USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. II > Part 46
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Hon. Lucien Wells Sperry, born March 8, 1820, in Woodbridge, married Harriet A. Sperry, daughter of Enos Sperry, of Westville. She died about 1888, and Mr. Sperry in 1890. They left one daughter. Mra. Eugene S. Miller. At the age of seventeen years Lucien W. Sperry went to New Haven to learn the carpenter's trade. As the years passed he improved his educational opportunities to auch an extent that he was enabled to teach school. In 1845, associated with his brother, Stiles D. Sperry, he began a mercantile career and for twenty years or more the brothers were located in business in Westville, Woodbridge, New Haven and Hartford. In 1855 Lueien bought a tract of land on Mill river, just east of the railroad, and with Chauncey Sperry, aon of the late Enos Sperry, engaged in the coal and wood businesa, continuing same until 1863. In his later years he was connected with several loeal banka and was a direetor in railroads in which the town and city had interest. In the middle 'sixties he began a politieal career in which for many years he was most popu- lar. prominent and successful, holding almost every offiee in the gift of the people. His political affiliations were with the democratic party. In 1864 he was elected first selectman and held that offiee until 1868, when he declined renomination. In 1866 he was elected mayor of New Haven and was reelected in 1867 and again in 1868, receiving the largest majority ever given a candidate up to that time. In 1869 and 1870 he represented the fourth distriet in the state senate. From boyhood Mr. Sperry was identified with the militia of the state. When twenty he was chosen captain of a company formed in his native town and during the following year was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment, of which later he became eolonel. Ile was captain and afterward major of the Second Company, Gov- ernor'a Horse Guard.
Stiles Denison Sperry, born October 15, 1822, married Anna E. Briggs, of Providence, Rhode Island. Ile was a prominent merchant in New Haven and later served as treasurer of the State Savings Bank at Hartford, holding that position at the time of his death. He served two terms as representative in the state legislature from Hartford. He was a prom- inent and influential Mason and held high offices in that fraternity.
Nehemiah D. Sperry was the third in order of birth. Joseph Hart Sperry was killed in 1846 by being thrown from a horse. Laura Ann Sperry, born October 20, 1835, married Andrew J. Randell and resided in Brooklyn, N. Y. She died January 25, 1879. In early life she was a school teacher. Enoch Knight Sperry, born in Woodbridge, married November 10, 1863, Sarah Amanda Treat, who was born July 29, 1844, daughter of Jonah Newton and Mary Amanda (Gould) Treat, and a descendant in the ninth generation from Richart Treat, who came to New England as early as 1639 and was an early settler of Wethersfield, Con- nectieut. Mrs. Sperry's line of descent from Riehard is through Governor Robert, Robert (2), Robert (3), Robert (4), Jonathan, Joseph and Jonah Newton Treat, the latter a mason and builder, of New Haven. Enoch K. Sperry for a number of years was the efficient account- ant and bookkeeper of the City Bank of New Haven, and engaged in mereantile pursuits in that city. He was appointed United States consul to Barbados, by President Lincoln. and served several years with honor and distinction. Later in life he had charge of the Treat estate. His wife died April 8, 1877. Their only daughter, Edith Amanda Sperry, was born January 8, 1873.
Nehemiah D. Sperry, our principal subjeet, attended the schools of his native town and for two years was at the private school of Professor Amos Smith, of New Haven. While yet in his 'teens he taught school in several places, receiving the largest salary at that Vol. II-17
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time ever paid a country school teacher in this state. Saving his money lie was able in 1848 to go into business in New Haven, becoming the junior member of the firm of Smith & Sperry, one of the most successful business concerns of the city. His activities were directed along the lines of public improvements. He originated a company for constructing and operating a horse railroad between New Haven and Fair Haven and Westville, and as its president managed its affairs for ten years with energy and discretion. By bis personal efforts during this period he secured a charter for the first borse railroad in the state of Connecticut. For some years Mr. Sperry was a director in several corporations, such as the New Haven & Derby Railroad and the New England Hudson Suspension Bridge Company, and he has always cooperated and assisted in public enterprises.
A strong supporter of the American system of public schools Mr. Sperry, in 1878, vig- orously attacked the action of the New Haven Board of Education in ordering the discon- tinuance of the reading of the Bible in the public schools and succeeded in carrying every ward in the city in favor of the restoration of the Bible in the schools, his logic and fervor, his appeal to the traditions of New England arousing a public sentiment that soon com- pelled the revocation of the order.
