John P. Andrews

John’s given name was Jacob P. Angney, one of eight children of Sarah and her train conductor husband, John Reddick Angney. Jacob was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania but grew up in Philadelphia. Two of his brothers became conductors but Jacob went in another direction and was listed in the 1870 census as a dry goods clerk.

He was working for a dry goods importer and wholesaler in April of 1876 when he met Sarah “Sallie” Heise in Lancaster County and they married within six months. He left the company and the city a year later, $600 in debt. They lived for a time in Chambersburg but his dry goods store failed. They returned to Sallie’s hometown of Columbia, Lancaster County, where two children would be born.

A Pattern Revealed

He soon began a pattern of stealing from the several women he eventually married. He began living by the motto, “Better to take and beg forgiveness than to ask permission and be turned down.”

With Sallie it started when he took money from her purse, then apologized. He obtained $300 under false pretenses from her mother but he promised to make good the debt. Then he persuaded Sallie to mortgage some property she owned so he could start another dry goods store. After a couple of months, while she was away, he sold everything, deserted the family, and fled to Baltimore to sell life insurance.

A second marriage took place in July of 1882 when Jacob married Mary Gulnack in Elk County, Pennsylvania in the Allegheny Mountains. That relationship, as explained by the husband, came about as a result of a night of indiscretion. The girl’s brother forced a shotgun wedding but, presumably, it was later annulled.

The first wife, whose financial losses amounted to $12,000, enlisted the aid of her sister’s husband, John Wilmont, who happened to be a U.S. Marshall in Washington, D.C. He convinced her to file articles of separation and, in subsequent years, a divorce.

Jacob became incensed at his meddling and confronted John at a Washington hotel in November of 1882. During the argument and scuffle that ensued, he shot John three times, but he managed to survive.

New Name, Family, & Occupation

Jacob was arrested, jumped bail, fled to Michigan and changed his name to John P. Andrews. He found work selling life insurance in Grand Rapids, then met and won the affection of Anastasia McGordon in 1883. Her father left his children wealthy, with her share being about $30,000. 

In short order Mr. Andrews used some of her money to become part owner of the Grand Rapids Telegram-Herald newspaper. A church record shows they married July 21, 1884 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after which they honeymooned in France for more than a year. While in Paris in June of 1885 the first of two daughters was born. 

That same month a business opportunity arose. John’s ability to turn strangers into friends worked its charm with a professor, Raoul Pictet, who developed a refrigerant that had other potential uses. John represented himself as an agent for London capitalists who could market the product’s potential as a fire extinguisher in England. They agreed to the terms and signed a contract. 

John interpreted the agreement to allow him to manufacture it in English-speaking countries. Returning home in September, his first step was to set up the business in Detroit and eventually expand to London. However, the professor learned of this and other violations, and dispatched a lawyer to file suit in late 1886 to stop him. While investigating John’s background, the attorney uncovered information about his former life as Jacob Angney.

The Plot Thickens 

As this news hit the papers it quickened the heart of John Wilmont, who had almost lost hope that his ex-brother-in-law and attempted assassin would be located. Anastasia gave birth to their second daughter in November of 1886, then John was arrested two months later, charged with murder. Special Deputy United States Marshall Wilmont was there to take him into custody, also leveling an accusation of bigamy.  

The trial captured the public’s attention when it began in April in Washington, D.C. Among the first on the stand was Sallie Heise Angney who spoke of the second wife, Mary Gulnack, but the bigamy charge wasn’t allowed into evidence. Sitting in the courtroom every day, noticeably dressed in the latest Paris fashions, was Anastasia Andrews, who also bankrolled her husband’s four defense attorneys and remained confident of his innocence.

The proceedings took a couple of weeks but the jury took only a couple of hours to find him guilty of assault and battery with intent to kill John Wilmont on November 25, 1882. A motion was immediately filed for a new trial based on a number of technicalities, but one source stated John did serve some jail time in Washington. 

