Deciding to go into business for himself, Jerome began to make cases, trading them to Terry for wooden movements.

In 1822 Jerome moved his business to Bristol, opening a small shop with his brother Noble, producing 30-hour and eight-day wooden clocks.

Three years later, following a fire that destroyed the Bristol plant, Jerome relocated the entire operation to the Elm City.

Because of his discovery of a method of stamping rather than using casting gears, Jerome was producing the lowest-priced clocks in the world at the time.

Jerome was a young boy when his father died, on October 5, 1804, and was forced to work in apprenticeship with salesmen.

In one event, when walking around Bethlehem, Connecticut, to get to Torrington with his master, he noted how close he was to his mother in Plymouth, that night he made a run for it, running about twenty miles through woods, properties, farms, and in one case chased by dogs for a few miles, finally met his mother the next morning in Plymouth, the moment he contacted her, he realized it was morning and had to leave.

He was victim of war at New Haven Fort, and when finished, he moved back to Plymouth to start an apprenticeship with Eli Terry.

The shop owners understood that Eli Terry's pillar and scroll clocks were "garbage" and never worked (because wooden gears warp overseas, causing poor time keepers).