Thomas Sperry

Thomas Alexander Sperry (July 6, 1864 – September 2, 1913) was the co-founder and the "S" of S&H Green Stamps, together with Shelley Byron Hutchinson of Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Biography Thomas Alexander Sperry was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 6, 1864. He married Kate Major on January 1, 1891.

Sperry's son, also named Thomas, was born in Cranford, New Jersey, in 1898.

Sperry died in New York City at the age of 49 on September 2, 1913, of ptomaine poisoning contracted during the return voyage after a two-month trip to Europe. Sperry was brought ashore in a stretcher and his condition was too bad to travel to his home in Cranford.

Katherine Sperry married Walter Beinecke in 1917. His niece, Carrie Sperry, had married Walter's brother, Frederick Beinecke, in 1912. Their son is William Sperry Beinecke. The family donated land in Cranford to the Rahway River Parkway along the Rahway River. Thomas Sperry was involved with real estate businesses and died in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1973.

Business Together with Hutchinson, Sperry founded the Sperry and Hutchinson Company in 1896. Sperry and Hutchinson started their business in Michigan and became what The New York Times described as "the first independent trading stamp company to distribute stamps and books to merchants". The stamps gained popularity during the early 1900s as the S&H program offered incentives to shoppers, rewarding them for making timely payments in cash, helping to maintain customer loyalty to participating merchants.

Conflict In 1921, Hutchinson sued the estate of Thomas A. Sperry in court in Trenton, New Jersey, alleging that Sperry had defrauded Hutchinson of part of his shares in the company, allowing William Miller Sperry, brother of the founder, to gain control of the firm. Hutchinson alleged that he had been cheated out of $5 million as a result of secret dividends that diverted company funds to Sperry.