USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 7 > Part 36
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SPERRY, Nehemiah Day, Man of Enterprise, Statesman.
Hon. Nehemiah Day Sperry was dur- ing a long and eventful career one of the most enterprising men of his State, fore- most in advancing its commercial, manu- facturing and transportation interests. He was also a national legislator of far more than ordinary ability.
The Sperry family descends from Rich- ard Sperry, a native of England, who is of record in West Haven as early as Janu- ary 4, 1643. He came presumably as agent for the Earl of Warwick, and was the last friend and benefactor of the regicides, Goffe and Whalley, who for a time took refuge in "The Judges' Cave," adjoining the Sperry home. In the fifth generation, Enoch Sperry, of Wood- bridge, was a town official and established various small factories. Lucien Wells Sperry, son of Enoch Sperry, with his brother. Stiles D. Sperry, was an enter- prising man, a director in banks and rail- road companies, mayor of New Haven, and State Senator. He married Harriet A., daughter of Enos Sperry, of West- ville.
Nehemiah Day Sperry, son of Lucien Wells Sperry, was born in Woodbridge, July 10, 1827, and died in 1911. After attending a common school he entered Professor Amos Smith's private school in New Haven, and before reaching his ma- jority taught school in various places, re- ceiving the largest salary then paid in the State to a country teacher. In 1848 he became a member of the building and contracting firm of Smith & Sperry, and
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with which he was connected to the end of his life. He early gave his attention to public improvements, and was the or- ganizer and president of a horse railway company whose lines connected New Haven, Fair Haven and Westville. He was also a director in various corpora- tions, among them the New Haven & Derby railroad and the New England Hudson Suspension Bridge companies.
Originally a Whig in politics, he sepa- rated from the party when it incorporated in its platform a pro-slavery plank. His determined stand for principle gave him great popularity, and in 1855 he was nominated for Governor, but was ex- cluded, not having reached the constitu- tional age. However, he was made Sec- retary of State of the Commonwealth, and was reelected. In 1856 he attended the national convention of the American party, where he vigorously opposed the resolutions on the slavery question, and refused to be bound. In the same year he attended the first national convention of the newly formed Republican party, with which he was ever after actively identified, and was made chairman of the Republican State Committee, and during the Civil War period served as such with ability and courage. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him postmaster of New Haven, which position he held until 1889, when he was removed by President Cleveland under the charge of "pernicious political activity." He was reappointed by President Harrison, and Postmaster- General Wanamaker commended his office as one of the four in the country which led all others in general efficiency, and the Attorney-General pronounced its management as "Washing Monument high." In 1864 Mr. Sperry sat in the Re- publican National Convention which re- nominated President Lincoln, was made secretary of the national committee, and
one of a committee of seven to manage the campaign. In 1866 he declined a nomination for Congress. In 1868 he pre- sided over the State Convention, and in 1888 was a delegate to the convention which nominated General Harrison for the presidency.
In 1894 Mr. Sperry was elected to Con- gress, the first Republican from the Sec- ond District in twenty-five years, and he was reëlected for seven consecutive terms, sixteen years in all, at the end of which he voluntarily retired, his service being longer than that of any Congress- man in the district. He was long a mem- ber of the committee on post offices and post roads, a post for which his experi- ence most amply fitted him. He was called the father of rural free delivery ; he was a member of the post office com- mittee when the service was established, and some of the first rural routes in the country were in his own county. While in Congress he secured many improve- ments for harbors and rivers in his dis- trict; the New Haven breakwater was completed, and the harbor permanently improved by widening and deepening the channels and docks; the Connecticut river was placed on a permanent basis ; the har- bor at Duck Island was completed ; and smaller harbors such as Branford, Mil- ford and others were improved. When Mr. Sperry first entered Congress, there were in the State but two government buildings, at New Haven and Middle- town, both old and out-of-date. At his retirement, many public buildings had been erected or authorized-at Water- bury, Meriden, Ansonia, Naugatuck, Wallingford, Seymour, as well as new edifices in New Haven and Middletown.
Mr. Sperry took an active part in ad- vocacy of the Dingley and Payne tariff laws. He strongly supported the protec- tion of American labor and manufactures.
