Schuyler Merritt

Schuyler Merritt (December 16, 1853 – April 1, 1953) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut's 4th congressional district from 1917 to 1931 and 1933 to 1937. He is the namesake of the Merritt Parkway.

He was born in New York City, in 1853, the son of Matthew F. Merritt and Mariah Shaw Merritt. His father had also served in the Connecticut General Assembly. He moved with his parents to Stamford, Connecticut in 1855. Schuyler prepared for college at private schools in that city and graduated from Yale College in 1873 and from Columbia Law School in 1876. He was interested in the manufacture of locks and keys and also engaged in banking from 1877–1917.

Merritt was member of the Connecticut constitutional convention in 1904 and a member of the Connecticut State Board of Education 1910–1916. Later, he was a delegate to the 1916 Republican National Convention.

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 (March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1937). Merritt again ran for reelection in 1936 to the Seventy-fifth Congress, but was not elected.

After leaving Congress, he continued his interests in the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company and the First Stamford National Bank. Merritt died in Stamford in 1953 at the age of 99, and was buried in Woodland Cemetery.