Jerome B. Wheeler

Jerome B. Wheeler was president and partner of R. H. Macy & Company in New York City and was an owner of mines, a hotel, and other businesses in Colorado.

Jerome Byron Wheeler was born September 3, 1841 in Troy, New York to Daniel Barker Wheeler and Mary Jones Emerson, both of Massachusetts. His mother was a second cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson. His family moved to Waterford, New York when Wheeler was young. He attended public school there until the age of 15. He obtained a clerical position in 1856. From 1857 to 1861 he pursued mechanical trades "which may have included engineering, mechanical, or machine shop work."

Wheeler enlisted as a private in the 6th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry on his 20th birthday and at the beginning of the Civil War. He trained in Staten Island, New York and was stationed in Washington D.C. before obtaining his horse with the rest of the regiment in Cloud Mills, Virginia. The regiment fought throughout the Shenandoah Valley and during General George McClellan's Peninsular campaign. Wheeler was made second lieutenant under Colonel Thomas Devin and moved up the ranks and was made a colonel. Going against the "wishes of his superiors", Wheeler brought supplies to a group of starving Union Army soldiers who were positioned behind enemy lines. Considering the effort too dangerous, his rank of colonel was "reputedly" revoked. He mustered out of the army in September 1865.

After the war, Wheeler returned to Troy, New York and worked as a bookkeeper. Wheeler moved to New York City about May 1866 and took a clerical position at John F. Barkley and Company, a grain merchant. He worked at Holt and Company, a large flour and grain commission house, starting in 1869 as a bookkeeper. He had several positions before becoming a full partner in the firm after 10 years at the firm.

Wheeler married Harriet Macy Valentine in 1870. She was a descendent of Thomas Macy one of the first European settlers in Nantucket and niece of Rowland Hussey Macy who founded the R.H. Macy and Company, which became a large department store in New York City. In 1879, a few years after Rowland Hussey Macy's death, Charles Webster brought Wheeler in to be a 45% partner in the purchase of the department store. He remained a partner until 1888, when there was stiff competition from other department stores with fruitful advertising campaigns.

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