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).  

Marcus Lawrence Ward (November 9, 1812 – April 25, 1884) was an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 21st Governor of New Jersey from 1866-1869, and represented the state in Congress for one term, from 1873-1875.

Republicans nominated Ward for Governor in 1862, but he lost to Democrat Joel Parker. Ward was nominated again in 1865 and was elected Governor of New Jersey, serving from 1866 to 1869. After a Democratic-controlled legislature had not passed the Thirteenth Amendment, Ward worked with the new Republican-controlled New Jersey Legislature to secure state passage of both the Thirteenth and the Fourteenth Amendment, with its Due Process and Equal Protection clauses. Ward was chosen as a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention and was the chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1866 to 1868.

Ward served a single term in the United States House of Representatives from the newly-created New Jersey's 6th congressional district, from 1873-1875.

Joseph P. Bradley

Joseph P. Bradley (March 14, 1813 – January 22, 1892) was an American jurist best known for his service on the United States Supreme Court, and on the Electoral Commission that decided the disputed 1876 presidential election. The son of Philo Bradley and his wife Mercy Gardner Bradley, Bradley was born to humble beginnings in Berne, New York, and attended local schools. He began teaching at the age of 16. In 1833, the Dutch Reformed Church of Berne advanced young Joseph Bradley $250 to study for the ministry at Rutgers University, graduating in 1836. After graduation he was made Principal of the Millstone Academy. Not long afterward, he was persuaded by his Rutgers classmate Frederick T. Frelinghuysen to join him in Newark and pursue legal studies at the Office of the Collector of the Port of Newark. He was admitted to the bar in 1839.

Bradley's private practice in New Jersey, specializing in patent and railroad law made him very prominent in these fields and quite wealthy. He married Mary Hornblower in Newark in 1844.

As a commercial litigator, Bradley argued many cases before various federal courts, earning him a national reputation. Thus, in 1870 when a new seat was created on the U.S. Supreme Court, he was sufficiently well known by associates of President Grant to be recommended as a Supreme Court nominee. He authored the majority opinion in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 . Bradley's personal, legal, and court papers are archived at the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark and open for research. Bradley also wrote the opinion in Hans v. Louisiana, holding that a state could not be sued in a federal court by one of its own citizens.