John Alexander Anderson was a six-term U.S. Congressman from Kansas (1879-1891), and the second President of Kansas State Agricultural College (1873-1879). 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.