John F. Dryden

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

His daughter married Anthony R. Kuser, who would use part of the Prudential fortune to donate 10,500 acres for a state park at New Jersey's highest point. John Dryden Kuser, Dryden's grandson, was a state senator and Brooke Astor's first husband.

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