John Emory Andrus

John Emory Andrus (February 16, 1841 — December 26, 1934) was mayor of Yonkers, New York, a U.S. Congressman from New York, and founder of the SURDNA Foundation.

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Biography

Born in Pleasantville, New York, Andrus attended Charlotteville Seminary in Schoharie County, New York and graduated from Wesleyan University in 1862. He taught school in New Jersey 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. Mr. 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.

Andrus was elected mayor of Yonkers in 1903. In 1904, he was elected as a Republican to the 59th United States Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1905 to March 3, 1913. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1912, after which he resumed his former business pursuits in Yonkers, New York.

The son of a Methodist minister, Mr. Andrus was active as a lay leader of the Methodist Church. In his 60s, he was elected mayor of Yonkers, New York, followed by four terms in the U.S. Congress. He held long-term posts as a trustee of Wesleyan University and as a director of New York Life Insurance Company.

He was interred in Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York.

References

• Morrill, George P. Multimillionaire Straphanger: A Life of John Emory Andrus . Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1971.

• John Emory Andrus at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress