Dwight Loomis

Dwight Loomis (July 27, 1821 – September 17, 1903) was an American judge and politician from Connecticut who served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Connecticut’s 1st congressional district from 1859 to 1863. He was born in Columbia, Connecticut, where he attended the common schools before pursuing further studies at academies in Monson, Massachusetts, and Amherst, Massachusetts. These early educational experiences prepared him for a professional career in law and public service that would span more than half a century and encompass legislative, judicial, and academic roles.

In 1844, Loomis began the study of law under John H. Brockway in Ellington, Connecticut, marking the formal start of his legal training. He subsequently entered the law department of Yale University, where he completed his legal education and graduated in 1847. That same year he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law at Rockville, Connecticut. His early legal practice in Rockville established his reputation in the community and provided the foundation for his entry into state politics.

Loomis first held elective office as a Whig member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1851. Following the dissolution of the Whig Party in the 1850s, he aligned himself with the emerging Republican Party. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1856, reflecting his growing prominence in the new party. He also served as a member of the Connecticut Senate from 1857 to 1859, gaining legislative experience at the state level and positioning himself for national office.

A member of the Republican Party, Dwight Loomis was elected as a Representative from Connecticut to the United States Congress and served two terms in the House of Representatives. He was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses, serving from March 4, 1859, to March 3, 1863, as the representative for Connecticut’s 1st congressional district. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, spanning the turbulent years immediately preceding and including the early phase of the Civil War. While in Congress, he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury during the Thirty-sixth Congress, contributing to the legislative oversight of federal finances. As a member of the House of Representatives, Dwight Loomis participated in the democratic process, represented the interests of his constituents, and contributed to the legislative process during his two terms in office. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1862.

After leaving Congress, Loomis embarked on a distinguished judicial career. He served as a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut from 1864 to 1875, presiding over a wide range of civil and criminal matters during a period of post–Civil War adjustment and growth in the state. In 1875 he was elevated to the Connecticut Supreme Court, where he served as a justice from 1875 to 1891. His long tenure on the state’s highest court reflected the confidence placed in his legal judgment and contributed significantly to the development of Connecticut jurisprudence in the late nineteenth century.

Following his retirement from the Supreme Court, Loomis continued to play an important role in Connecticut’s legal affairs. He moved to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1892, where the General Assembly elected him as State Referee in important cases, a position in which he was called upon to hear and decide complex matters referred by the courts. In addition to his judicial and quasi-judicial responsibilities, he maintained a connection to legal education. He taught classes at Yale University, and in recognition of his service to the law and the state, Yale conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) in 1896. He also contributed to the historical record of the state’s legal system as co-editor, with J. Gilbert Calhoun, of “The Judicial and Civil History of Connecticut,” published in Boston in 1895.

Dwight Loomis died on September 17, 1903, in a train accident near Waterbury, Connecticut. His death brought to a close a career that had encompassed legislative service in both houses of the Connecticut General Assembly, two terms in the United States House of Representatives, and more than a quarter-century on the bench of the Superior Court and the Connecticut Supreme Court. He was interred in Grove Hill Cemetery in Rockville, Connecticut, the community where he had begun his legal practice and from which he had risen to statewide and national prominence.