Oliver Hazard Payne (July 21, 1839 – June 27, 1917)[1] was an American businessman, organizer of the American Tobacco Company Trust, assisted with the formation of U.S. Steel, and was affiliated with Standard Oil.

[1] In 1861, at the outbreak of the American Civil War of 1861–1865, Payne enlisted in the Union Army.

Payne began his career shortly after the war, investing in iron and then oil refining.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.