Mr. Sperry was a stanch republican and influential in the councils of the party for many years. In early life he was a whig, and on the first organization of the party became a republican. For a time he served in the ranks of the American party, but at the conven- tion of that party in Philadelphia, when it incorporated a proslavery plank in its platform, he unceremoniously bolted. This decided stand for principle made him very popular at home and in 1855 he was nominated for governor of the state. Not having reached the consti- tutional age for the place he was nominated and elected secretary of state that year, and was reelected. In 1856 he attended the national convention of the American party at Phil- adelphia, which placed in nomination ex-President Fillmore. Here again he vigorously op- posed the resolutions on slavery and declined to support the nominees of the party. That year he attended the first national convention of the republican party and gave his warm support to its nominees and principles. He was made chairman of the republican state committee, a position he held during the trying period prior to the Civil war and during its continuance. In the state campaign of 1860 he did much to secure the election of Governor Buckingham and the following year was named as postmaster of New Haven by President Lincoln. In 1864 Mr. Sperry was a member of the national convention held at Baltimore which renominated President Lincoln. At that time he was chosen secretary of the national committee and was made one of the committee of seven whose function was to conduct the campaign of that year. Of this committee of seven he was secretary and one of the most active members. In 1868 he presided at the state convention which nominated the electors who voted for General Grant. Early in 1889, during the first administration of President Cleveland, Mr. Sperry retired from the post office at New Haven, but he was reappointed by President Harrison. The New Haven post office is the most important in the state and an important one in the country. In 1895 Mr. Sperry resigned his office and his fellow citizens without regard to party gave him a complimentary banquet, the largest ever given in the state of Connecticut. It took place at the Hyperion theater.
Mr. Sperry variously served his fellow citizens in official positions. He was selectman of the town of New Haven and alderman of the city. In 1888 he was a delegate to the con- vention that nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presidency and served on the committee on platform. As a public speaker and debater Mr. Sperry possessed great power to move and influence his auditors. He is a strong protectionist and in the celebrated debate before the State Grange in 1887 he was one of two orators selected by the National Protection League to answer for that school. The advocates for free trade selected Daniel A. Wells, Professor Sumner and J. B. Sargent, but only the latter appeared. In the absence of his collegue, Professor Denslow, of New York, Mr. Sperry was likewise left unsupported. The result was a pronounced and admitted victory for Mr. Sperry. Before the general assembly he pre- sented the subject of protection in what was termed the most masterly and scholarly address ever heard on the subject. In 1888 he debated the Mills hill before a large assembly in contro- versy with one of the ablest representatives of that school in the state, and the result was still more creditable. At the national postal convention held at Alexandria Bay, Thou- sand Islands, New York, Mr. Sperry was the orator of the occasion and his address was listened to with admiration and delight.
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In 1866 Mr. Sperry was the nominee of his party for congress from the New Haven distriet, an honor which, for private reasons, he felt impelled to deeline. In 1894 he was again the nominee of his party for congress, was elected by a good majority, and was one of the active, experienced and influential members of that body, being reelected several times.
As a business man Mr. Sperry was successful and for years was a member of the well known house of Sperry & Treat, contractors and builders, of New Haven. He was president of the Quinnipiac Club for many years, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, and also a Mason for over fifty years; he had attained the thirty-third degree in that order.
Mr. Sperry was married in 1847 to Miss Eliza H., a daughter of Willis and Catherine Sperry, of Woodbridge. She died in 1873 and in 1875 he married Miss Minnie B. Newton, a native of Lockport, New York, and a daughter of Erastus and Caroline Newton of that place. Their danghter, Caesara, married Ephraim 1. Frothingham. Mr. Sperry died November 13, 1911.
EVERETT GLEASON HILL.
