John L. Nichols (1839)

Born 16 Dec 1839 in Champaign County, Ohio, USA

Husband of Martha (Daniels) Nichols — married 25 Oct 1859 in Jasper County, Indiana, USA

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JOHN L. NICHOLS. One of the oldest living representatives of the pioneer generation in Jasper County is John L. Nichols of Rensselaer. While he belongs to the third generation since the families of his mother and father came to America, those in the paternal line coming from Ireland and those in the maternal from Germany, there are few families who have been identified with the country west of the Alleghenies for a longer time. His father, George W. Nichols, was born in Kentucky in 1793, not long after Kentucky was made a sovereign stte and during the first administration of President Washington. His mother, Rebecca (Lewis) Nichols was born in Ohio in 1795, and thus it is evident that the family on both sides was identified with the early American movements to the West.

George W. Nichols was a farmer all his life. During the existence of that party he voted the whig ticket and was afterwards equally loyal to the principles of the republican doctrines and candiates. He served as a justice of the peace for many years in Jasper County, and was a very active and substantial citizen. He was a working member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

It was in October, 1842, that the Nichols family came to Jasper County. Little had been done in the way of clearing and emprovment at that time, and even when John L. Nichols was old enough to appreciate his surroundings his outlook was upon a district very sparsely populated and practically everyone living in log cabins and making very slow advances towards clearing and cultivating the land. The family on coming to Jasper County settled in Barkley Township, where the father bought one hundred sixty acres direct from the Government, paying the regular price of one dollar and a quarter per acre. In that community the family of children were reared, and of these children there were twelve in number, namely: Cynthia Ann, Jackson, Elizabeth, Hester Jane, Olive, Solomon, John L., Harrison, Samuel R., Mary Matilda, Benjamin and Alonzo. All are now deceased except John L. and Mary Matilda. The oldest son, Jackson, enlisted as a private in an Indiana regiment for service in the Mexican war, going to the front from Rensselaer, and he died while in service south of the Rio Grande. While he was the only one of his family to serve in the Mexican war, there were two of the sons who made records in the Civil War. These were John L. and his brother, Solomon, both of whom enlisted on August 11, in 1862 in Company A of the 87th Indiana Infantry. They went out as privates and both fought at the battle of Perryville, in the fall of the same year. John L. Nichols subsequently was stricken with the measles, and was sent home and given an honorable discharge in May, 1863.

The mind of John L. Nichols is stored with many interesting recollections of early conditions and people in Jasper County. As he was born December 16, 1839, in Champaign County, Ohio, he was about three years old when the family moved to Jasper County, and his individual recollections go back into the decade of the '40s, for almost seventy years. As a boy he attended school at the old Hinkle schoolhouse. That was a school supported on the old time subscription plan when a family paid two dollars for a term of three months for each pupil in the school. After John L. had attended four terms, his education so far as books and schools were concerned was ended, since his services were required at home as a helper on the farm and thenceforth his training was in the direction of practical work in the line of the occupation which he followed for a livelihood throughout his active years.

On October 25, 1859, when about twenty years of age, Mr. Nichols married Martha Daniels, member of an old and prominent Jasper County family. They had little more than established their first home when Mr. Nichols left to enter the army. To their union were born six children: Angeline, Wallace, Jesse, Dallas, Hattie and Chattie. In May, 1885, the beloved mother of this family was laid to rest, after more than twenty-five years of married companionship. After her death the family live in Rensselaer for six months, but then returned to the home farm.

Mr. Nichols' second marriage was with Mary Reed, but no children were born of that union. His present wife was Mrs. Eliza Jane (Potts) Lowman, their marriage having occurred on the 17th of May, 1912. Mrs. Nichols was born in Hancock County, Indiana, October 26, 1856, and she was reared and educated there. By her marriage to Charles Lowman she became the mother of five children, of whom four are now living, three sons and one daughter, all residents of Indiana. Mr. Lowman died in 1902. Both Mr. and Mrs. Nichols are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Rensselaer, and he is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of that city.

Mr. John L. Nichols in his own work as a farmer has rendered the country a service through the extensive improvements he has placed upon his land and has kept his own property up to the advanced standards of progressive agriculture. In politics he is a republican and served as trustee of his home township for four years. In every movement for public improvement, education, general uplift in moral and religious conditions, he has given his active support.

A Standard History of Jasper and Newton Counties Indiana The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and New York - 1916

Biography

He is the son of George Nichols and Rebecca Lewis. ^[1]

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Sources

No sources. The events of John's life were either witnessed by Heather Stengel or Heather plans to add sources here later.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Entered by Heather Stengel, Jul 8, 2013

Acknowledgments

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