Representative Frederick Miles - Contact Information

Frederick Miles (December 19, 1815 – November 20, 1896) was an American businessman and Republican politician who represented Connecticut’s 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1879 to 1883 and again from 1889 to 1891. His public career, which also included service in the Connecticut Senate from 1877 to 1879, spanned a period of significant economic and political change in the post–Civil War United States.

Miles was born in Goshen, Connecticut, where he attended the local common schools and pursued an academic course typical of rural New England in the early nineteenth century. Raised in an agrarian community, he was educated in the fundamentals of reading, writing, arithmetic, and civic life, preparation that would support both his later business endeavors and his entry into public office. His early years in Goshen rooted him in the economic and social concerns of small-town Connecticut, concerns that would later inform his legislative priorities.

As a young man, Miles engaged in mercantile pursuits in Goshen, building experience in trade and commerce that reflected the growing market economy of antebellum New England. He continued in these mercantile activities until 1857, when he left Goshen and moved to Twin Lakes, Connecticut. In 1858 he settled in Salisbury, Connecticut, a community closely associated with the state’s iron industry. There he turned from general commerce to industrial enterprise, engaging in the manufacture of iron. This transition placed him within one of the key industries of northwestern Connecticut and gave him direct familiarity with manufacturing, labor, and transportation issues that were central to the region’s economic development.

Miles’s political career began at the state level. A member of the Republican Party, which had emerged in the 1850s as the principal political vehicle for Union, industry, and, increasingly, reform interests, he was elected to the Connecticut Senate in 1877. He served in that body from 1877 until February 1879, when he resigned. During his tenure in the state senate, he participated in legislative deliberations at a time when Connecticut was grappling with questions of industrial growth, infrastructure, and the integration of postwar economic changes into state law and policy.

In 1878, Miles was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut’s 4th congressional district. He served in the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1883. As a member of the Republican Party representing Connecticut, Frederick Miles contributed to the legislative process during these two consecutive terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a period marked by debates over tariffs, currency, and federal involvement in economic affairs. At the conclusion of his second term, he declined a nomination for reelection, temporarily stepping away from congressional service.

Miles returned to national office at the close of the 1880s. He was again elected as a Republican to represent Connecticut’s 4th congressional district in the Fifty-first Congress, serving from March 4, 1889, to March 3, 1891. His third term in the House coincided with the administration of President Benjamin Harrison and with significant legislative activity on issues such as protective tariffs and federal regulation of commerce, areas of particular relevance to an industrialist and manufacturer from Connecticut. Although he sought to continue his service, Miles was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress, bringing his congressional career to a close after three terms in the House of Representatives.

After leaving Congress, Miles resumed his business activities in and around Salisbury, returning to the commercial and industrial pursuits that had defined his pre-political career. He remained associated with the local economy and community in northwestern Connecticut during his later years. Frederick Miles died near Salisbury, Connecticut, on November 20, 1896. He was buried in Salisbury Cemetery, closing a life that linked rural New England origins, industrial enterprise, and service in both the Connecticut Senate and the United States House of Representatives.