Everett Gleason Hill, who for twenty-three years has been engaged in newspaper work in Connecticut, was born April 14, 1867, at Madison, this state, a son of Charles Washington and Frances Jane (Foster) Hill. Ile is a descendant in the eighth generation of John Hill, who was born in Northamptonshire, England, and in 1634 emigrated to East Guilford, Connecti- ent, where he passed away June 8, 1689. His son, James Hill, born in East Guilford, there died in March, 1715. He was the father of John Hill. who was born in East Guilford, December 18. 1694, and died in his native city February 15. 1746. John Hill, who was the third of the name in America and the ancestor of Everett G. Hill in the fourth generation, was born at East Guilford, February 23, 1721, and there died July 23. 1786. His son, Abra- ham Hill, born in East Guilford, May 26, 1763, passed away at Madison, Connecticut, Sep- tember 1, 1840. He was the father of Pardon Hill, who was born in East Guilford, December 18, 1786, and died in Madison, December 20, 1848. His son, Charles Washington Hill, father of E. G. Hill, was born in East Guilford, November 24, 1819 and passed away in Madison, January 21, 1881. Ile spent his entire life in Madison and devoted his attention to teaching in the common schools and to farming. For about twenty years he was collector of the town taxes and was prominent and active in community affairs. His wife was born in Mad- ison the year it became a separate town and received its name. Her father was a sea cap- tain in the days when Madison was a port. The death of Mrs. Frances J. Hill oceurred in 1903, she having survived her husband for twenty-two years.
Everett Gleason Hill had a common school education in Madison and was graduated from the Hand high school with the class of 1888. He prepared for college at the Morgan school in Clinton and completed his course there with the class of 1890. Matriculating in Yale as a student in the classical department with the class of 1894, he left college through financial ne- eessity in the middle of his senior year to take up teaching. He had, before fitting for college, taught a year in the Center district school of Madison in 1887, in connection with his last year's studies in the Hand high school. He afterward spent two seasons as a teacher in the evening schools of New Haven while in college. Leaving college, he was for two years teacher in the Northwest distriet school of Hamden, Conneetient. In the fall of 1895 he took up newspaper work as a reporter on New Haven papers and afterward became a reporter on the Bridgeport (Conn.) News. In 1896 he accepted the position of managing editor of the Naugatuck (Conn.) News and the following year became acting city editor of the Waterbury (Conn.) American. In 1899 he was telegraph editor and editorial writer of the New London Day and from 1900 until 1904 was managing editor of the New London Telegraph. IIe devoted the years from 1905 to 1907 to the Middletown (Conn.) Tribune as its publisher and in the latter year became editor of the New Haven Register, a position which he occupied for a decade. Since 1917 he has been an editorial writer on the Hartford (Conn.) Times and thus through all the intervening years he has become widely known in newspaper cireles, being today regarded as one of the leading journalists in Connecticut. He was for five years, from 1910 to 1914, president of the Connectieut Editorial Association.
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On the 2d of September, 1894, in New Haven, Mr. Hill was married to Miss Emily Mabel Paulmier, a danghter of Thomas Bartlett and Mary Gertrude ( Prentiss) Paulnier. Mrs. Hill was born at Upper Red Hook in Dutchess county, New York. Her father was of French Huguenot stock, while her mother belonged to the old Prentiss family of New England. of which Elizabeth Payson Prentiss, the writer, and Seargent Smith Prentiss, the orator, were members. To Mr. and Mrs. Hill have been born four children: Marion Mabel. Esther Gertrude. Ruth Alice and Carlton Everett. Marion M. having graduated from New Haven high school and the State Normal Training School at New Haven, is teaching.
In politics Mr. Hill is a republican but has always believed that there are other parties and other views worthy of consideration and that the rule of the majority is right and that the choice of the majority is entitled to his loyalty. He is not a club or fraternity man, his interests centering in his business, his home and his church. He is a Congregationalist in faith, having membership in Plymouth church of New Haven for a long period but is now a member of the Immanuel Congregational church of Hartford. In October, 1917, he was a delegate to the National Council of the Congregational Churches at Columbus, Ohio.
ROBERT WALLACE.
Few men so fully realized an early ambition as did Robert Wallace. As a young man he became imbued with the desire to excel as a manufacturer and he bent every effort toward that end and the results which he accomplished were even beyond his expectations His start in the business world was most humble but ere the end of his life he had come into possession of those things which men covet and desire as of value.
He was born at Prospect, New Haven county, November 13, 1815, a son of James and Urania (Williams) Wallace. The father was a farmer of Prospeet and was of Scotch and English descent. The grandfather, James Wallace, came from Edinburgh. Scotland. He married an English lady and crossed the Atlantic to try his fortune in the new world, bringing with him the first silk loom in America. This was set up at Blandford, Massachu- setts. He also brought with him a very large library, for those days, and before his death divided it among several towns, his gift constituting the nucleus of what have become large public libraries in each place. A complete list of the books which he brought over is to be found in the Boston public library today. llis death occurred in Blandford, where his grave is yet to be seen.
