Jeremiah Colegrove (31 July 1758 – 26 August 1836) was born to William Colegrove in

Scituate, Rhode Island Scituate () is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 10,384 at the 2020 census. History Scituate was first settled in 1710 by emigrants from Scituate, Massachusetts. The original spelling of the town's nam ...

. A man of giant stature, both physically and in the community, he was a prominent

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

and

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...

. Jeremiah served in the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolu ...

and helped to found the city of

North Adams, Massachusetts North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the home of the largest contemporar ...

Family

Jeremiah Colegrove, who became a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

during the American Revolution, was the grandson of Stephen Colegrove, Esq., an early leader in the town of

Foster, Rhode Island Foster is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, in the United States. The population was 4,469 at the 2020 census. History Foster was originally settled in the 17th century by British colonists as a farming community. In the year 1662, ...

. Jeremiah married Lydia Waterman and had at least one recorded son, Jeremiah Colegrove Jr., also of North Adams, Massachusetts, who would follow his father into the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and become a

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

. General Jeremiah Jr. lived and died in a mansion on Main Street.

North Adams

Jeremiah Colegrove moved to what became the

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...

town of

, in 1780. ''The Daily News'' of

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...

, said of North Adams in 1890: :"The real prosperity of the Town had its birth in the introduction of the first machinery for carding

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

, in 1801, when one carding-machine was put into Jeremiah Colegrove’s Grist-mill… Captain Colegrove erected a two-story mill on the east bank of the south branch, where the Phoenix mill now stands, for wool carding, cloth fulling, and cloth dressing; and he successfully carried on the business for fifteen years, despite the energetic competition of David Estes, who succeeded Roger Wing in the River Street mill..." Captain Jeremiah Colegrove, along with others including Benjamin Sibley, formed "The Adams North Village Cotton & Woollen Manufacturing Company".

References

*''The History and Genealogy of the COLEGROVE FAMILY in America'', 1894, by William Colegrove {{DEFAULTSORT:Colegrove, Jeremiah 1758 births 1836 deaths Farmers from Massachusetts Rhode Island militiamen in the American Revolution People from North Adams, Massachusetts People of colonial Rhode Island Continental Army officers from Rhode Island American city founders People from Scituate, Rhode Island Military personnel from Massachusetts

Family

North Adams

See also

References