Richard E. Connell

Richard Edward Connell Sr. (November 6, 1857 – October 30, 1912) was an American reporter and democratic politician. He was a United States Representative from New York.

A Catholic and longtime reporter and editor for a Poughkeepsie paper, Connell had run unsuccessfully

for Congress once and for the state assembly twice and had held local public offices.

Richard Edward Connell Sr. was born on November 6, 1857, in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, to Richard Connell and Ann Connell (née Phelan) (1824–1898) who had immigrated to New York from Kilkenny, Ireland in 1846.

Connell attended St. Peter's Parochial School and the public schools of Poughkeepsie. His father died when he was young and he dropped out of school at the age of 14 to work and support his family. He worked various odd jobs including for the Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway and Hudson River State Hospital.

In 1884, Connell began making speeches in support of political candidate Grover Cleveland(1837-1908).

In 1887, he was hired as a reporter for the Poughkeepsie News-Press. He remained with the newspaper for 23 years, until 1910. 

In 1892, he was appointed police commissioner of Poughkeepsie and served two years until entering politics. In 1896, he was a candidate for Member of Congress in the district (composed of Putnam, Dutchess, and Ulster Counties), but was defeated by Gen. John H. Ketcham by 8,000 majority. In 1898 and 1900, he was the unsuccessful candidate for member of assembly in the second district of Dutchess County.

He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention held in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1900, and at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904. 

In 1907, Connell was appointed an inheritance-tax appraiser for Dutchess County and served until 1909. The following year, in 1910, Connell and Hyde Park resident Franklin D. Roosevelt embarked on a joint campaign in the Hudson Valley in Roosevelt's Maxwell automobile; Connell, at the time, was running for the U.S. House of Representatives and Roosevelt for the New York State Senate. From Connell, Roosevelt would borrow the opening phrase with which he would begin many speeches for the rest of his career: "My friends." Connell was elected to the Sixty-second Congress, defeating incumbent, Republican Hamilton Fish II by 517 votes (18,832 votes to 18,315) and David R. Slater by 677 votes. In his brief time in Congress, he collaborated with Representative Isaac R. Sherwood in championing a successful Civil War veterans' pension bill. He had been nominated in 1912 as the Democratic candidate for reelection to the 63rd United States Congress.

Connell was married to his wife Mary (née Miller) and had four children, Mary, Anne, Catherine, and Richard Connell. The younger Richard (1893–1949), who was his father's secretary during sessions of Congress, was also a noted journalist and author best known for his short story The Most Dangerous Game.

Connell was a member of the Royal Arcanum, Knights of Columbus, and Order of Elks.

Connell died of heart disease on 30 October 1912—just ten months after taking the oath of office. He had spent the night before making speeches in Putnam County and returned home to Poughkeepsie around 2:00 a.m. His wife found him unresponsive on the morning of 30 October when the hired car came to pick him up to meet constituents in Middletown.

He is buried in St. Peter's Cemetery.