Robert Wallace acquired a country school education and when eighteen years of age he began the manufacture of spoons in an old grist mill in Cheshire, there setting np his shop. Speaking of this period of his career, a contemporary writer has said: "In the early '30s of the last century an industrious youth used to come over the hills from Cheshire to sell spoons in and about Wallingford. When his stock was sold out he would go back and hammer out a new supply. This was Robert Wallace, founder of the business now known as the R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Company, the largest independent manutacturers of table flatware in the world." About the time that he began hammering out the spoons he learned of a new composition called German silver. From this new metal some spoons had been made which he saw. Upon investigation Mr. Wallace found that Dr. Louis Feuchtwanger, a chemist, had brought a small bar of this metal from Germany. This Robert Wallace purchased and had it rolled in Waterbury, where he also met an Englishman from whom he purchased the formula for making the alloy, and thus he became the first in this country to compound German silver.
Soon afterward he secured a small wooden building on the bank of the Quinnipiac river just below Wallingford and in June, 1835, equipped it with the simple machinery that constituted his working stock at that time. With his removal he was able to increase his output from three dozen to nine dozen spoons per day and from that initial point in his business career his progress was rapid and continuous. As early as 1855 the business represented an investment of twelve thousand dollars and something of the steady growth is indicated in the fact that in 1865 the company was incorporated and capitalized for one hundred thousand dollars. At that time the incorporation was made under the name of Wallace. Simpson & Company but in 1871 Robert Wallace purchased the interest of Mr.
ROBERT WALLACE
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Simpson and admitted his two sons to a partnership under the present firm style of the R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Company. During the fifty-seven years which followed since his purchase of that historie bar of German silver there was great progress made in connection with the silver industry. At all times. Mr. Wallace retained his position of leadership in connection with the eraft and the business which he established and to which he devoted his entire life became the largest independent manufactory of silverware in the world. He became a close student of methods and as a result of his skill and his inventive genius there were produced a large number of improvements on machinery that are in use today.
During the quarter of a century that has passed since his death the business has continued to expand at even a greater pace than in preceding years until today the factory consists of buildings with a total floor space of three hundred and fifty thousand square feet and covering a traet of six aeres. The business now gives employment te about thirteen hundred operatives, mostly skilled labor. With the growth of the business the variety of the products has naturally increased. Beginning with only German silver spoons, they now cover the wide range of sterling silver flatware, hollow-ware, toilet ware and novelties, hotel silver and reproductions of old Sheffield plate. Following the death of Robert Wallace, his son, Frank A. Wallace, succeeded to the presideney, while H. L. Wallace is the secretary and C. W. Leavenworth, a grandson of the founder, is the treasurer.
On the 23d of March, 1839, Mr. Wallace was married to Miss Lonisa Moulthrop, of North Haven, Connecticut, and their children were as follows: William J., deecased; Nettie A., the widow of W. J. Leavenworth, of Wallingford, also deceased; Robert E., who resided in Brooklyn but has passed away; Hattie E .; Henry L., of Wallingford; Adella C., the wife of J. W. Sissen, of New York: George W., late of Chicago, who has departed this life; and Frank A., of Wallingford.
The death of Mr. Wallace occurred June 1, 1892. He was plain and unassuming to a marked degree, declined all publie honors and dreaded publicity. He took the keenest interest, however, in public affairs and while he would never accept publie office, his business activities constituted a most important element in the development, upbuilding and progress of Wallingford. His life work was indeed of great worth to the world and his memory is revered and honored by all who knew him.
GEORGE EDWIN EVANS. M. D.
Dr. George Edwin Evans, who for twenty years has engaged in the practice of med- ieine in Branford as a representative of the homeopathie school, was horn in Rochester, New Hampshire, September 4, 1868, a son of Edward E. and Mary Abby (Vickery ) Evans. The father is also a native of Rochester, New Hampshire, and has made farming his life work, still remaining at the place of his nativity. His wife died when their son, George E., was but four years of age.
Upon the home farm Dr. George E. Evans was reared with the usual experiences of the farmbred boy. He supplemented his district school education by study in the Rochester high school with the elass of '90. and in the Brewster Free Academy; then, having deter- mined upon a professional career as a life work, he entered the New York Homeopathie Medical College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1896. Ilis early professional ex- perience came to him as interne in Grace Hospital at New Haven and on the 9th of April, 1897, he opened his office in Branford, where he has now remained in practice through two decades. He is thoroughly alert, enterprising and progressive. In order to attain a higher degree of proficiency in his profession he has taken considerable post-graduate work in the Post Graduate Hospital of New York city. He is a keen and discriminating student of new medieal and surgical methods and is a very successful physician, readily and ac- curately applying his broad seientifie knowledge to the specifie needs of individual cases, his success resting upon his sound judgment in these matters. He belongs to the Con- nectient Homeopathie Medical Association and was honored with its presidency in 1915-16. He is also a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy.
In September, 1898, Dr. Evans was married to Miss Melvena Estelle Coolidge. of East
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River, New Haven county, who was there born, a daughter of Horace P. and Mary (Tuthill) Coolidge, who were natives of the state of New York but became residents of East River in early life. Dr. and Mrs. Evans have two children, Marion Frances and Edward Coolidge.
In his political views Dr. Evans has always been a stalwart republican, never falter- ing in his allegiance to the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He belongs to Widows Son Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., or Branford; to Pulaski Chapter, R. A. M .; and to Crawford Council, R. & S. M., of Fairhaven. Actuated in all that he does by a spirit of enterprise, he has made continuous progress in his profession until he occupies an enviable position among the most able and successful homeopathic practitioners in his sec- tion of the state.
WILLIAM BRYANT PLACE.
William Bryant Place is living on a farm of sixty-five aeres at Northford but has prac- tically retired from active business. For sixteen years he was foreman for the Winchester ( artridge Company and was for a long period superintendent of the Peters Cartridge Com- pany in Ohio, but returned to Connecticut and since 1908 has resided at his present place in Northford. giving general supervision to the farm work in order to be out of doors. lle has passed the seventy-sixth milestone on life's journey, his birth having occurred in Stam- ford, New York. January 21, 1841, his parents being Welcome F. and Louise (Tucker) Place. The father was born in Stamford, New York, where he learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed for many years at Stamford and subsequently at Pleasant Valley, New York There his wife died and he afterward retired from active business, taking up his abode in the home of his daughter at Stevenson, near what is now Derby, Connecticut, and there he passed away. To him and his wife were born seven children. five of whom are living: Wil- liam Bryant; George F., a resident of Buffalo, New York: Emma. the wife of James H. Wheeler. of Stevenson, Connectient: Joshna; and Temperance, who is living in Syracuse, New York.
William B. Place. after acquiring his education at Pleasant Valley. New York. devoted some attention to farm work and was also employed in a cotton factory at Pleasant Valley in his young manhood. He then began learning the trade of a machinist in the works of the Sedgwick Machine Company at Poughkeepsie. New York, but while thus engaged he put aside all business and personal considerations in order to respond to the country's eall for troops, enlisting as a member of Company C. One Hundred and Fiftieth New York Volunteer Infantry. in 1861. He later joined Company F of the Sixtieth New York Volunteer In- fantry, with which he served throughout the Civil war. He first joined the army on the outbreak of hostilities between the north and the south, and continued at the front until victory crowned the Union arms, receiving an honorable discharge at Ogdensburg. New York. He participated in many hotly contested engagements, including the battle of Gettysburg. When the war was over Mr. Place returned to Poughkeepsie and again entered the employ of the Sedgwick Machine Company, with which he remained until 1867, when he went to New Haven, where he was superintendent of machinery in the paper shell department of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company for sixteen years. Ile resigned that position to become superintendent of the American Buckle & Cartridge Company at West Haven, where he re- mained for three years. The company then sold out to the combine and Mr. Place became superintendent of the Peters Cartridge Company, which was then organized. a plant being built at Kings Mills, Ohio. He continued at that location as superintendent until his health failed and he resigned. In 1906 he returned to West Haven. Connectiont. but his health continued poor and in 1908. in order to live in the country, he bought his present farm. a highly improved place of sixty-five acres in Northford. on the state road. Here he makes his home, performing such tasks as he feels inclined to undertake, while his son operates the farm.
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