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and also held to reciprocity principles, one of his last public acts being to vote for the reciprocity treaty with Canada. At his retirement from Congress, he was the oldest man in that body, and his col- leagues held him in a respect approaching reverence, as a connecting link between that day and the days of Lincoln. He possessed exceptional powers as an ora- tor and convincing speaker. A strong supporter of the public school system, he denounced the discontinuance of Bible reading in the schools, and effected a revocation of the order. As a Protec- tionist, in 1888 he was one of the two speakers selected by the National Protec- tion League to speak in the great debate before the State Grange, and won a notable victory over certain great intel- lects. His speech on protection later be- fore the General Assembly, was pro- nounced the most masterly ever heard upon that subject. In the same year he debated the Mills tariff bill before a large assembly, against one of the ablest free- trade advocates in the State ; and grow- ing out of this was his article on "The Advantages of Protection" in the Hart- ford "Christian Secretary." of which four hundred thousand copies were circulated, it afterward appearing in pamphlet form.
Mr. Sperry married (first) in 1847, Eliza H., daughter of Willis and Cath- erine Sperry, of Woodbridge; she died in 1873. He married (second) in 1875, Min- nie B., daughter of Erastus and Caroline Newton, of Lockport New York. His only daughter, Caesara A., became the wife of Ephraim I. Frothingham.
WARREN, Herbert C., Inventor, Manufacturer.
When a little party of Pilgrims crossed the sea nearly three hundred years ago, the steel and iron implements and devices
which they brought to the new country were few in number and crude in design. They fulfilled but rudely the purposes for which they were needed. But the Pil- grims came with the spirit of pioneers, blazing paths, making homes for those who should come after them. They did not dream of the marvelous tools and ine- chanisms which their descendants were to produce. This was not because they lacked faith in the future of the Nation and people they were founding, but be- cause the marvels among which we move with such calm indifference were still un- revealed. The opening of this new era of invention and achievement was the nat- ural outcome of the bitter necessities which drove the pioneers to exercise their ingenuity to provide implements and weapons for building their homes in the forests and protecting them from the depredations of wild beasts and unfriendly Indians. From those early handwrought products to the present triumphs of me- chanical genius may be a far cry ; but the one was the beginning, and there is no end. Herbert C. Warren, of the Mutual Machine Company, of Hartford, Connec- ticut, has given the world some of the most wonderful, as well as the most prac- tical, devices which the present genera- tion has produced.
Long before the first Warren came to America the name was famous in Eng- land. The first of the name was William de Warrene, a nobleman, who distin- guished himself under William the Con- queror, and was rewarded by that mon- arch by the title, Earl of Surrey. An ancient genealogy traces the family line- age back to the year 900 A. D., when the Scandinavians are said to have settled Normandy. The family is traced to a Norman Baron, of Danish extraction. His son, Herfastus, had a daughter who mar- ried Walter de St. Martin. Their son,
ConD-7-17
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William de Warrene, Earl of Warren in Normandy, married a daughter of Ralph de Tosta. Another daughter, Gundred, married Richard, Duke of Normandy. Their son, Richard, Duke of Normandy, was the father of William the Conqueror, King of England, who married Maud, daughter of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders. Their daughter, Gundred, married Wil- liam de Warrene, first Earl of Warren and Surrey. His name is given in the Domesday Book as owning land in al- most every county in England, or one hundred and thirty-nine lordships. Earl William Warren chose the village of Lewes, County of Surrey, for the site of his beautiful castle, of massive construc- tion, the ruins of which are still to be seen. He and his wife, Gundred, built the Lewes priory, and largely sustained it during the remainder of his lifetime. He died in 1088, and she survived him for three years. They were first interred in the Lewes convent, built by Henry VIII., but in 1775 their remains were removed to Southover Church.
(I) From Earl William Warren, seven- teen generations in direct descent bring us to Richard Warren, the progenitor of this family in America. He was born in England, and came from England in the historic "Mayflower," among the little company of Pilgrims which founded Plymouth in 1620. He was one of the nineteen signers of the famous contract who survived the first winter. He was very highly respected as a leader among them. He received several land grants, one at Warren's Cove. He died at Plym- outh in 1628. His wife, Elizabeth (Jonatt) Warren, whom he married in England, followed him to America in 1623, with her five daughters. She died at Plymouth, October 2, 1673, aged about ninety years.
