COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Pg 302

JOEL ANDREW SPERRY, senior member of
the firm of Sperry & Barnes, wholesale provision
dealers and pork packers, New Haven, is in every
sense one of the city's representative business men
and substantial and useful citizens.

Aner Sperry, his grandfather, was born about
1767, and died June 30, 1807. He married Sally,
daug^iter of Asa and Esther (Tuttle) Sperry, bom
April 5, 1770, and died April, 1847.

Noyes Sperry, son of Aner, died in early man-
hood. He married Emeline Beecher, a daughter of
Jesse Beecher, a grandson of the pioneer of that
family, who settled in Woodbridge. She attained
an advanced age, surviving until upwards of ninety-
three.

Joel A. Sperry, son of Noyes and Emeline, was
born July 8, 1827, in Watertown. The father's early
death made it necessary for the son as a lad to be
self-supporting, and to aid in the support of his wid-
owed mother. After the father's death, Joel resided
in the town of Bethany, and until sixteen was em-
ployed on a farm, having only limited school ad-
vantages. As a boy of sixteen years of age, he
came to New Haven to seek his fortune, and time
has proven that he made no mistake, not only find-
ing the object of his mission, but that usefulness as
a citizen that has made his life an example worthy
of imitation by the young men of today, who are be-
ginning a career under as unfortunate circumstances
as surrounded him in the morning of life. The
early hardships in boyhood and young manhood
only served to discipline and develop body^mind and
character.

Young Sperry 's business career in New Haven
was begun in 1843 as a clerk in a retail provision
store. Some ten years later, in 185^. associated
with William Hull, he began business for himself as
a wholesale provision dealer. This partnership con-
tinued for a decade, and so attentive were these
young men to business, and so careful in the man-
agement that they developed a large trade, which
proved renumerative and brought them success,
Mr. Sperry's great energy and force of character
being conspicuous in that success. In 1863, Mr.
Sperry withdrew from the firm and went to New
York City, where he engaged in the same line of
business, and there also were his efforts attended
with success, but in 1S68, he made up his mind he
would retire from active business. Carrying out his
intention, he sold his business and returned to New
Haven. After an interval of a couple of years, he
found that it was difficult, after a life of such great
activity as his had been, to remain inactive, and in
1870, in connection with Mr. E. Henry Barnes and
Mr. Joseph Porter, under the firm name of Sperry
& Barnes, he established the business which from
that day to this, has been conducted by the same con-
cern. Much credit is due the senior member of
the firm for the development and successful conduct
of the affairs of the house, he being from the start,
the principal worker, his long experience giving him
an insight into this line of business and enabling him
to place the concern upon a tirrri basis, and to main-
tain its standing in the commercial world.

In 1870 it was thought a wild and impracticable
idea to think of exporting meat to Europe, but owing
to the experience he had gained during his business
career in New York, Air. Sperry from the first was
a firm advocate of the enterprise, and as a result,
the firm of Sperry & Barnes was among the first
to branch out in this direction in New England and
the first in Connecticut, thereby reaping the abun-
dant harvest that resulted from the exercise of fore-
sight and energy. Ever since these three gentle-
men have been sending to England and the Con-
tinent, the products of their establishments. The
firm is the oldest and most extensive pork packing
house in western Connecticut, the plant being a very
large one, fitted with every modern appliance and
convenience and labor-saving machinery. The busi-
ness gives employment to 300 people and at the
plant are slaughtered annually upward of 200,000
hogs. The products not only go abroad, but are
marketed all over New England and the Middle
States. In later years, w\is added to the old firm
the person of Frank H. Sperry, son of the senior
member. The uniform success which has attended
the efforts of Mr. Joel Andrew Sperry, is to be
credited not only to his remarkable executive ability
and business sagacity, but also to his endeavor to
always put into practice the strictest principles of
intcj^rity and honor. The business men, the patrons
of his house, have ever had confidence in him as
a man.

Mr. Sperry has been in no sense an office seeker
or politician, but has always been interested in public
afl'air^, and as a citizen has exercised his prero,5;ative
as an American citizen, in the advancement of what
ajtpcared in his judgment would conduce to the best
interests of the city, county and State. His integrity
and singlemindedness being so generally recognized,
Mr. Sperry was called upon t'o serve for two terms,
from i860 to 1861, as a member of the board of
Aldermen of New Haven, and was especially instru-
mental in the reorganization of the Police and Fire
Departments, his ideas with regard to improvements
in these particular branches of public service being
very effective, and resulting in greatly enhancing
the efficiency of the members of both departments.
Later, Mr. Sperry served most efficiently as Fire
Commissioner. He is a member of Hiram Lodge,
A. F. & A. M.

On June 24, 1856, Mr. Sperry was married to
Miss Anna Jane Fowler, a daughter of David S.
Fowler, of New Haven. To this union were born :
Frank H., who married Mary Beecher Wells, and
has had two children. Elenor (born in 1889, died in
1897), and Joel A. (born 1886) ; and Effie H. and
Annie, both unmarried.

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