Lake-La Porte County IN Archives Biographies.....Nichols, Horatio R. 1818 - 1897
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 21, 2006, 10:11 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

HORATIO R. NICHOLS.

    Horatio R. Nichols was born in Fenner, Madison county, New York, January 25,
1818, and died in Lowell, April 13, 1897, leaving to mourn him a devoted wife,
five children, four sisters and one brother, one son, three sisters, and one
brother having preceded him to the Spirit Land. His age at the time of death was
seventy-nine years, two months and seventeen days.

    Mr. Nichols worked upon his fathers farm, following the usual routine of a
farmer boy's life; that is, laboring on the farm during the summer, attending
the district school in winter, until he had reached his eighteenth year. At this
time a tide of emigration set in towards the great and growing west. A strong
desire took possession of Mr. Nichols to see the western country, and, although
yet in his teens, he, in company with his brother, bade adieu to the old
homestead and set upon their journey towards the setting sun. They reached
LaPorte, Indiana, June 2, 1836. Here he sought and obtained work on a farm,
where he remained until December following, when he again started west, arriving
in this county the same month. Liking the appearance of this part of the country
he concluded to settle here. A man by the name of Nolan who preceded Mr. Nichols
about two years to this county, lived in a little cabin near where the brickyard
of H. J. Nichols was, which is now Washington street on the west side. The
Nichols brothers purchased Nolan's claim, which then included a large share of
the site of Lowell, for which they paid two hundred and fifty dollars. Mr. Nolan
moved farther west. In the following May Mr. Nichols moved onto his claim, where
he and his brother continued to live alone for several years. They were known by
the neighbors as "the old bachelors." After having "batched it" for five years
Mr. Nichols concluded it was not "good for man to be alone." So he wooed, won
and wedded Miss Phoebe E. Kenyon, January 23, 1845. Fifty years from that date a
golden wedding was given in their capacious west side home. Mr. Nichols was
converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal church at the age of thirteen
years and reunited with the church in Lowell under the ministry of J. F.
McDaniel. His first vote for president was cast for Martin Van Buren in 1840.
Thus you see he identified himself with the Democratic party, but being of
philanthropic turn of mind and believing that all men should be free he became a
Free Soiler. Since 1856 he has voted with the Republican party. At the time Mr.
Nichols settled here his nearest neighbor on the west was Robert Wilkinson, who
lived where Mrs. Marvin now lives. Jacob Mendinthall lived where Captain J. L.
Manning now lives; Samuel Bryant, Duane Bryant and Elias Bryan lived on the
Perry Jones farm, Ross Sanger farm, and John Nichols farm, respectively.
Although Mr. Nichols was not one of the oldest settlers here he lived to see
this part of the country reclaimed and made to blossom and bloom as the rose.

    Funeral services, which were attended by a large concourse of sorrowing
friends, were held at the Methodist Episcopal church, the Rev. J. B. Sites,
assisted by Rev. E. P. Bennett, officiating, after which the mortal remains of
the beloved man were interred in the Lowell cemetery, there to rest until the
great judgment day comes.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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