Orange

NICHOLS, William Henry

Men of Vermont: Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters & Sons of 
Vermont. Ullery. Brattleboro: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, pp 286-287 
(portrait p 286)

William Henry NICHOLS, of Braintree, was born 23 December 1829 in Braintree 
[Orange County, Vermont], son of William and Betsey (WHITE) NICHOLS. He 
descends from old New England stock, which has exhibited the virtue of good 
citizenship through successive generations. Isaac NICHOLS, his great 
grandfather, was a colonel in the Revolutionary army, and a participant in 
the battles of Bennington and Saratoga. He came to Braintree with his wife 
and seven stalwart sons and one grandchild in October 1787, and took up his 
residence on Quaker Hill, building a rude log hut covered with bark. From 
that time to the present, the family has been prominently and officially 
connected with public affairs. Isaac was the first representative, 
repeatedly holding that position; and he and his wife were original members 
of the First Congregational Church, of which he was for a long time a deacon, 
and which was organized in 1794. His [Isaac NICHOLS'] wife, Dorcas (SIBLEY) 
NICHOLS, was a woman of unusual mental and physical vigor, of great celebrity 
as a nurse, and lived to the remarkable age of one hundred and four years and 
ten months. His youngest son, Rev. Ammi NICHOLS, was a clergyman for 
two-thirds of a century.

William H. NICHOLS attended the Orange County grammar school and West 
Randolph Academy, and graduated from Middlebury College in the class of 1856. 
He studied law with John B. HUTCHINSON, meanwhile teaching several terms of 
the Orange County grammar school and West Randolph Academy. He was admitted 
to the Orange County bar in 1857, and continued to practice until the fall of 
1860, when he established himself as a lawyer at Cedar Falls [Black Hawk 
County], Iowa. On the breaking out of the [Civil] War, he enlisted as a 
private, served in the departments of Mississippi and the Gulf, at Vicksburg, 
Shiloh, the siege and second battle of Corinth, and capture of Mobile, and 
was wounded at Corinth. He served at times as drillmaster, and ordnance and 
commissary sergeant. After being mustered out he came to Braintree and took 
charge of his father's farm.

A Republican in politics, he has discharged many public and official trusts; 
was a member of the last Constitutional Convention; representative from 
Braintree in 1870; judge of county court 1872 to 1874; has been 
superintendent of schools, and was for a long time clerk and treasurer, a 
position that has been held by successive members of the family for nearly 
three-quarters of a century. In 1879 he was elected judge of probate, and 
has since creditably filled that position. He has been for thirty-six years 
a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 28, Free & Accepted Masons, and is also a 
comrade of U. S. Grant Post No. 36, of West Randolph. On 03 August 1856 
Judge [William H.] NICHOLS married Ann Eliza, daughter of William A. and Abby 
(CURVER) BATES. Their children are: Henry Hebert, William Bates, Edward H., 
and Anna.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly