WILLIAM GEORGE JERREMS, JR. (1869-1945)

E-Sylum Feature Writer and American Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith presented a numismatic mystery in his article last week on Alexander Nicoll aka "Nicoll the Tailor". Here's the surprising answer. Thanks! -Editor

Last week I asked a Smarty-Pants question. What is the numismatic connection to Nicoll the Tailor? The answer may appear somewhere in this article.

I will begin the story with William G. Jerrems, Sr. He was born in 1843 in Gainsborough, England, and went to Australia with his parents in 1859. He was married at Gainsborough to Mary Adelaide Nicoll in 1867. She was the daughter of Alexander Nicoll, proprietor of “Nicoll the Tailor.” William sold his printing and publishing business in 1875 to move to America, then London, then New York in 1881 to work for his father-in-law. He died at French Lick, Indiana, on May 4, 1905.

In 1885, Alexander Nicoll retired from the firm of Nicoll the Tailor. He transferred ownership of the New York and eastern stores to his son Donald. He sold the western stores to his son-in-law, William G. Jerrems, Sr. The business became Wm. Jerrems & Sons with Nicoll the Tailor retained as a trade name.

William Jerrems, Jr. was born in Sydney, Australia, on February 5, 1869. He was the son of William George Jerrems, Sr. (1843-1905) and Mary Adelaide Nicoll (1847-1930), the daughter of Nicoll the Tailor. William came to America in 1881 on the ship City of Chester. William Jerrems Jr. managed the distribution center in Chicago.

William had three brothers in the family business. Arthur Wallace Jerrems (1872-1931), studied at Harvard, Alexander Nicoll Jerrems (1874-1948) was a football star at Yale and coach for the Minnesota Golden Gophers before joining the family business, and Donald Edwin Jerrems (1885-1930).

William Jerrems Jr. was married three times. He was married (1) in a small wedding at the home of the bride in Hinsdale, Illinois, to Frances Lee Hinckley (1870-1953) on January 21, 1891, and had a son Walter Hinckley Jerrems (1891-1968). They were later divorced.

He was married (2) in Chicago to Genevieve Byford (1876-1930) on April 21, 1897. The wedding was small at the home of the bride, but a thousand invitations were sent out for the reception. They had a son William George Jerrems III (1904-1969) and a daughter and divorced in 1910 on grounds of desertion.

Genevieve Byford was a scofflaw. In 1907 she was arrested for speeding 21 MPH in Glencoe, Illinois. She paid a fine of $15.

He was married (3) to Anna Phillips Stapler (1886-1953) in about 1913. They had a son, Alexander Stapler Jerrems (1919-1995).

William G. Jerrems began collecting coins in 1882 after moving to America. He got a subscription after seeing the first issue of The Numismatist published by Dr. George Heath. He joined the American Numismatic Association as member #3 following Heath and Charles T. Tatman. During the organization of the club, George Heath appointed him as temporary president at age 22. At an organizational meeting with six attending in Chicago, he was elected 1 st ANA President and served October 7, 1891, to October 5, 1892.

Doctor Heath reported that Jerrems was quite helpful with the early organization of the Association. However, there were no specific contributions mentioned. His limited legacy was as the first president.

It might be remembered that Augustus B. Sage was involved with formation of the American Numismatic Society at age 17. Jerrems was president of the American Numismatic Association at age 22. Perhaps they had discussions at early meetings about how to get older members involved.

Jerrems advertised in The Numismatist under the name of Nicoll the Tailor. One ad stated:

“All numismatists delight in being well clothed. In the purchase of your suits, it will pay you to consult Nicoll the Tailor, even by mail, at the same time remembering that Wm. G. Jerrems, Jr., our first president of the Association is ‘Nicoll' himself. Which will be sufficient guarantee that you will be generously dealt with.”

In 1903, Jerrems joined five others for dinner at the Union League Club in Chicago to discuss formation of a local club. On January 4, 1904, the Chicago Numismatic Society was formed with Jerrems elected the first president. In 1912, Branch Number 1 of The American Numismatic Association was formed with many members from the Chicago Numismatic Society It lasted less than a year. The Chicago Numismatic Society fizzled out in 1915.

The ANA Branch No. 1 woke from slumber in 1917 and the Chicago Coin Club was formed in 1919. I have reason to believe it is still doing well.

