JAMES NICHOLS (Nickels) SEARSPORT HIS DESCENDANTS

JAMES NICHOLS (Nickels) OF SEARSPORT AND HIS DESCENDANTS 1 733- 1 943 COMPILED BY CHARLES J. NICHOLS, Litt. M. VICE PRESIDENT OF MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY PORTLAND, MAINE PRIVATELY PRINTED 1944 Copyright 1944 by Charles ]. Nichols, Portland, Maine The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, Portland, Maine NICHOLS GENEALOGY TO THE MEMORY OF MY WIFE THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS MY CONSTANT COMPANION WHO INSPIRED THIS UNDERTAKING BUT PASSED ON BEFORE ITS COMPLETION THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. PREFACE ALMOST every book in its first edition has, or should fi have, an errata or addenda. This is bound to be true of a family genealogy, although it usually has not more than one edition. A century or more ago the dates of births, marriages and deaths, if recorded at all, were often reported from memory by some member of the family long after the occurrence. They frequently were recorded in the family Bible years later. The compiler has found the date of the birth of a child recorded twice in a town clerk's office. Herein may appear dates at variance with other records and, in some cases, a doubt exists as to the correct date. In many instances, the date of a birth or of a death varies by a day or two in different records. These the compiler has verified by statements of persons living, whenever possible, and accepted the date given by members of the family. In a pamphlet published by my uncle, Capt. Edward P. Nichols, in 1882, under the title Jncornplete Farnily Record oj ]arnes Nichols, he asked that someone continue the genealogy. In response to this request, Miss Annie Nichols did much care ful research until illness forced her to abandon it, she dying in 1913. Through the generosity of her niece, Miss Jessie Nicker son, her notes were placed jn my hands and have been of great assistance. Almost all of the family descendants have been re sponsive in answering questions submitted, and the compiler acknowledges their cooperation, without which this volume could not have been published. No attempt has been made to include obituaries. The book is genealogical rather than biographical. In a few instances some extraordinary feat is mentioned. The early descendants of James Nichols were shipbuilders and shipmasters, and the names of many of the ships commanded are given, and, in the Vll Vlll Preface later generations, the occupation or business pursued is fre quently noted. Recognition is accorded to the Maine Historical Society, which, for nearly a century and a quarter, has gathered records concerning the early settlements of the American Colonies and whose sources of information are open to the public. Acknowledgment is made to the Penobscot Marine Museum for the pictures of certain ships; to Mr. Lincoln Colcord for many items regarding various vessels commanded by Searsport men; to Mr. Clifford N. Carver for the silhouette of James Nichols and his wife Hannah.Nichols and to Mrs. Ella A.H. Sweetser for many dates and facts in connection with the cap tains and their families of her generation. The sudden death of Dr. Amelia Ford was a great loss to the compiler. Her informa tion regarding the early history of Searsport and Waldo County should be published. What about Searsport on the Penobscot: The territory northerly of the city of Belfast bordering on the bay and the river which included the present towns of Searsport, Stockton Springs and Prospect was settled about 17 55 and named Frankfort. The three towns were set off in 1794 and called Prospect from "beautiful view." Fort Pownal was erected on Fort Point in the now town of Stockton Springs in 1758 through the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the mem bers of an expedition commanded by Governor Pownal. It was ninety feet square surrounded by a ditch and a palisade and had in its center a block house mounting cannon, and was one of the most elaborate forts erected up to that time in the Prov ince of Maine. The whole section was a part of the Waldo Patent, which in cluded nearly all of the present counties of Knox and Waldo and a part of Penobscot, and was granted to Brig. Samuel Waldo for services under Col. William Pepperell in the King George War which resulted in the capture of Louisburg June 17, 1745. To his memory the name of Brigadier (now Preface IX Sears) was given to the island in the bay. There were two dis tinct settlements of the town, the dividing line being the Mill Creek. The western part, formerly known as East Belfast, pre ceded the other by several years. James Nichols was among the early settlei:s in the eastern section of the present Searsport. Dr. Amelia Ford, in her notes as