Joseph Earl Sheffield (1793-1882)
Cotton Exporter & Railroad President, of New Haven, Connecticut
He was a merchant and financier of New Haven and New York. He was impressed by the prospects of Mobile, Alabama, then a town of about 20,000 inhabitants still lacking a bank or any extensive trade, but at the outlet of two great rivers reaching into rich cotton country. He entered the cotton trade, established important business connections in New Orleans, New York, Liverpool and Le Havre, and became the port's largest exporter, shipping 20,000 bales in one year. He went on to serve as president of two railways and founded the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University.