William went to California between 1908 and 1913 to manage the store in San Francisco. In 1913 he returned to Chicago. In 1917, he left Chicago for Kansas City to manage the store there.

William retired from Nicoll the Tailor in 1930. I found one report that he went blind in the 1930's. Arthur W. Jerrems became president of the board with Alexander N. Jerrems and Donald E. Jerrems as vice presidents. Donald Edwin Jerrems died by suicide in 1930.

With the retirement of William and death of Donald, Nicoll the Tailor was out of business to be replaced by Jerrems Tailors. They were still thinking of coins as shown by this 1930 ad:

“Jerrems' quality is as well established as minted money. To buy a Jerrems suit for less is like buying gold coins at a discount. If you have Jerrems tailor your next suit, it will be made especially for somebody--and not just for anybody!”

Jerrems discussed his collecting interests in an article in The Numismatist for October 1941.

“In 1916, because it seemed impossible for me to continue collecting, I sold the bulk of my collection of ancient coins to S. H. and H. Chapman to be sold at auction. There were about 4000 Roman and 1600 Greek coins in the collection. These had been collected between 1882 and 1908. Mr. Brand had taken over the rather large collection of copper coins which I had been making since 1882. About 1900 Archie Doherty had purchased my collection of English silver coins, and he later bought a small collection of United States cents, which was complete as to date, including the best 1793 I had ever seen. I also made a collection of several thousand Chinese coins, which I had arranged according to the lists made by J. A. Brudin, which were published in the early volumes of The Numismatist.”

“I have had many active interests in my lifetime. At various times I have made collections of objects nearest to hand. For instance, I made and disposed of several collections of postage stamps. Some of them quite extensive; a collection of fossils, acquired when a tutor prescribed for me outdoor activity. And when I was obliged to spend a year in Colorado Springs, I made a collection of some hundreds of mineral specimens chosen chiefly for their beauty. Still later, I collected some thousands of specimens of Indian artifacts, which are now in the Illinois State Collection. I also accumulated some 3000 books, which was fine as long as they stayed in one place, but several moves found them unwieldly to handle.”

William died at home in Kansas City, Missouri, on December 16, 1945. He was cremated and interred at Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City.

He formed one of the “complete” sets of The Numismatist that has been sold by George F. Kolbe three times. I assume the current owner continues to add to it.

Jerrems appears with Heath and Hooper on a medal for the 1966 diamond anniversary of the ANA. The 3-inch bronze medal was designed by Frank Gasparro and struck at the Philadelphia Mint. A comment on the medal was that the face of Jerrems was too plain to make a good sculptural subject.

In 1891, the name of Nicoll the Tailor would have been familiar to millions of Americans. Few of them would have cared that he was president of the American Numismatic Association.

"William G. Jerrems, Jr. 1st president of the ANA, is shown on an Ancestry.com tree as Alexander Nicoll's grandson (through his daughter Mary). W.G. Jerrems was also in the tailoring business and was president of Nicoll the Tailor in the early 1900s."

That was a tough one - none of our other readers was able to link Jerrems to Nicoll, and Julia did also uncover one numismatic-adjacent item, this twenty-five cent advertising note from 1874. -Editor

Noting that the coupon was apparently published in a newspaper, she proved that connection by locating it on pages 11-12 of The Daily Graphic (New York) for May 23, 1874. Nice. The example shown above is from Worthpoint. -Editor

"Great topic Pete! What a surprise that Jerrems was so young (and he was from Australia!). I knew nothing about this.

I pieced it together in a meandering path. When I saw that Wayne said he couldn't get any info from the NNP, I went straight to the newspapers. After some dead-ends, I decided that there was probably some connection to Minneapolis (for Pete). First I read about Nicollet Avenue, which I know is not related at all, but now I know a little about it :) Next, I came across a biography of a man named Louis Nash, who was the manager of the St. Paul Nicoll the Tailor store. I decided to see what I could find about the St. Paul branch of Nicoll the Tailor and came across a newspaper ad that listed W.G. Jerrems as the president. Fortunately, the uncommon surname allowed me to use the NNP and figure it out from there."

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ALEXANDER NICOLL (1821-1895) (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n03a16.html)