John Emory Andrus (February 16, 1841 – December 26, 1934) was

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

, a

U.S. Congressman The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from New York, and founder of the

SURDNA Foundation The Surdna Foundation was established as a charitable foundation in 1917 by John Emory Andrus to pursue a range of philanthropic purposes. History A devoted family man with nine children, Andrus founded the Julia Dyckman Andrus Memorial in 1928 ...

Biography

Born in

Pleasantville, New York Pleasantville is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located 30 miles north of Manhattan. The village population was 7,019 at the 2010 census. Pleasantville is home to the secondary camp ...

, Andrus was the son of Methodist Minister, Loyal B. Andrus and Ann (Palmer) Andrus. He attended Charlotteville Seminary in

Schoharie County, New York Schoharie County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,714, making it the state's fifth-least populous county. The county seat is Schoharie. "Schoharie" comes from a Mohawk word meaning "f ...

, and graduated from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

in 1862. He married Julia Maria Dyckman on June 23, 1869. They had nine children, Mary, William, Edith, Margaret, Jesamine, John, Hamlin, Ida, and Helen.

Career

Andrus taught school in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

for four years and then pursued his talents as an investor and businessman. His primary operating business, the Arlington Chemical Company, manufactured typical medicines of the late 1800s and distributed them worldwide. He was an investor in railroads and utilities, as well as real estate, mining claims, and the Standard Oil Company. He was director of the New York Life Insurance Company. Andrus' extraordinary skills, however, lay in finding and purchasing undervalued assets, usually in partnership with a knowledgeable operator. His holdings included several buildings and land in Minneapolis, Minnesota, large timber tracts in California, mineral-rich acres in New Mexico as well as significant land holdings in Florida, New Jersey and Alaska. He served as president of the New York Pharmaceutical Association, and of the Palisade Manufacturing Co. of Yonkers, Westchester County. He was elected mayor of Yonkers in 1903. In 1904, Andrus was elected as the representative of

New York's 19th congressional district New York's 19th congressional district is located in New York's Catskills and mid-Hudson Valley regions. It lies partially in the northernmost region of the New York metropolitan area and mostly south of Albany. This district is currently rep ...

as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

to the

59th United States Congress The 59th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1905, t ...

and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1905, to March 3, 1913. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1912, and resumed his former business pursuits in

, until his death. He was active as a lay leader of the Methodist Church and held a long-term post as a trustee of Wesleyan University. An early sound interview of Andrus exists, recorded on February 27, 1930, in which he's asked about his health, opinion on the recent

Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

, and thoughts on aging.

Death

Andrus died of pneumonia in Yonkers, Westchester County, New York, on December 26, 1934 (age 93 years, 313 days). He is

interred Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

in a private Corinthian mausoleum at Kensico Cemetery,

Valhalla, New York Valhalla is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The name was in ...

References

External links

*Morrill, George P. ''Multimillionaire Straphanger: A Life of John Emory Andrus''. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1971. * *
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrus, John Emery 1841 births 1934 deaths Wesleyan University alumni American manufacturing businesspeople Methodists from New York (state) Mayors of Yonkers, New York People from Pleasantville, New York Businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry Burials at Kensico Cemetery Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)