Nichols Family 

Submitted by F. Richard Barr

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SECOND GENERATION - continued

8.      JOHN WESLEY2 NICHOLS (Samuel1), born 28 January 1839, Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania.^A,B Before his Civil War service, he was a bricklayer by profession. John Wesley Nichols enlisted in Company K, 150th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1 5 August 1862, at Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and was mustered out 15 June 1865 at Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. He served in the same unit as he brother, Simon. The unit was commonly known as “The President’s Bodyguard.” He was 5 feet 11 inches tall; fair complexion; blue eyes, and brown. Of him Carl Sandburg wrote:  

Of an odd affair about mid-August of ‘64, nothing should be said of it, ran Lincoln’s advice to John W. Nichols, a guard from the summer of 1862. Nichols, on duty at the large gate entrance to the Soldiers’ Home grounds one night about eleven o’clock heard a rifle shot in the direction of the city and soon after heard the hoofbeats of a horse coming nearer and nearer. In two or three minutes a horse came dashing up. On it Nichols saw the President, bareheaded, and Nichols helped to quiet a favorite saddle horse. The President was now saying: “He came pretty near getting away with me, didn’t he? He got the bit in his teach before I could draw rein.” To Nichols’s query about his hat the President answered that somebody had fired a gun off down at the foot of the hill, and that his horse had become scared and had jerked his hat off.

 “Nichols led the horse to the executive cottage, held it while the Presidentdismounted, and went into the house, then saw the horse to the stables. Nichols with a corporal began a search for the hat. At a point where the sound of the shot had come from, a driveway intersection with the main road, they found the President’s hat, the familiar plain silk stovepipe. “Upon examination,” proceeded Nichols’s story, “we discovered a bullet-hole through the crown. We searched the locality thoroughly, but without avail. Next day I gave Mr. Lincoln his hat, and called his attention to the bullet hole. He made some humorous remark, to the effect that it was made by some foolish marksman and was not intended for him; but added that he wished nothing said about the matter. We all felt confident it was an attempt to kill the President, and after that he never rode alone.^E,F,G 

The following year John Wesley Nichols stood guard at the room where President Abraham Lincoln died.

In 1866 John Wesley Nichols moved west with a group of Civil War veterans. On 29 January 1876 Olney J. Thompson of Omaha conveyed eighty (80) acres in Washington County, Nebraska, to Sarah E. Nichols, wife of John W. Nichols.^H He early became employed by the Woodman Linseed Oil Company in Omaha.1 In later years he would be employed as a federal building watchman. He died 11 November 1910, Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska. Cause of death: organic heart disease; cirrhosis of liver.^J,K He is buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery, Omaha, Nebraska.

He married 10 September 1860 SARAH ELIZABETH DEARBORN in Summit Township, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, by William Putnam, Justice of the Peace.^L She was born 23 December 1840, Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, daughter of Joseph W. Dearborn and Mary Ann Camp.^M In 1920 she was a widow, residing with her daughter and son-in-law, Bertha and Samuel J. Purchase.^N She died 13 July 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, and is buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery.^O,P Cause of death: Cerebral apoplexy (incident to accidental fall); cardiac insufficiency.

Children of John Wesley and Sarah Elizabeth (Dearborn) Nichols: