Dudley P. Ely (b. November 16, 1817, Simsbury, Connecticut) was the first mayor of South Norwalk, Connecticut, beginning in 1870, when the city was first incorporated. He served from 1870 to 1872 and from 1876 to 1877.[1][2][3]
He was the youngest child of Benjamin Ely, a graduate of Yale College in 1786. As a youth, he worked in a store in Simsbury, and by the age of eighteen, was a manager of a store in West Hartland. After a year, he went to New York, to work with his brother as a bookkeeper, subsequently becoming his partner. He succeeded in business, and moved to South Norwalk in 1861.[1][2]
Upon moving to South Norwalk, he became a banker, invested in real estate, becoming the largest landholder in the city. On the largest business block in the city, he built the Hotel Mahackemo. He was president of the Norwalk Gas Light Company for over twenty years. He was president of the South Norwalk Savings Bank for more than ten years. He was the first president of the Norwalk Iron Works Company and the first president of the South Norwalk Printing Company. He served as a director of the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad Company, the Norwalk Horse Railroad Company, the Fairfield County Fire Insurance Company, the Norwalk Fire Insurance Company, the Relief Fire Insurance Company of New York and the Peter Cooper Fire Insurance Company of New York.[1][2]
He took a recreational interest in agriculture, and served as president of the Fairfield County Agricultural Society. At a farm he carried on in the suburbs, he raised chickens and pigeons.[1][2]
He was a large donor to the Children's Aid Society, and a member of the Congregational church of South Norwalk.[1][2]
He was the plaintiff in the case of Town of Andes v Ely[4]