(II) Nathaniel Warren, the first of their children born in America, and the
elder of their two sons, was born in Plym- outh in 1624, and died in 1667. As he was one of the earliest children born in the colony, he had a special grant of land set off for him. During his lifetime he added much land to his holdings by pur- chase, and became a very prominent man. He served as selectman, as highway sur- veyor, as representative to the General Court, and also served in the militia. He married Sarah Walker, in November, 1645, and she died in 1700.
(III) Richard (2) Warren, eldest son of Nathaniel Warren, was born in Plym- outh in 1646, and died in Middleboro, Massachusetts, January 23, 1697. He set- tled in Middleboro soon after the close of King Philip's War. His wife's Christian name was Sarah.
(IV) Samuel Warren, son of Richard (2) Warren, was born March 7, 1682-83, and died in 1750. He was a large land- holder in Nantasket. He gave fine lands to his children. He married, January 26, 1703, Eleanor, daughter of Israel and Hannah (Glass) Billington. Both were admitted to Middleboro church, July 6, 1729.
(V) Comel Warren, second son of Sam- uel Warren, was born June 12, 1709, in Middleboro, and died about 1750. He re- ceived land from his father, June I, 1739. He married, January 18, 1732, at Plym- outh, Mercy, daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Pope) Ward.
(VI) Joseph Warren, son of Comel Warren, born about 1733, was received by letter into the Ashfield church from Mid- dleboro, August 4, 1771. He married, August 3, 1756, Mercy Perkins, of Bridge- water.
(VII) Benjamin Warren, son of Jo- seph Warren, married Hannah Meacham.
(VIII) George W. Warren, son of Benjamin Warren, was born April 10, 1824, at Ashford, Massachusetts. He
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came to New Hartford, Connecticut, when a young man, and became overseer in a cotton mill there. Later he engaged in the shoemaking business in that town, and continued in that business until his death. When the Civil War broke out he was fired with enthusiastic patriotism and enlisted. August 7, 1862, in Company F, Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery. He was a member of Edwin R. Lee Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of New Hartford, and past commander. He mar- ried Julia A. Hawley, daughter of Oliver and Anna (Coy) Hawley. She was born in Granby, Connecticut. Of their seven children six grew to maturity : Rena H., who married Charles H. Hall; Herbert C., of whom further; Elton E .; William G .: Fred: and Georgiana, who married Charles Bensted, and resided in a suburb of London, England.
(IX) Herbert C. Warren, son of George W. and Julia A. (Hawley ) Warren, was born in Windsor, Connecticut, October 6, 1846. He received his education in the public schools of New Hartford. He then came to Hartford, and worked about two years for the firm of P. Jewell & Sons, belting manufacturers. He went next to Pratt & Whitney, where he completed his apprenticeship at the machinist's trade, after which he continued there for some years, handling a small contract. He then entered the employ of Mr. Swazey, who later became a member of the well known firm of Warner & Swazey. Mr. Warren acted as foreman under Mr. Swazey for six or seven years, then succeeded Mr. Swazey when the latter left Pratt & Whit- ney to go West. But Mr. Warren is a man with higher ambitions than those of the workman who considers a job a com- plete and satisfying career. In 1900 he started in business for himself, with E. R. Faxon for a partner, under the present name. Mutual Machine Company. That
arrangement continued until Mr. Faxon died, when Mr. Warren bought out his interest from the estate. The business was then incorporated, and still stands a close corporation, Mr. Warren's sons be- ing the other shareholders.
No list of Hartford inventors would be complete without the name of Herbert C. Warren. He has taken out many patents of broadly practical value. Among the more important may be mentioned a ma- chine for correcting indexes, and an auto- matic universal gear cutter. He has been to Europe twice in connection with the manufacture and sale of the latter ma- chine. He has also patented many smaller devices, among them a universal joint adapted to all kinds of machines. This device is used in practically every large machinery plant in the country. In all this work Mr. Warren is eminently prac- tical, and the plant, through all its de- partments, is keyed to that note. With his expert eye on every piece of work that goes through the factory, the final result is that nothing leaves their hands until it has reached perfection. The sons, working side by side with their father, hold far more than a casual interest in the success of the business, and it has come to be a business of importance not only to Hartford, but the country-at-large. Mr. Warren is a member of Charter Oak Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Ma- sons.
