Claude Ernest Cady

Claude Ernest Cady (May 28, 1878 – November 30, 1953) was a businessman, local official, and one-term United States Representative from Michigan. He spent his entire life closely identified with Lansing, Michigan, where he was born and where he later built a varied career in commerce, municipal affairs, and federal service.

Cady was born in Lansing, Michigan, on May 28, 1878. He attended the common schools of the city and completed his studies at the local high school. Entering business at the turn of the twentieth century, he became part of the growing commercial life of Lansing, which was then developing as an important industrial and governmental center in the state capital.

Beginning in 1899, Cady engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business, a line of work he pursued until 1913. As Lansing expanded, he diversified his interests and moved into the amusement industry. From 1914 to 1925 he was active in the ownership and operation of motion picture and entertainment venues, serving as owner of three theaters in Lansing, including the Capitol and Gladmer Theaters, and maintaining financial interests in similar enterprises in other Michigan cities. After leaving the theater business, he entered the wholesale candy and fountain supplies trade, in which he was engaged from 1925 to 1932, supplying confectionery and related products to retailers during a period of significant growth in consumer and leisure markets.

Alongside his business pursuits, Cady developed a substantial record in local public service. He was elected to the Lansing board of aldermen, on which he served from 1910 to 1917, participating in the municipal governance of the rapidly growing capital city. Following his tenure as an alderman, he became a member of the Lansing Police and Fire Commission, serving from 1918 to 1928. In that capacity he was involved in the oversight of the city’s public safety departments during and after World War I, a period marked by urban expansion and increasing professionalization of police and fire services.

Cady’s local prominence and Democratic affiliation led him to seek national office during the early years of the Great Depression. In the 1932 general election, running as a Democrat from Michigan’s 6th congressional district, he defeated incumbent Republican Seymour H. Person. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the Seventy-third Congress and served from March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1935. His term coincided with the opening phase of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, when Congress enacted major economic and social legislation in response to the national crisis. After one term, Cady was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1934, losing to Republican William W. Blackney.

Following his service in Congress, Cady returned to federal service in a different capacity. He was appointed postmaster of Lansing, a position he held from 1935 to 1943. As postmaster during the latter years of the Great Depression and the early years of World War II, he oversaw local postal operations at a time when mail service was a critical component of government communication, commerce, and wartime mobilization. After leaving the postmastership in 1943, he retired from both political and business life.

Claude Ernest Cady spent his later years in retirement in his native city. He died in Lansing on November 30, 1953. He was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing, reflecting his lifelong association with the community in which he had been born, conducted his business affairs, and held public office at the municipal, federal, and postal levels.