Nehemiah D. Sperry

Nehemiah Day Sperry (July 10, 1827 – November 13, 1911) was an American educator and businessman who served as a U.S. Representative from Connecticut for eight consecutive terms from 1895 to 1911.

Nehemiah Day Sperry
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Connecticut's 2nd district
In office
March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1911
Preceded byJames P. Pigott
Succeeded byThomas L. Reilly
Secretary of the State of Connecticut
In office
1855–1857
Preceded byOliver H. Perry
Succeeded byOrville H. Platt
Personal details
Born(1827-07-10)July 10, 1827
Woodbridge, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedNovember 13, 1911(1911-11-13) (aged 84)
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Resting placeEvergreen Cemetery
Political partyRepublican

Biography

Born in Woodbridge, Connecticut, Sperry was the third of six children of Enoch Sperry and Mary Atlanta (nee Sperry) Sperry. His eldest sibling Lucien Wells Sperry served as the 23rd mayor of New Haven, CT from 1866 to 1869.[1] Nehemiah attended the common schools and a private school in New Haven.[2] He engaged in agricultural pursuits and worked in a mill. He taught school for several years, and then became a partner in a building and contracting firm Smith & Sperry, among the top builders in New Haven after the Civil War.[3]

Political career

He served as a member of the New Haven common council in 1853, and an Alderman in 1854. He served as Secretary of the State of Connecticut in 1855 and 1856.[4]

Sperry served as delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1856, 1864, and 1888. He served as member and secretary of the national and executive committees. He served as chairman of the Republican State committee for a number of years. He served as chairman of the recruiting committee of New Haven during the Civil War. He was appointed by President Lincoln in 1861 as postmaster of New Haven, and served until removed by President Cleveland in 1886. He was again postmaster from 1890 to 1894.

Congress

Sperry was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth and to the seven succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1911).[5] He served as chairman of the Committee on Alcohol Liquor Traffic (Fifty-sixth through Sixty-first Congresses). He is considered the originator of the Rural Free Delivery system of the U. S. Mail, with the Rural Delivery Act which he introduced in 1895.[6][7] He was not a candidate for renomination in 1910. His home, built in 1857 at 466 Orange Street in New Haven is listed among the Historic Buildings of Connecticut.[8] Sperry's reference in the 1903 Congressional Directory notes that he

was appointed a member of the commission to visit England, Germany, and France too look into their system of post-offices, but declined service; was nominated for Congress in 1886, but declined the same; was president of the Chamber of Commerce of New Haven; was bondsman for building the Monitor...[5]

Death and burial

He died in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 13, 1911. He was interred in Evergreen Cemetery.[9]

References
  1. List of mayors of New Haven, Connecticut
  2. Men of Mark in Connecticut: Ideals of American Life Told in Biographies and Autobiographies of Eminent Living Americans. Volume 1, pg. 58-61, W.R. Goodspeed, 1906 - Connecticut
  3. Brown, Elizabeth Mills (January 1976). New Haven, a Guide to Architecture and Urban Design. ISBN 0300019939.
  4. "SPERRY, Nehemiah Day US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov.
  5. "S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. 9 November 1903. p. 12. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  6. "Officials Gather to Celebrate 100 Years of Rural Free Delivery". 2 October 1996.
  7. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1897-pt1-v29/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1897-pt1-v29-2-2.pdf
  8. "The Nehemiah Sperry House (1857)". 16 November 2009.
  9. "The Life Summary of Nehemiah Day". ancestors.familysearch.org.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

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