He was the youngest son of Simeon and Deborah Thayer Wheelock of Uxbridge, Master of Arts, and was born September 19, 1784 at Uxbridge. 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.
He was a sixth generation descendent of the first Wheelock settler, Review Ralph Wheelock. 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. in the Carding machine company first established near the junction of the West and Blackstone Rivers.
After a few years, Jerry worked for Artemus Dryden of Holden, Master of Arts, which manufactured Carding machines near Worcester, Master of Arts the county seat.
Carding machine manufacture in Worcester County began with Pliny Earle I at Leicester, Master of Arts, (near Holden), as early as the 1780s. Jerry then was employed with the newly formed Rivulet Manufacturing company, founded by Chandler Taft in North Uxbridge in 1814, and worked his way up to Superintendent. He later struck out on his own and manufactured his own machinery at Uxbridge until 1833 (age 49).
The Blackstone Valley would later be known as a historic corridor of national significance to America"s earliest industrialization.
The woolen mill started by Daniel Day and Jerry Wheelock continues today, two centuries later, under the name of Berrocco Incorporated. a yarn distribution company, with headquarters for many years in the Elmdale section of Uxbridge, where Daniel and Jerry started the first woolen mill. More recently it has since moved to nearby North Smithfield, Rhode Island.
Jerry died at Uxbridge on October 10, 1861 at the age of 77.
