DAVIDSON COUNTY, TN - OBITUARIES - Dr. William Lytle Nichol ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Margaret Nolen Nichol MNNICHOL@aol.com ==================================================================== Dr. W. L. Nichol Dead ---------------------------------------------------------- After Several Years Of Suffering, Distinguished Physician Passes Away ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Born And Reared In This City ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Was Surgeon in the United States Navy and in the Confederate Army----- Sketch Of Life -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. W. L. Nichol died yesterday morning at his residence on North High street, and thus ended the career of one of the most brilliant physicians that ever resided in this community. His passing away while altogether not unexpected, came with such suddenness as to be a great shock to his immediate family and friends. There was no disease or acute sickness, nothing that remedial agencies could alleviate, and his taking off was due to the wearing away of a vigorous constitution. For two years he had been in failing health, and since 1898 had retired from the practice of his profession, because, as he said to a friend, he was unable to meet the demands of an active profession life. Hundreds of his friends to whom his daily walks about the central portion of the city were a welcome sight had missed him for several months past, and during all this time he had been keeping close to his home, patiently waiting for the summons to come higher, and bearing his decline with that fortitude that had characterized his whole life. He never became bed ridden, and even on the day before his death he was walking about his room. On Saturday the members of his family noted that he was more feeble than usual, and when he retired at night it was observed that he was quite restless, calling his wife repeatedly and asking for a drink of water at short intervals. At 2:30 o’clock he became sick at his stomach and began to vomit. Mrs. Nichol sent for the family physician, Dr. McGannon, and on his arrival and examining the patient he announced that death had set in. Dr. Nichol breathed his last at 6:30 o’clock yesterday morning, surrounded by his wife, his daughter, Miss Bessie Nichol and his sister, Mrs. Jane Brown. His brothers, Harry and Edgar Nichol, of this city, arrived a few minutes after the end came. The other members of his immediate family were absent from the city, and they were summoned by wire, and will get here this morning. J. D. B. DeBow and his wife came in from Williamson County yesterday morning and Maj. and Mrs. John W. Thomas and W. L. Nichol, Jr., of Chicago, will arrive today. Another son, H. C. Nichol of Montana was also notified, but he will probably not get here. Sketch of Dr. Nichol Dr. Nichol was born in this city Oct. 8, 1828. He was the son of Wm. and Julia Lytle Nichol. On the paternal side he was of Irish descent. His grandfather, Josiah Nichol, emigrated from Ireland and settled at King’s Salt Works in Virginia. From there he removed to Knoxville, Tenn., and subsequently to this city where he died of cholera in 1832. In his day he was a merchant of considerable repute. Dr. Nichol’s maternal grandfather, Wm. Lytle, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and resided in Murfreesboro. Dr. Nichol was educated at the University of Nashville, where he graduated in 1845. He began the study of medicine the same year under Dr. Thomas R. Jennings. In 1846 he went to Philadelphia and entered, as a private student, the office of Dr. William W. Gerhard. Subsequently he matriculated as a student at the University of Pennsylvania and was graduated in 1849. The same year he was elected as assistant resident physician in Blockley Hospital, where he remained one year. In 1852 he entered the United States Navy, and was ordered to join the North Pacific exploring expedition, serving as assistant surgeon on the ship Vincennes, the flagship of the squadron. During this cruise he visited Cape Town, Sydney and China, and then went to Japan shortly after the ports of that country were opened by Commodore Perry. From Japan he went to the Arctic Ocean and returning to San Francisco in October, 1856, he resigned his commission in the navy. That year he came back to Nashville and took up the practice of medicine. Upon the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the Confederate army and went out with the First Tennessee Regiment as surgeon. He was afterwards promoted to the position of Surgeon-in-Chief of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army, and later served with Gen. Forrest around Atlanta. At the cessation of hostilities he returned to Nashville and resumed his practice. In 1868 he was elected professor of diseases of the chest in the medical college of the University of Nashville, and remained in connection with that institution until December, 1896, when he resigned after having served as Dean of the college for half a session. He filled the chairs of obstetrics, diseases of women and practice of medicine, and from 1875 to 1895, he filled the same chairs in the medical college a Vanderbildt University. Fine Diagnostician Dr. Nichol was read as one of the best diagnosticians in the whole country, and as a practitioner of medicine he established and held until retirement the reputation of being one of the princes of his profession. He was successful in a marked degree , both as a physician and surgeon, and as a teacher he was so well liked by his students and his associates in the faculties with which he was connected that there was general regret when he finally retired from his chair. He was for many years identified with societies for the advancement of medical science, being a member of the Nashville Academy of Medicine, and of the Tennessee Medical Society. he was an untiring student and possessed an indomitable will. Many a time he was known to study all night preparing his lectures and throughout his entire life he was a student of men and books. His scholarship was thorough, not only in the science to which he devoted his life, but also to all of those sciences that make a cultured, well rounded man. In conversation he was brilliant, always having something to say that had been distilled in the laboratory of thought. There was no subject in the intercourse of cultured gentlemen that he could not discourse on entertainingly, and it was a rare treat to his friends to get him engaged on some subject to which he had devoted much thought and study. In his professional life he belonged to the old school of gentlemen, that remarkable class which has made the South famous in song and story. He was knightly and courtly, chivalrous in his attentions to men and women, and kindhearted in his treatment of the lowly ones. He was a close adherent in the etiquette of his profession, and in all of his lectures to his classes he dwelt with peculiar emphasis on the ethics that should govern physicians. Dr. Nichol was a generous man, sympathetic and charitable. He was not only much loved by those whose family physician he was, but the poor blessed his name. His heart pulsed with kindness and he believed in the doctrine of the universal brotherhood of mankind. Late in life, about five years ago, his mind was directed to an examination of his spiritual welfare and the hereafter, and after a thorough searching he accepted the Christian religion and united himself with the First Presbyterian Church, leading to the hour of his death the life of a consistent Christian. Dr. Nichol was thrice married. The first time in 1858 to Miss Henrietta Cockrill, who died in 1859, leaving one child, H. C. Nichol, who now resides in Montana. His second wife was Miss Ella Fackler, of Huntsville, Ala., whom he married in 1864. She died in 1868, leaving one child, Miss Bessie Nichol. His last marriage was to Mrs. J. D. B. DeBow, who was Miss Martha E. Johns. She and her son, W. L. Nichol, Jr., of Chicago, survive him. The funeral services will be held at 5 o’clock this afternoon at the family residence, Dr. W. M. Anderson, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, officiating. The honorary pall-bearers will be the members of the faculty of the medical college of the University of Nashville. The internment will be private and the remains will be laid away at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Submitted by: Margaret Nolen Nichol (Dr. William Lytle Nichol died June 23, 1901. The clipping of his obituary is from a collection of newspaper clipping in my files)