published in the Carver genealogy, states that Gen. Henry Knox on his tour through the town in 1795 spent the night at the house of a farmer and landholder by the name of Nickels or Nickerson. James Nickels and his family were then living there, and he was a farmer and landowner. Searsport was, on February 13, 1845, set off from Belfast and Prospect, incorporated, and named for David Sears of Boston, who owned the island, which still bears his name, opposite the mainland. Its citizens claim that there is no other Searsport in the world. The town has the only post office under that name · in the United States. The dates of births and deaths appearing in Searsport prior to 1845 are in that part of Prospect which was later incorpo rated as Searsport. The town has furnished approximately one hundred and sixty-five captains - most of them natives -who commanded sailing vessels of various types under the United States registry. Its citizens have had occasions for sorrow and sadness. Many a mother has seen her son enter the ship's cabin, never again to behold his native land. In the Blanchard family there were seven boys - every one became a sea captain - and every one was lost at sea or died on board a vessel. Let the reader take note of the number of the descendants of James Nichols - both men and women - who have left their bodies in the mighty deep or in a foreign grave, and he is ap palled. It has been related that two decades ago a stranger visiting one of the cemeteries in Searsport, upon reading from the stones and monuments, "lost at sea," "died at sea," "buried at X Preface sea," or "bu~ied in a foreign port," exclaimed, "Why do you have a cemetery, there are so few bodies buried here." Searsport's record for shipbuilding and sea-captains gives it an important place in the annals of the maritime history of the state and of the nation. Ten shipyards were located there. The Carver yard alone had fifty-three launchings of which six were of full rigged ships. The list, as published in the Carver Gene alogy by Clifford N. Carver, comprises fifty brigs, forty-seven barks, twenty-eight schooners and fifteen ships built in Sears port. In addition to this enterprise, The Searsport Spool & Block Manufacturing Co. gave employment to many for approxi mately a quarter of a century. J. and P. Coats, Ltd., of Paisley, England, was one of its largest customers, and spools were shipped direct to their destination in Searsport vessels com manded by Searsport captains. This industry was removed to Dixfield about 1887 and was a great loss to the community. The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad extended its line to Sears port to obtain an outlet for shipping, but the advent of the auto truck robbed the town of much of the expected maritime trade. On the abandonment of the more than century old Boston and Bangor Steamboat Line, the wharves fell into dis use and decay, and Searsport became like Goldsmith's Auburn - a village of the past. If this history of a Searsport family shall tend to keep alive the spark of fortitude and bravery which characterized those pioneers of the tumultuous sea during the period of the nine teenth century when the stars and stripes floated in nearly every important seaport of the civilized world and reunions of Sears port families were not uncommon in Hong Kong, Melbourne, Rio de Janiero, Montevideo and Valparaiso, then the efforts of the compiler will not have been in vain. CHARLES J. NICHOLS. Portland, Maine December 30, 1943 CONTENTS PREFACE Vll INTRODUCTORY NOTES xv FIRST GENERATION SECOND GENERATION THIRD GENERATION FOURTH GENERATION FIFTH GENERATION SIXTH GENERATION SEVENTH GENERATION APPENDIX INDEX XI ILLUSTRATIONS James Nichols (Nickels) Silhouette facing 3 Hannah Ni_chols (Nickels) Silhouette 3 Ship R.R. Thomas 12 Three Shipyards in Searsport 13 Ship A.]. Fuller 28 Ship Governor Robie 29 Ship William H. Connor 32 A Group of Nichols Shipmasters 33 Albion P. Nichols and Jacob S. Nichols 40 Another Group of Nichols Sea-captains 41 Four Searsport Wives of Sea-captains 44 Capt. Edward D. P. Nickels and Capt. David Nickels 45 Searsport "Sailors Snug Harbor," 1926 60 William Nichols, Master Shipbuilder, and Two of His Sons 61 Four Representatives of Different Families 64 Hon. Malcolm E. Nichols and His Son Lt. Clark S. Nichols 65 John M. Nichols and His Brother Charles J. Nichols 72 A Page from the Ocean Chronicle 73 Xlll INTRODUCTORY NOTES N the month of August, 17 18, at the same time, five vessels I bringing emigrants from Northern Island lay at anchor in Massachusetts Bay. The names of four are known- the William and Mary, the Robert, the William and the Mary Anne. Two of the vessels appear to have been of the brigantine type.

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