296 ("By his will, bequests of a million dollars each were made to Yale, the New York Public Library, and Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland"). https://archive.org/details/1915t20obituary00yaleuoft.
[^83]: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, "Payne, Oliver Hazard," Case Western Reserve University (estate estimated at $190 million, distributed after the bequests among nieces and nephews). https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/payne-oliver-hazard/.
[^84]: "Payne Whitney Left Biggest Estate Ever Appraised in U.S.," *Washington Daily News*, November 23, 1928, p. 6 (appraised net value, death tax estimate, the larger part of the estate as a half interest in the Northern Finance Corporation, and the statement that the holding grew from a fund set aside by "his uncle, Col. Oliver H. Payne"). https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82016181/1928-11-23/ed-1/?sp=6.
[^85]: Sutton (1983), Whitney family section ("Harry Payne ('94) and Payne Whitney ('98), went to Yale and became members of The Order") and index of members by class year ("1894 Payne Whitney" and "1898 Harry Payne Whitney"). https://archive.org/details/americas_secret_establishment-skull_and_bones.
[^86]: Sutton (1983), section on the Harriman family and the Whitney-Payne fortune, passage on "Harry Payne Whitney (The Order'94) inherited two Standard Oil fortunes from the Payne and the Whitney families." https://archive.org/details/americas_secret_establishment-skull_and_bones.


---

*The Info Web has an MCP server for agents at https://theinfoweb.org/mcp (streamable HTTP, no auth): search by meaning, exact text, source or date, and follow typed, footnoted connections. Setup and the same tools over GET: https://theinfoweb.org/llms.txt*