Schuyler Merritt (December 16, 1853 – April 1, 1953) was a Republican member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from

Connecticut's 4th congressional district Connecticut's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in the panhandle, the district is largely suburban and extends from Bridgeport, the largest city in the state, to Greenwich – an are ...

from 1917 to 1931 and 1933 to 1937. He is the namesake of the

Merritt Parkway The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a controlled-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County. Designed for Connecticut's Gold Coast, the parkway is k ...

Early life

He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, in 1853, the son of Matthew Franklin Merritt (1815–1896), a Connecticut State Senator, and Mariah Shaw Merritt. His father had also served in the Connecticut General Assembly. He moved with his parents to

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Weste ...

, in 1855. His maternal grandmother, Clarissa Hoyt, was descended from the original

Hoyts The HOYTS Group of companies in Australia and New Zealand includes HOYTS Cinemas, a cinema chain, and Val Morgan, which sells advertising on cinema screens and digital billboards. The company was established by dentist Arthur Russell in Melbo ...

who purchased Noroton Hill more than 300 years before. Schuyler prepared for college at

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

s in that city and graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1873 and from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

in 1876.

Career

In 1877, after graduation from Columbia Law, he joined Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company in the manufacture of locks and keys as an office assistant. He eventually rose to be secretary in 1878, general manager in 1890 and treasurer in 1898. He was also involved in banking from 1877 until 1917.

Political career

In 1904, Merritt was member of the Connecticut constitutional convention that rewrote Connecticut's Constitution. From 1910 until 1916, he was a member of the

Connecticut State Board of Education The Connecticut State Board of Education is the governing body of the Connecticut State Department of Education, which oversees the public education in the state, distributes funds to the state's 166 school districts, and operates the Connecticu ...

, and later, a delegate to the

1916 Republican National Convention The 1916 Republican National Convention was held in Chicago from June 7 to June 10. A major goal of the party's bosses at the convention was to heal the bitter split within the party that had occurred in the 1912 presidential campaign. In that ...

. He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Ebenezer J. Hill. Merritt was reelected to the Sixty-sixth and to the five succeeding Congresses and served from November 6, 1917, to March 3, 1931. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1930, but was again elected to the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1933, until January 3, 1937. During his time in the House, he served alongside Rep. Matthew Merritt, of New York, who shared a last name, causing some papers to misreport their votes on certain bills. In 1936, Merritt again ran for reelection to the Seventy-fifth Congress, but was not elected, losing to

Alfred N. Phillips Alfred Noroton Phillips Jr. (April 23, 1894 – January 18, 1970) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut's 4th congressional district and mayor of Stamford, Connecticut from 1923 to 1924, from 1927 ...

. While in Congress, he served on the Interstate Commerce Committee and was known for his opposition to the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting liquors, and his opposition to the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

program for stock market controls.

Later career

After leaving Congress, he returned to the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company, where he was chairman of the board from 1924 until 1932, and retired as a director in 1947. He was an officer of the First Stamford National Bank, since 1902, served as board chairman. He was also a vice president of the Stamford Gas and Electric Company. Merritt was recognized in 1951 and 1952 as the oldest living Yale graduate and the sole survivor of the class of 1873. In 1935, Yale conferred the honorary degree of

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

on him.

Personal life

On October 21, 1879, Merritt married Frances Hannah Hoyt (1850–1943), the daughter of Stamford multimillionaire Joseph Blachley Hoyt (1812–1889) and Catherine Krom (1816–1862), and the niece of Oliver Hoyt (1823–1887), a Connecticut State Senator. Together, they were the parents of: * Louise Hoyt Merritt (1880–1956), who married William B. Dalton, and was a friend of

Adelaide Crapsey Adelaide Crapsey (September 9, 1878 – October 8, 1914) was an American poet. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Rochester, New York. Her parents were the businesswoman Adelaide T. Crapsey and the Episcopal priest Algernon Sidney ...

Katharine Krom Merritt Katharine Krom Merritt (9 January 1886 in Stamford, Connecticut – 5 August 1986 in Stamford, Connecticut) was an American physician specializing in pediatrics. The Kasabach–Merritt syndrome Kasabach–Merritt syndrome (KMS), also known as hema ...

(1886–1986), a pediatrician and co-founder of Family and Children's Service. Merritt was a mentor to his niece, Joyce Porter Arneill, who would go on to found the National Federation of Republican Women in 1938 and become an RNC delegate for the 1940 presidential election. Arneill was credited with getting many American women involved in politics in the 1930s and 1940s Merritt died in Stamford on April 1, 1953, at the age of 99. He was buried in Woodland Cemetery.

Honors

The

, finished on September 2, 1940, in southern Connecticut was named in his honor and his daughter Louise cut the ribbon.

References

External links

Stamford Historical Society article on Merritt

Schuyler Merritt in the Library of Congress
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt, Schuyler 1853 births 1953 deaths Columbia Law School alumni Connecticut State Board of Education members Politicians from New York City Politicians from Stamford, Connecticut Yale College alumni Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives