Hiram Robert Nickerson

https://www.turnerpublishing.net/news/2018/11/17/historic-nickerson...

READFIELD — The brick house at 65 Nickerson Hill Road has long been admired by townspeople and the employees of Saunders Manufacturing.

Built by Dudley Haines II in 1825, the house is where A.H. Saunders and his son Joseph established Saunders Manufacturing in 1945. It was home to A.H. from 1945 until his death in 1988.

Only three families have lived there in the 193 years since it was built. The second person to own it was Hiram Robert “H.R.” Nickerson.

H.R. was one of several Nickerson family members who lived in Readfield. His grandfather Thomas Nickerson and father Hiram Snow Nickerson owned and operated the woolen mill on Giles Road at one time, and his grandfather built a home near the mill in 1819. H.R.’s brother Hezekiah and nephew Walter Nickerson owned two farms atop Nickerson Hill. His parents were living in North Wayne in 1853 when H.R. was born but they soon after moved to Nickerson Hill Road as well. After H.R. received an education at Kents Hill School he moved to Kansas in 1870 to work as assistant to his father’s first cousin Thomas Nickerson, the president of the _A_tchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. H.R. married Margaret Mahan of Nortonville, Kansas, in 1876, and they had two children — Robert and Ruby. Both children were born in Nickerson, Kansas, which was founded in 1872 and named in honor of H.R.’s boss, mentor and cousin Thomas Nickerson.

H.R. went on to become known nationwide as a successful railroad executive and financier himself after 1894, when he became the general manager and V.P. of the same railroad. He held the position until 1907.

During H.R.’s tenure as general manager of the AT&SF Railroad, he bought two properties in Readfield, both on March 7, 1904. One was the Joshua Bean homestead on Main Street; the other was the Dudley Haines II homestead on Nickerson Hill Road. H.R. gave his legal residence as Kansas, further stating that he was “living temporarily in the Republic of Mexico.” The 1911 Who’s Who of America explains why. H.R. was also the vice president and general manager of the Mexican Central Railway Co. at that time.

During his career H.R. also headed the Rio Grande, Sierra Madre & Pacific Railroad; the Mexican American Steamship Co.; the Mexican & Northern Steamship Co.; and the Mexican National Construction Co. He also was cirector of the U.S. Banking Co. of Mexico; the Tampico Harbor Co.; the Mexican Central Railway Merchants Nat’l Bank; and the Turner-Fink Realty Co. It is likely that H.R. bought the property on Main Street in Readfield as a summer residence and retirement home — he was 50 at the time. It is also likely that he bought the house on Nickerson Hill Road for his son Robert, who was 25 years old and a newlywed in 1904.

H.R. and Margaret retired to Readfield about 1912, where he enjoyed life as a gentleman farmer until 1915, when he died from pancreatic cancer. Margaret sold their home on Main Street and moved to Denver, Colorado, to live with her daughter for a short while, then returned to live in Readfield in the brick house on Nickerson Hill Road, where she died in 1931. H.R. and Margaret are buried in Readfield Corner Cemetery on the Nickerson family plot. Their son Robert continued to own the brick house until 1945, when he sold it to A.H. Saunders. It is currently owned by Saunders Manufacturing Northeast of Chicago and is slated for demolition soon. The beautiful brick house will be gone, but some of its history will live on in these words.

PHOTO: This circa 1825 home on Nickerson Hill Road in Readfield is owned by Saunders Manufacturing Northeast of Chicago. It is slated for demolition. (Submitted photo)