Nehemiah Day Sperry

Nehemiah Day Sperry (July 10, 1827 – November 13, 1911) was an American educator, businessman, and Republican politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Connecticut for eight consecutive terms from 1895 to 1911. His long tenure in the House of Representatives spanned a significant period in American history at the turn of the twentieth century, during which he participated actively in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Connecticut constituents.

Sperry was born in Woodbridge, Connecticut, on July 10, 1827, the third of six children of Enoch Sperry and Mary Atlanta Sperry. He grew up in a family that would become prominent in local affairs; his eldest brother, Lucien Wells Sperry, later served as the twenty-third mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, from 1866 to 1869. Nehemiah attended the common schools and then a private school in nearby New Haven. As a young man he taught school for several years, establishing himself first as an educator. During this period he also learned the trades of building and masonry in his spare time, skills that would form the basis of his later business career.

Transitioning from education to business, Sperry entered the construction field and became a contractor. He formed the firm of Smith & Sperry in partnership with his brother-in-law, and the company emerged as one of the leading building contractors in New Haven in the years following the Civil War. His success in business was reflected in his personal life; in 1857 he built a residence at 466 Orange Street in New Haven, a structure later recognized among the Historic Buildings of Connecticut. Through his work as an educator and builder, he became a well-known figure in the community, which in turn facilitated his entry into public service.

Sperry’s political career began in the era of the Whig Party. He first held local office in New Haven, serving on the New Haven common council and as a town selectman in 1853, and then as an alderman in 1854. He advanced quickly in state politics and served as Secretary of the State of Connecticut in 1855 and 1856. In June 1855 he attended the American, or Know-Nothing, Party convention in Philadelphia, where a national platform was formulated. A strong opponent of slavery, Sperry soon aligned himself with the newly formed Republican Party. He became chairman of the Republican State committee for a number of years before and during the Civil War and served as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1856, 1864, and 1888. In these roles he was a member and secretary of the national and executive committees of the party, contributing to the organization and direction of Republican politics in both Connecticut and the nation.

During the Civil War, Sperry was active on the home front as chairman of the recruiting committee of New Haven, helping to organize and support enlistment efforts for the Union cause. His political prominence and party service brought him into close contact with national leaders, including President Abraham Lincoln, with whom he enjoyed a personal relationship. In 1861 Lincoln appointed him postmaster of New Haven, a position he held for a quarter century until he was removed by Democratic President Grover Cleveland in 1886. With the return of a Republican administration, President Benjamin Harrison reappointed Sperry as postmaster, and he served again from 1890 to 1894. These long periods of federal service in New Haven underscored his standing as a trusted Republican official and administrator.

Sperry was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress and to the seven succeeding Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1895, to March 3, 1911. Over the course of his eight terms, he contributed to the legislative process during a transformative era in American economic and social life. He served as chairman of the Committee on Alcohol Liquor Traffic from the Fifty-sixth through the Sixty-first Congresses, a role that placed him at the center of debates over the regulation of alcoholic beverages in the years leading up to the Prohibition movement. He is widely regarded as the originator of the Rural Free Delivery system of the U.S. Mail; in 1895 he introduced the Rural Delivery Act, which laid the groundwork for extending postal service directly to rural households and significantly improved communication and commerce in less populated areas. After sixteen years in Congress, he chose not to be a candidate for renomination in 1910 and concluded his legislative career at the end of his final term in March 1911.

Nehemiah Day Sperry died in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 13, 1911, at the age of eighty-four. He was interred in Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven. His life encompassed service as an educator, builder, local and state official, federal postmaster, party leader, and long-serving member of Congress, and his work—particularly in postal reform and rural mail delivery—left a lasting imprint on both his state and the nation.