Representative Thomas Lawrence Reilly

Thomas Lawrence Reilly (September 20, 1858 – July 6, 1924) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Connecticut who served in the United States Congress from 1911 to 1915. He represented his state during a significant period in American political and social change, contributing to the legislative process over two terms in office and playing a notable role in labor-related postal legislation.

Reilly was born in New Britain, Connecticut, on September 20, 1858. He attended the common schools of his native town and completed his formal teacher-training education at the Connecticut State Normal School, from which he was graduated in 1876. Immediately after graduation he entered local public service, serving as assistant town clerk of New Britain in 1876. In 1877 he moved with his parents to Meriden, Connecticut, a community that would remain the center of his professional, political, and civic life.

In his early career, Reilly pursued a variety of occupations that reflected both administrative and intellectual interests. He studied law for a year, gaining familiarity with legal principles that would later inform his public service. He worked for several years as a bookkeeper, acquiring practical experience in finance and recordkeeping. He then turned to journalism, engaging as a newspaper correspondent until 1886. That year he became one of the founders of the Meriden Journal and served as its city editor, a position that placed him at the heart of local affairs and helped establish his public profile in Meriden and the surrounding region.

Reilly’s involvement in local government and Democratic Party politics expanded steadily at the turn of the twentieth century. He served as a member of the Meriden Board of Education from 1896 to 1903, participating in the oversight of local schools and educational policy. In 1900 he served as chairman of the town committee, strengthening his role in party organization and local political strategy. His growing prominence culminated in his election as mayor of Meriden, an office he held from 1906 to 1912. As mayor, he gained executive experience and further solidified his reputation as a leading Democratic figure in Connecticut.

Building on his local and municipal service, Reilly was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-second and Sixty-third Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1911, to March 3, 1915. During his tenure in Congress he represented the interests of his Connecticut constituents and participated actively in the legislative process at the national level. While representing Connecticut in the Sixty-second Congress, he authored section 5 of an appropriations bill that limited postal workers’ eight-hour shifts to be spread out over no more than ten-hour spans. This provision, known as the “Reilly Eight in Ten Law,” reflected contemporary concerns over labor conditions and working hours in the federal postal service. Reilly’s service in Congress thus coincided with, and contributed to, broader Progressive Era efforts to regulate labor and improve conditions for federal employees. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1914 to the Sixty-fourth Congress, ending his congressional career after two terms.

After leaving Congress, Reilly continued in federal and local public service. In 1916 and 1917 he was employed in the Internal Revenue Service, participating in the administration of federal tax laws during a period of expanding national fiscal responsibilities. In 1918 he returned to elective office at the county level when he was elected sheriff of New Haven County, Connecticut. He was subsequently reelected and served as sheriff until his death, overseeing law enforcement and the administration of the county’s correctional responsibilities.

Thomas Lawrence Reilly died in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 6, 1924, while still serving as sheriff of New Haven County. He was interred in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Meriden, Connecticut. His career spanned education, journalism, municipal leadership, federal legislative service, and county law enforcement, marking him as a significant Democratic public servant in Connecticut in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.