Jerry Wheelock
| Jerry Wheelock | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 19, 1784 Uxbridge, Massachusetts, USA |
| Died | October 10, 1861 (aged 77) Uxbridge, Massachusetts, USA |
| Occupation | Textile pioneer at Uxbridge |
| Known for | Early American Textile Pioneer |
| Spouse(s) | Sukey Day |
| Children | Charles A Wheelock |
| Parent(s) | Simeon Wheelock and Deborah (Thayer) Wheelock |
Jerry Wheelock (1784–1861) was an early industrial pioneer in the Blackstone Valley of Massachusetts, a region that incubated the early American industrial revolution.
He was the youngest son of Simeon and Deborah Thayer Wheelock of Uxbridge, MA, and was born September 19, 1784 at Uxbridge. He was a sixth generation descendent of the first Wheelock settler, Rev. Ralph Wheelock. The Rev. Ralph Wheelock of Dedham, MA who had been a contemporary of John Milton at Oxford University and who was a Puritan minister in the 1630s, had been the first to establish public education in America. Jerry was the youngest of eight in the Wheelock family at Uxbridge and was born just after the end of the Revolutionary War.
His father Simeon, had been a blacksmith, the town clerk, and a Lieutenant at Lexington and Concord in the Massachusetts Militia which preceded the more organized Continental Army. His father Simeon was killed in war action around two years after Jerry's birth. Simeon died in September 1786 at the age of 45 when his horse slipped on the ice while engaged in the suppression of Shays' Rebellion in Springfield.
His mother, who raised him primarily by herself, became his principal teacher, although Uxbridge had a basic school since 1732. At an early age Jerry was "put out to learn a trade" as a maker of tubs, and pails.
There was plentiful "bog" iron ore in Uxbridge, and at least three local forges for metal working and a working triphammer established by Caleb Handy at Ironstone, Massachusetts. In 1810/1811 Daniel Day completed the first woolen mill at Uxbridge in 1809, a town that one day would be headquarters and next in line to become America's largest woolen company. Jerry married Sukey Day, the daughter of Daniel and Sylvia (Wheelock) Day in January 1811.
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