The Nichols of Leonidas

On August 16, 2009 I started at Coldwater, stopped at several places east of town, and then headed west to Leonidas, where Ambrose Nichols had lived. Ambrose was the brother of the Warren Nichols who died in the 1832 cholera epidemic, along with his wife and three of his children.

I often stop at the little store behind “Bruces Tack Box” for an ice cream or sandwich, and probably did so that day, but a year later I don’t remember any more. I had had a bite to eat in Colon, so there wasn’t a good reason for me to be very hungry again. On the other hand, they have good hand-dipped ice cream.

This was the first time I had ever stopped to wander through the Leonidas cemetery. Usually when I’m at Leonidas this late in the day I need to keep moving because it’s a 3 hour ride to home — if I don’t go too easy on myself. But this time I was on a quest — to find the gravestone of Ambrose Nichols or any of the Nichols children who had survived.

I thought I had found something here. If this wasn’t the grave of Jonathan, one of the surviving sons, maybe it was one of Ambrose’s children. There were a number of newer Nichols gravestones nearby, with death dates as recent as the 1960s. The 1877 Calhoun County history had said there were no other surviving members other than Ambrose.

Tonight I checked it out. Unfortunately, it appears that this Nichols family isn’t related to that of Warren and Ambrose. The 1850 census says John and Mary Nichols were born in Ireland.

But I also found this rootsweb page. It appears that Jonathan Nichols lived in this area, too, and it wasn’t unreasonable to be looking in this cemetery for his grave. The 1877 Calhoun history said he had married Jane Watkins. This genealogy gives her name as Persis Jane Watkins. The name Persis seems to have been much used in her family, just like the name Mercy was much used throughout the generations of the Nichols family. And sure enough, one of Jonathan and Jane’s daughters was named Mercy.

This genealogy says Persis Jane “died at Leonidas, Cass, MI, on 11 November 1855.” I wonder where it got Cass county, because Leonidas is in St Joseph County, not Cass. I’m guessing that the Leonidas part is right, which means I need to look harder to find the graves of Jonathan and Mercy. And although no birth or death dates are given, I wonder if it can really be that all of the children (Cordelia, Philenia, Marshall, Mercy, and Eliot) had died by 1877.

From Leonidas I rode down MI-60, stopping to take a photo at a farmstead where Ambrose had lived. More on that another time.