John Fairfield DRYDEN, Congress, NJ (1839-1911)

DRYDEN, John Fairfield, a Senator from New Jersey; born in Temple, Franklin County, Maine, August 7, 1839; moved to Massachusetts in 1846 with his parents, who settled in Worcester; attended Yale College; founded the Prudential Insurance Co. of America in Newark, N.J., in 1875, becoming its first secretary and in 1881 its president, and served in the latter position until 1911; one of the founders of the Fidelity Trust Co.; involved in the establishment and management of various street railways, banks, and other financial enterprises in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William J. Sewell and served from January 29, 1902, to March 3, 1907; was a candidate for reelection, but withdrew because of a deadlock in the legislature; chairman, Committee on Relations with Canada (Fifty-seventh Congress), Committee on Enrolled Bills (Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses); resumed his former business pursuits; died in Newark, N.J., November 24, 1911; interment in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Reynolds, Robert D., Jr. “The 1906 Campaign to Sway Muckraking Periodicals.” Journalism Quarterly 56 (Autumn 1979): 513-20, 589.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present