Mr. Warren married Laovne .A. Allen, daughter of Alonzo and Rachel (Wheeler) Allen, of Coventry, Connecticut. Of their children the following have come to ma- turity : 1. Alonzo W., director of the Mu- tual Machine Company, and secretary, manager and director of the Hodgman Rubber Company of New York : lives in New York City. 2. Gertrude R., who married James Wallace, and has two chil- dren, Donald and Raymond. 3. Harold
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C., manager of the Mutual Machine Com- pany, also secretary and director. Mrs. Warren died in February, 1912. She was a member of the Congregational church in Coventry. Personally, Mr. Warren is a man whom it is a pleasure to know. He is interested in all lines of progress, as well as the particular work to which he has given the best years of his life ; a man with a heart and soul as well as a brilliant mind.
WHITTAKER, Robert, Journalist.
Robert Whittaker was born February I, 1861, in Thurles, Ireland, a son of the late Henry and Anne (Livingstone) Whittaker, and the eldest child of his father's second marriage. Coming to Stamford in 1869, Robert Whittaker at- tended a public school situated near St. John's Park, the principal being Sipsco Stevens. When he was thirteen years of age, preparing for entrance to the high school, he was encouraged by Mr. Stevens to take an examination for the second- year . class, and was the only pupil from the graded schools who passed it. He spent only a year in high school, leaving it to learn the printer's trade. He de- veloped a taste for writing, and studied stenography. In the early eighties, he was foreman in the office of the Stamford "Herald," a weekly paper, and also wrote most of its local news. In 1884 he went to Port Chester to take charge of the Port Chester "Enterprise," a weekly paper started with New York capital, from which grew the Port Chester "Daily Item." Desiring to obtain a better train- ing in newspaper work than could be had on a country paper, he obtained employ- ment in New York, in 1887, doing con- siderable work for the "Sun," the "World" and the "Herald," and being for about
three years employed by the "Evening Post." Here he had an opportunity to see how the various departments of a daily newspaper are conducted. Part of his work in New York was in the capacity of a proof-reader, which was an educa- tion in itself. In 1891, having again be- come a resident of Stamford, he received a proposition from Gillespie Brothers to perform work upon "Picturesque Stam- ford," a book issued for the celebration of the town's anniversary, the understand- ing being that, when this work was com- pleted, he was to take charge of the news department of a contemplated daily edi- tion of the "Advocate," which had been in existence as a weekly since 1829. He accepted this offer chiefly because he had a deep affection for Stamford. The story of his life since April 4, 1892, the date of the first issue of "The Daily Advocate," is bound up with that of the newspaper, in whose progress he has had a large share as managing editor. In the early days of the paper, he did practically all of the re- porting, and later, when the town grew and the paper had a considerable staff, he found time to do a large amount of writ- ing in addition to his work as an editor. In 1893 he started a feature known as "Live Local Topics" for the Saturday edition of the paper. With the exception of a few weeks, which he spent in vaca- tions to Europe, this department has been a regular Saturday feature, read perhaps more than any other in the paper.
Besides his work, of which the news- paper has afforded evidence each day, he has found time to do considerable corre- spondence for other newspapers. He has written numerous poems, some of which have been published in other form than the newspaper, and many essays on his- torical, social, political and industrial sub- jects, and has delivered numerous lectures and speeches. He has served as a mem-
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ber of the Common Council, the School Committee and the Park Commission, and has been identified with important civic movements. He was for about twenty years secretary of the Board of Trade. He has been since 1902 a mem- ber of the vestry of St. John's Church, and clerk of the parish, also serving as clerk of St. John's Church House Corpor- ation, and filling other positions in church work. Hle was secretary of the general committee for the celebration of the town's Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anni- versary in 1892, and was chairman of the general committee in charge of the Two Hundred and Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the town in 1916. He is a trustee of the Ferguson Library, a director of the Associated Charities, and a corporator of the Stamford Hospital. For several years he has been a member of the Republican town committee, and has been a delegate to various conventions. He made nomi- nating speeches at two conventions at which the Hon. Schuyler Merritt was nominated for representative in Congress for the Fourth District. He is a mem- ber of Puritan Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of the Mac- cabees, and several other societies.
Mr. Whittaker was married, October 12, 1882, to Emma, daughter of the late John W. and Delia (Dixon) Parker. Their surviving child is Dora, wife of John Milton Stewart, of Andover, Mas- sachusetts, born August 5, 1883. Their second child. Jean Parker, who was wife of Charles Russell Waterbury, of Stam- ford, died September 13, 1916, leaving a daughter, Jean.
