SAMUEL WARREN NICHOLS, editor of the daily and weekly Jacksonville Journal, is a native of Hancock County, this State, and was born Feb. 5, 1844. His father, the Rev. Warren Nichols, of the Presbyterian Church, was born in Massachusetts, and died in 1862, in Ohio, where he had resided for some years.

At Lima, Ohio, in May, 1864, the subject of this sketch enlisted as a Union soldier in Company E, 151st Ohio Infantry, and served four months in and around Washington, D.C. Upon leaving the army, he came to this county, settling in Jacksonville, and for some time attended the Illinois College. Later he became a student of the Jacksonville Business College, from which he was graduated, and taught therein one year. From 1867 to 1870 he was Treasurer of the Jacksonville Gas Light and Coke Company, and during the latter year was Teller of the First National Bank.

Later, as a member of the firm of Nichols & Brennan, our subject was engaged in the stove business in this city six years, and from 1876 to 1885, he was in the photograph business. About 1884 he began writing for the Journal, and in 1885 he was employed regularly on the staff of that paper. The Journal Company was organized in November, 1886, and since that time Messrs. Nichols & Fay have directed its editorial columns.

Mr. Nichols is a live, wide-awake newspaper man, and the columns of the Journal attest his devotion to the very best interests of the city and its people. He is a member of the Congregational Church, and is prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity and the G.A.R.