NEHEMIAH DAY SPERRY
SPERRY, NEHEMIAH DAY, son of a farmer and manufacturer, was brought up in the country, attended the district school and a private school in New Haven, Connecticut, became a school teacher, a mason and a builder and contractor in New Haven; was councilman, alderman, selectman, secretary of state of Connecticut, postmaster of New Haven for twenty-eight years, and representative in congress since 1895. He was born in Woodbridge, New Haven county, Connecticut, July 10, 1827. His father, Enoch Sperry, was a farmer and manufacturer, known for integrity, sobriety, and strict uprightness in all his dealings. His mother Atlanta (Sperry) Sperry, was the daughter of Asa and Eunice (Johnson) Sperry. His paternal grandparents were Simeon and Rachel Sperry and his first ancestor in America, Richard Sperry, who came from Wales to New Haven colony about 1643. Nehemiah Day Sperry was the third son of a family of four boys and one girl, and worked on the farm and in the mill and attended the district school in the winter months until he was himself fitted to teach. He then taught in the neighboring district school until he was fourteen years old. He went to New Haven in 1841, where he worked to pay his board and tuition while attending the school kept by Professor Amos Smith. He also learned the trade of mason and builder and made that business his occupation. He became selectman of the town of New Haven in 1853; member of the common council of the city, 1853; alderman, 1854; president of the New Haven chamber of commerce; secretary of the state of Connecticut, 1855-56; postmaster of New Haven, 1861-85 and 1889-93; and representative from the second district of Connecticut in the fifty-fourth and following congresses, serving on the committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, and as chairman of the committee on Alcoholic Liquor Traffic. He was originally a Whig, was a delegate to the American national convention that met in Philadelphia in June, 1855, to formulate a party platform, and was made a member of the committee on platform. The question of slavery divided the conven-
