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.
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.
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.
[2] Carding machine manufacture in Worcester County began with Pliny Earle I at Leicester, MA, (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.