John Alexander Anderson

John Alexander Anderson (June 26, 1834 – May 18, 1892) was an American politician and academic who served six terms as a U.S. representative for Kansas from 1879 to 1891, and the second president of Kansas State University from 1873 to 1879.

Early life and education

Anderson was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania in 1834, and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1853. His father, William Caldwell Anderson, served as the fourth president of Miami University during this time, holding that position from 1849 to 1854. Future U.S. president Benjamin Harrison was his roommate for a time in college.

Ministry and university presidency

Following graduation, John Anderson entered the Presbyterian ministry and was ordained four years later. His first charge was located in San Francisco, where he served until 1862 when he was appointed chaplain of the 3rd California Volunteer Infantry. In this capacity, he accompanied General Patrick Edward Connor and the regiment on its expedition to Salt Lake City, Utah. Alexander resigned from this role in the spring of 1863, and he was subsequently appointed relief agent, United States Sanitary Commission, a post he held until 1867.

In 1868, Anderson came to Kansas as pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Junction City. He soon became a vocal critic of the fact that Kansas State Agricultural College, the land-grant university in neighboring Manhattan, Kansas, was focusing on providing a classic liberal arts education rather than a practical agricultural education. Partly as a result of his advocacy, the Kansas Board of Regents appointed Anderson the second president of Kansas State on September 1, 1873. Anderson's tenure was marked by pedagogical reform in which academic emphasis was subordinated to a more practical approach to applied agriculture.