Nathan Spencer Nichols, Jr.

Nathan Nickols, junior, reportedly the son of Margaret (née Spencer) and John Nichols, was born in Loudoun County, Virginia. He married Sarah Thomas about 1801 probably in Loudoun County.

"About the year 1825 our grandfather, Nathan Nickols, jr., contracted to sell his farm, which was located in the Piedmont Valley in Virginia, and which lay partly on the mountain side and partly in the valley on the east side of the Blue Ridge mountains, between Round Hill and Bluemont (then Snickersville,) and coming to Ohio on horseback, bought of Lodovic Hardenbrook, a soldier of the Revolution, the one hundred and sixty acres of land in the vicinity of Mt. Gilead. He also bought of the government five other quarter sections, in all, nine hundred and sixty acres of land in the vicinity of Mt. Gilead, planning to settle his family, and give each one a small farm. "He returned to Virginia and in March, 1827, while loading fertilizer at Leesburg, Virginia, he ruptured a blood vessel, and died March 31st 1827. Two of the children, Mahala and Mordecai, had previously died in childhood, and the graves of the three yet remain in Virginia [...] "Grandfather Nathan always signed junior to his name, and he spelled his name N-i-c-k-o-l-s [...] He was born November 30th, 1780, and died March 21st 1827. His father was Nathan Nickols, Sr., and James Nickols was his grandfather, all born, reared and died in Loudoun county, Virginia." (Robert F. Bartlett, Historical and genealogical sketch of the Nickols-Thomas family in Ohio (Mt. Gilead, Ohio: 1909), pp. 2-3.)

Nathan Nickols and his widow Sarah were entrymen in what is now Morrow County, Ohio. "Nathan Nickols, Jun'r of Loudon [sic] County State of Virginia" received on 25 June 1818 the patent for "the Section numbered One, in township Thirteen, of range Twentyone." (A full section is 640 acres.) He received two more patents on 4 April 1821 for 320 acres, and his widow Sarah on 13 March 1828 received three patents for 640 acres.

Parents

In the past, a senior and a junior of the same name may not have been a father and son, but rather an elder and younger of the same name; perhaps an uncle and nephew. The 1909 Nickols-Thomas family genealogy cited above may have assumed a father-son relationship. Two sources report that Nathan Nickols, junior, was the son of Margaret (née Spencer) and John Nichols: William D. Nichols, The Hoge, Nichols and Related Families (unpublished typescript) (1969), p. 2-21; and a reported family Bible of John Flick McFarland (a Nathan Nickols, junior, descendant). The first of the two adds that Nathan Nickols, junior, was a grandson of Elizabeth (née Sharp) and James Nichols.

Burial

There is no known burial record for Nathan Nickols, junior. Goose Creek Burial Ground in Loudoun County. is a guess. It is roughly between the locations of his farm and place of death; many members of the Nichols family are buried there (including his probable parents; and there are many effaced headstones or unmarked graves.

Notes

A middle name, Spencer, is shown in some genealogies, but no primary-source records (land patents) or secondary-source records (tax list, censuses, county history) indicate a middle name or middle initial.

Loudoun County, Virginia, marriage records are known to be incomplete.

Many Nichols men, including Nathan, senior, and Nathan, junior, appear together on an 1802 Loudoun County tax list.

There are two Nathan Nichols households in the 1810 U.S. Census, Loudoun Co., Virginia. The one near the bottom of page 19 had six persons; the one near the top of page 20 had ten persons. On the line following the page 20 Nathan Nickols is the household of Martha Thomas, mother-in-law of Nathan Nickols, junior.

1820 U.S. Census, Middleburg, Loudoun Co., Virginia; pp. 31-32. [4.] Martha Thomas. [5.] Nathan Nickolls jr. [19.] Nathan Nickolls.

Nathan and Sarah Nickols gave 160 acres of land to each of their 12 surviving children. These gifts are detailed in a chapter on "Nathan Nickols Jr., and Descendants" in: A. J. Baughman and Robert F. Bartlett, History of Morrow County, Ohio, vol. 1 (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1911), pp. 242-44.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 9 2018, 20:58:19 UTC