John N. Sperry (Nashville, TN)

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John N. Sperry (date unknown)

John N. Sperry (September 15, 1830 – March 7, 1917)

Biography

  • Name: John N. Sperry
  • Birth: September 15, 1830 Murfreesboro, TN
  • Death: March 7, 1917 Nashville, TN
  • Spouse: Mattie S. (Barr) Sperry 1841-1898 (Married 1863)

John N. Sperry was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on September 15, 1830, to Louis Sperry and Sarah Colmore (Wade) Sperry. Louis died when John was 8 years old and his mother then moved into the country. John did not receive any formal education, but when he was 12 years old, he went to work under contract, where he would be paid only room and clothing, to a Mr. Huggins of Murfreesboro. Mr. Huggins was John's business tutor and first employer. At age 17, after completing his indenture, he started his own wholesale and retail grocery business in Murfreesboro, and moved the business to Shelbyville, Tennessee when he was 21 years old. On the 1850 census, he is listed as a clerk, living in Murfreesboro. In Shelbyville, he also began a cotton and grain wholesale business. By the census of 1860, he is back living in Nashville and is listed as a grocery merchant.

Around the time of the Civil War, he associated himself with Samuel J. Keith, who was also in the grocery business. Samuel would later become President of both the First National Bank of Nashville, charter 150, and the Fourth National Bank of Nashville, charter 1669. John had to travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, for business and on one of his trips there he met Mattie S. Barr, and she stole his heart. Mattie and John were married sometime in 1863, and he sold his Nashville business and they moved to New York where John became a broker in stocks and bonds. On the New York City census of 1865, they are living with their son in Brooklyn and he is listed as a grocer. At the end of the war, they moved back to Cincinnati, where an 1866 advertisement places him in a grocery business.

By 1867, John had returned to Nashville, still involved in the grocery and cotton trade. He bought out a partner and named his new company Sperry & Company on November 1, 1867. In November, 1872, he took over a distillery named the Spring Brook Distillery, and involved himself in the whiskey business. He also was dabbling in real estate and construction at this time. On January 15, 1879, he was elected as a Director of the First National Bank of Nashville, where his old friend Samuel J. Keith was President. John was heavily involved in the Merchant's Association of Nashville, serving in various leadership positions. This association was rather like an early Better Business Bureau.

In late August, 1886, John was involved in the organization of a state chartered bank, named the Merchants Bank of Nashville. He was elected President of the bank on September 29, 1886, and the bank opened to the public on October 10, 1886. John remained as President of the Merchants Bank until he resigned on October 1, 1899. John filed his will on August 18, 1899. The city directories of Nashville list John as a capitalist in the first decade of the 20th century. John remained as a Director of the Merchants Bank, and it became the Merchants National Bank of Nashville, charter 6729, on April 20, 1903. It was absorbed by the First National Bank of Nashville on May 15, 1906.

After a few years away from banking, John helped organize the Cumberland Valley National Bank of Nashville, charter 9659, and this bank received its charter on February 9, 1910. John was elected its first President at the age of 79. John led the bank for just under a year and resigned on January 16, 1911. His employment is listed in the 1915 city directory as real estate. John began to experience health problems, and moved in with his daughter, who had married a physician. He died of nephritis at her home on March 7, 1917, at the age of 86. He is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, in Nashville.

Bank Officer Summary

During his banking career, John N. Sperry was involved with the following bank(s):

  • Cumberland Valley NB, Nashville, TN (Charter 9659): President 1910


No bank notes are currently known with J.N. Sperry's signature.


References

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