Representative Miles Tobey Granger

Miles Tobey Granger (August 12, 1817 – October 21, 1895) was an American jurist and Democratic politician who served one term as a United States Representative from Connecticut from 1887 to 1889. Over the course of a long public career, he held seats in both houses of the Connecticut General Assembly, sat on the state’s Superior Court, and ultimately served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors, now known as the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Granger was born in New Marlboro, Massachusetts, on August 12, 1817. In 1819 he moved with his parents to Canaan, Connecticut, where he was raised. He pursued common-school and academic studies and later attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He graduated from Wesleyan in 1842 and there became a member of the Mystical Seven, a collegiate society that counted among its members a number of future public figures.

In 1843 Granger moved to Louisiana, where he taught in a private family in West Feliciana Parish. While in the South he studied law and was admitted to the bar of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, in April 1845. He soon returned to Connecticut and was admitted to the bar in Litchfield County in October 1845. Granger established a law practice in Canaan, where he practiced from 1847 to 1867. On October 21, 1846, he married Sarah C. Ferguson of Sheffield, Massachusetts. The couple had six children: Bertha I., Samuel F., Mary F., Josie, Kittie M., and Carrie Tobey.

Alongside his private practice, Granger became an important local judicial officer. After 1849 he served as probate judge for the District of Canaan for fifteen of the next eighteen years, gaining extensive experience in estate and family matters. His growing reputation in legal and civic affairs led to his election to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1857. He later advanced to the Connecticut Senate, serving as a state senator in 1866 and 1867, where he participated in state legislative deliberations during the immediate post–Civil War period.

In 1867 Granger was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut, a position he held until 1876. That year he was elevated to the Supreme Court of Errors, the state’s highest court, now known as the Connecticut Supreme Court. As a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors, he served from 1876 until March 1, 1887, when he resigned. His tenure on the bench, spanning two decades on the Superior Court and the Supreme Court of Errors, placed him at the center of Connecticut’s judicial development in the late nineteenth century.

After leaving the state’s highest court, Granger entered national politics. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected from Connecticut’s 4th congressional district to the Fiftieth Congress and served in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1889. His single term in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history marked by industrial expansion and debates over economic and regulatory policy. As a Representative, he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Connecticut constituents. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1888 and thus concluded his congressional service after one term.

In his later years Granger continued to serve the state in a judicial capacity. In 1893 he was elected state referee, a position in which he acted as a judicial officer handling referred matters, and he held that post until his death. Miles Tobey Granger died in North Canaan, Connecticut, on October 21, 1895. He was interred in the Lower Cemetery in North Canaan, leaving a record of service that spanned local, state, and national institutions over more than four decades.