BIOGRAPHY: James L. NICHOLSON, Cambria County, PA 

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lynne Canterbury and Diann 
Olsen. 

Portions of this book were transcribed by Clark Creery, Martha Humenik, Betty 
Mirovich and Sharon Ringler.

USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives 
remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in 
accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of 
providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by 
anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities 
so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic 
pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including 
copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to 
uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb 
Archives to store the file permanently for free access. 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ 
____________________________________________________________

From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 192-3
____________________________________________________________


JAMES L. NICHOLSON, superintendent of the Sterling coal mines at Hastings, and a 
man of valuable mining experiences in both the old and the new world, is a son 
of James and Jane (Stevins) Nicholson, and was born in Westphalia, Prussia, now 
a part of the German Empire, January 31, 1863. Of English parentage and Prussian 
German birth, he received his education in English schools, and at the age of 
only eleven years was employed as a trapper boy in one of the great coal mines 
of England; two years later he came with his parents to the United States, and, 
after working in various coal mines, he learned the trade of bricklayer, which 
he abandoned in 1889 to become foreman of Sanford & Duncan's coal mines at 
Phillipsburg, this State, which position he held until 1892, when the company, 
in recognition of his efficient services, sent him to Houtzdale, Clearfield 
county, as superintendent of their mines at that place. In his new field he 
showed himself complete master of his work, and at the end of two years' 
service, in February, 1894, the company selected him as superintendent of their 
collieries, No. 8 and No. 9, of the Sterling mines at Hastings. Accepting his 
new position he came to Hastings, and has been in charge ever since of these two 
collieries, in which four hundred men are now employed. Thoroughly conversant 
with his line of work, and confining his labors to the general routine of the 
mines, he has engaged in no new departures in the science of mining, yet he has 
kept up with all late inventions and mechanical devices for lightening mine 
labor, protecting the life of the miner, and securing a large output at the 
least possible cost. Mr. Nicholson is rather neutral in politics, and is a 
Mason, being a member of Summit Lodge, No. 312, Free and Accepted Masons, of 
Ebensburg.
      On March 13, 1886, Mr. Nicholson wedded Nancy Ashcroft, a half-sister to 
John Ashcroft, of Patton, and a daughter of Thomas Ashcroft, of Phillipsburg, 
Centre county. They have four children: Thomas Ashcroft, James Herbert, Leslie 
Raymond and William Frederick.
     The Nicholson family is of honorable English ancestry, and for a century or 
more has had its old-world home in Northumberland county, in the historic north 
of England, where James Nicholson, Sr., the grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch was born and reared. James Nicholson, Sr., was an expert in coal mining, 
and made a specialty of sinking shafts. His services in sinking shafts were 
employed by William Coulson, Durham, England, who sent him, in 1860, to Prussia, 
where he sank four shafts for them. He did most of his work on contract, and was 
a mine official during the greater part of his life, and died in 1893, aged 
eighty years.
      He was twice married, and by his first wife had three children: James, 
father of James L. Nicholson; Edward, postmaster at Gerhardsville, Clearfield 
county; and Bessie, wife of Henry Selway, of England. James Nicholson was born 
January 2, 1836, and served for several years as deputy foreman of the 
Monwearmouth shaft, one of the deepest coal shafts in England. He assisted his 
father in sinking shafts in Prussia, and in 1876 came to Morris Run, Tioga 
county, where he was engaged in mining up to 1879. He then went to Phillipsburg, 
Centre county, where, after seven years spent in mining, he retired. He is a 
democrat and an Episcopalian, and has served as school director and as overseer 
of the poor. A man of good judgment and general information, his counsel and 
advice is often sought by his neighbors.
     He married Jane Stevins, of his native county, and of their nine sons and 
four daughters, seven sons and one daughter grew to years of maturity: Mary Ann, 
widow of Absalom Butcher; James L.; Edward, assistant mine foreman at Hastings; 
William, Jonathan, John George, Absalom and Frank.