The pendulum swung further in the wrong direction when John lost the suit filed by the French professor and had to dissolve that business. Also in 1888, their first daughter died.

Things looked brighter in 1889 when their only son was born, and success in business eventually returned following investments in mining companies. This story appeared in 1890 in his former hometown. There were other investments in marble and serpentine stone quarries in Michigan, and John was a frequent traveler across the pond as owner and sales agent.

The Behavior Repeated

On one of those trips he sailed for England in early 1891. During the voyage the middle-aged father charmed his way into the heart of 22-year-old Mary “Mamie” Gregory (shown here as a teenager). She was from “downstate”  Illinois in Jacksonville, west of Springfield, and her father was a prosperous merchant and landlord. 

She and her girlfriend had embarked on a tour of Europe, but Mamie was swept away by John’s looks and style and companionship that grew into romance. The pair flirted and canoodled for months, part of the time in Paris, while the girlfriend had no objection. 

John decided to return to New York in June but the girls weren’t ready to end their vacation. On a whim, they decided to go across with him, which they did, then returned back to Liverpool to finish their tour. Apparently having sufficient funds was no problem.

They arrived back in Jacksonville in August, their reputation preceding them because Mamie wrote glowing letters about her new beau. Rumors flew around town about a secret marriage, so Mamie wired John to come at once. The local paper describes what happened next:

Even before this took place, John’s first order of business upon his return to Michigan was to get Anastasia out of the picture by committing her to a mental asylum, the “Dearborn Retreat.” 

At some point after the quick wedding, they stopped in Grand Rapids to combine their resources and their suitcases. The new Mrs. Andrews and her husband sailed again for a European escape. The first Mrs. Angney died in November of 1891 in Pennsylvania.

In January of 1892, the first Mrs. Andrews won release from the asylum after her siblings pleaded on her behalf. The announcement was blunted by news in March that she had placed her children in an orphanage and returned to the asylum, where she died in 1896. 

The mortgagor foreclosed on the Grand Rapids house in January of 1892, while Mamie Gregory’s money was placed in a tightly controlled conservatorship. The last news story from Jacksonville was this item in November of 1892, echoing the sentiments of the townspeople a year later. The couple did eventually dissolve their union, but the date is unknown. Mamie settled into a strong second marriage in 1903, living happily ever after for another 20 years.

An International Dealer

The paper trail went cold for John until his name appeared in a New York City newspaper in early 1900. He was referred to as a “capitalist” who had been living in England for nearly ten years. During that time he crossed the Atlantic regularly, acquiring business partners on both sides of the pond. The new century found him with enough investors in a company called Granite Industries of Donegal, Ireland. Mining seemed to be his career path, but he was always looking for the next “big thing.”

He found it in 1903, organizing a group of investors in coal mining operations in eastern Illinois. Open-pit mining had begun there many years earlier but John saw greater potential, and he was right. Coal operations in the Danville area, whether they were John’s or not, caused the population to jump from 16,000 in 1900 to 28,000 in 1910. 

Was there no woman in John’s life all these years? Perhaps he was married to his business ventures which gave him all the satisfaction he needed. But then he landed back in Philadelphia, with one last love. He married Chastena Cotton in 1909.

Although her father left her with some wealth, John had his own fortune. The two were a good match but their time together was brief. She died in 1914 of breast cancer at age 42. This is his passport photo from when they traveled to England in 1912.

In his last ten years, John tried to hold on to what he had, but World War I put an end to his business dealings in England. He never returned, and most of his stocks and bonds stopped paying dividends.

His obituary gives this account of his time during and after the war. It said he crossed the ocean 126 times during his lifetime, mingled with important figures, and enjoyed his wealth. But he had to draw down the principal until, in 1924, he was penniless.

He was found dead in the Hotel Hamilton in Norristown, Pennsylvania from myocarditis and arteriosclerosis. Burial took place in the large plot owned by the Cotton family here in Section 37. His wife’s name was one of the last to be inscribed. While there was room for more, it appears his name was never added.