Ernest Cady

Cady was born on September 6, 1842, in Stafford, Connecticut.^[2] He was the second oldest of six children born to Garner Cady, Jr. (1805–1852), who was "killed in his prime by a runaway horse",^[3] and Emily (née Greene) Cady (1813–1894).^[3]

His maternal grandparents were John Taylor Greene and Eleanor (née Edson) Greene and he was descended from Nicholas Cady,^[4] the namesake of Cady Pond, who lived in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1645.^[3]

During the U.S. Civil War, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and fought in the Battle of Mobile Bay. Following the end of the War, he returned to Connecticut, first Stafford then Hartford, and became a prominent manufacturer and capitalist,^[2] as the president of Pratt & Cady Company.^[5]

In 1892, he was nominated as the Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, winning election in November 1892. Succeeding Republican James L. Howard, Cady served as the 65th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut under Governor Luzon B. Morris from 1893 to 1895, during which time he presided in the State Senate during the session of 1893 "with dignity and success, winning the admiration and esteem of both parties in the General Assembly."^[6] While in office, he was also one of the Water Commissioners in Hartford and was a "controlling spirit" in the Hartford Board of Trade.^[6]

In 1894, at the end of his term as Lt. Governor, Cady was nominated as the Democratic nominee for governor of Connecticut to succeed Morris,^[6] who would become the only member of the Democratic Party to hold the governorship of Connecticut between 1885 and 1911. He lost the election to the Republican Owen Vincent Coffin and was succeeded as Lt. Governor by Lorrin A. Cooke, who later became Governor after Coffin.^[3]

He later served as a Trustee of the Society for Savings, a Director of the National Machine Company,^[2] and was on the advisory board of the Board of Education of the Blind.^[7] Cady was also a prominent Freemason and a member of the Hartford Club.^[6]