Nichols (surname)...

(occasionally spelled Nickols)

(Return to Neil's Guide-page.)

Btw, there's a great 2-volume publication with 1700 pages & 1000 photographs... which I now have a .pdf copy of, compliments of Jon Huffman.  Much of what you see below is also corroborated in his definitive work.  Here's a great  place online you can see the pdf in entirety.

Elizabeth Nichols (5/20/1731) (headstone photo) -- (however, Jon Huffman, author of the 2-vol set, doubts this is the same Elizabeth Nichols reported to be John Nichols mother.)

• John Nichols (born in Virginia, 1769) (saved as .pdf) married Nancy R. Burch in appx 1793 (age 13???... born appx 1780 in Maryland).  (Here's Nancy's headstone in Bowles Cemetery)
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• John Jr. (4th child), (about 1800, perhaps Feb 1800) reference - married Mary Ranes (Raines) (see her sister Lucy McCoy Ranes Nichols, below).  Note:  Metcalfe County was formed out of pieces of several counties including Barren County -- thus records may shift around.  Apparently John Jr. lived in that section of Barren County, now Metcalfe County.   Some confusion about who lived with whom re brother George, who later moved to Hart County. (ref)
• Among other children, "Pebony", likely short for Phillip B. (ie, P.B.) Nichols... on whose death certificate is mentioned Nancy Ranes McCoy.
• Anne (1801) married Robert Benham Burch (1797, in Virginia) -- son of John "Long" Burch (1759) & Elizabeth Benham (1779).  The Benham line goes way back to 1630 when John Benham came by ship to America and paid for it by indenturing himself.  Later he Save and Continueobtained freeman status in 1631.
• Mary Polly Nichols (1811) married John James Pursley (1805)... a doctor (?) and Keeper of the Poorhouse.  He was the son of William Pursley (1779) and Nancy Buckley (daughter of captured Henry Buckley).  Btw, William apparently later married Missena... who brought her slave Lucy along.
• Thomas Nichols (1807 - abt 1885) married Lucy McCoy  Ranes (1809) on Nov21, 1828.  great write-up.  One internet site footnoted that her mother was related to the (Hatfields vs.) McCoys.   (alt-link) -- owned 300-400 acres around Elbow Spring, including the spring itself.  Lived on the old Burkesville Road, just 100 yards east of the spring.  (very interesting story about why it was called Elbow Spring and how travelers came there.).  Apparently a two-story log home.  Thomas was the postmaster of Elbow Spring Post Office (in 1870 before it instead became a store in 1872, that is.  Apparently Thomas was a Southern sympathizer but opposed to slavery.  He had hired hands.  This (ref) says it was a point of pride with him that "he was never seen with mud on his boots." (He oversaw workers via horseback.)  In 1853 his mother Nancy Nichols (wife of John) conveyed interest in a piece of ground held as dowry from John, in exchange for his commitment to take care of her in old age. (ref).  Both Thomas & Lucy are buried in Bowles Cemetery but apparently the exact spot is no longer known.
• America Jane Nichols (1829-1857, died of tuberculosis) -- be careful, there's another America Jane (Bowles) elsewhere -- and more directly in OUR portion of the tree.
• Missouri A. Nichols (1831?, never married; died in 1876 of tuberculosis.
• Mary V. Nichols (1836?) - married Joe Tolle (whose sister apparently married Mary's brother ThomasJ, below)
• Henry Leroy Nichols (1838? 1839?)
• Bird White Nichols (1841?)
• Thomas James Nichols (1843) - married Lucy Tolle (see above) - moved to Kansas.
• Lucy Margaret. Nichols (1845)
• Willis "Willi" A. Nichols (1849)
• Alabama Elizabeth Nichols (likely 1832? or Jan29, 1834 - died Apr7, 1907) married William Thomas Bowles (1828 - _____ died of typhoid fever)... married in 1858. 
  
  (ref).... "On May 16, 1860, Thomas Nichols sold to William Thomas Bowles, for $600 cash-in-hand, the original tract of land where his father, John Nichols, had established the family home some 48 years earlier. Located on the waters of Fallen Timber Creek, the tract was comprised of 168 acres and included the old home place. (Deed Book 2, page 247.) William Thomas Bowles was the son-in-law of Thomas Nichols, having married his daughter, Alabama Elizabeth Nichols, two years earlier. After Tom Bowles died, Alabama Bowles, or "Aunt Bam," as she was called by family, continued to live in the old home place for many years."