BARBER, George Harvey, Educator, Agriculturist.
There has been a close connection be- tween the two strong Connecticut fami-
lies, Barber and Stiles, Thomas Barber coming at the age of twenty-one years from London in the ship "Christian," in the party fitted out by Rev. Richard Sal- tonstall under Francis Stiles, a master carpenter. They sailed March 16, 1835. and arriving safely, settled in Windsor, Connecticut ; the same year Thomas Bar- ber had land granted him and was a ser- geant in the Pequot War and distin- guished himself for bravery. He was a man of strong convictions, but liberal in his views and ready to defend his opin- ions. He was impulsive and energetic, but with an uprightness of character that won him the respect of his neighbors. He died September 11, 1662, his wife dying the preceding day. They were the par- ents of sons : John, Thomas, Samuel, and Josiah, all of whom married and reared families. It was from this brave old In- dian fighter, Thomas Barber, that George Ilarvey Barber, sprang, he a son of Har- vey and Hannah (Stiles) Barber, and grandson of Wolcott Barber.
Harvey Barber, a farmer of South Windsor, Connecticut, was there born, July 30. 1792. He married, March 8, 1815, Hannah Stiles, born December 24, 1792. She was a descendant of John (1) Stiles, who was baptized in St. Michael's Church, Milbroke, Bedfordshire, England, Decem- ber 25, 1595. John Stiles settled in Wind- sor, Connecticut, at the age of forty years, and there died, June 4, 1662-63, aged sixty- seven years. His widow, Rachel, died September 3. 1674. The line of descent from John (1) Stiles to Hannah (Stiles) Barber is through the founder's second son John (2) Stiles, born in England about 1633, who was brought to Wind- sor, Connecticut, and there resided until his death about 1883. He married Dor- cas Burt. The line continues through their son, John (3) Stiles, an actual set- tler and first of his name on the east side
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of the Great River, then known as Wind- sor Farms. He married (first) Ruth Ban- croft, and they were the parents of Lieu- tenant John (4) Stiles, who resided in that part of the old town of Windsor now known as Scantic parish in the present town of West Windsor. He married Mary Osborn. Israel Stiles, son of Lieutenant John (4) and Mary (Osborn) Stiles, mar- ried Martha Rockwell, and they were the parents of Benoni Stiles, a farmer of East Windsor, Connecticut, and a Revolution- ary soldier. Benoni Stiles married Han- nah Harper, and died January 1, 1820, his widow surviving him until August 16. 1853, being then eighty-eight years of age. They were the parents of Hannah Stiles, who married Harvey Barber. They were the parents of three children : George Harvey, of further mention; James Stiles, born June 15, 1818; and Edward Wolcott, June 20, 1821.
George Harvey Barber, born in South Windsor, Connecticut, February 25, 1816, died in Thompsonville, Connecticut, Oc- tober 20, 1893. He obtained his educa- tion in the district schools, and until reaching the age of twenty-five engaged in farming. He had kept up his studies, however, and about 1841 he began teach- ing, continuing this occupation for about ten years in Thompsonville, Connecticut, schools. He continued teaching until 1861, when he returned to his first occu- pation, and for several years operated a farm on Enfield street, Thompsonville. Later he opened a meat market in Thomp- sonville, and there resided until his death. He was a director of the Thompsonville Trust Company, and an attendant of the Congregational church.
Mr. Barber married, in Enfield, Con- necticut, October 24, 1839, Silena Matilda Henry, born in Enfield, Connecticut, July 4, 1820, her parents later moving to En- field. Her father, Parsons Henry, was a
soldier in the War of 1812, a farmer and a tobacco grower. He married Hannah Bicknell. Mr. and Mrs. Barber are the parents of two daughters: 1. Ellen Han- nah, born January 18, 1842 ; married, Oc- tober 20, 1864, Royal A. Fowler, Jr., born in August, 1833, died December 13, 1867 ; son, George Barber Fowler, born June 25, 1867, died November 23, 1915; graduated from law department of Yale, 1888; prac- ticed law in Hartford for a few years, then moved to Detroit, where he resided for the remainder of his life; married, May 18, 1899, Grace Mary Filer, who died June 5, 1912; children: Barbara, born March 23, 1900, died aged six months ; Delos Royal Filer, born May 10, 1903. 2. Linna Amelia, of further mention.
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