Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory, and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland,
OR: Print. and Lithographing House of A.G. Walling, 1882. p. a28.  Umatilla
County.

WILLIAM NICHOLS

     A resident of Milton, Umatilla county, Oregon, was born January 9, 1838, in
Bahornway county, Canada East, about thirty miles from Montreal, close to the
north line of Clinton county, New York.  His father's name was George Nichols,
and the parents moved, while William was about 18 years of age, to Clinton
county, in New York, and settled near Mooerstown.  After a residence of some
five years in this place, Mr. George Nichols went back to Canada, and William,
the subject of this sketch, to Blackhawk county, Iowa, in 1856.  A year later,
his parents followed, and he was again united with the family, with whom he
remained until in 1862, when he crossed the plains to Oregon.  For a year his
home was in the Rogue river country, and then he became a resident of the
Willamette valley.  In 1864 he removed to Sonoma county, on Russian river,
California, where he was married to Miss Sarah Spence, January 1, 1866.  Mr. and
Mrs. Nichols were playmates in childhood, and natives of the same town, were
school children together; and both had crossed the plains in the same train.
Their children were born and named as follows:  George A., December 21, 1866;
Laura M., February 13, 1869; Charles F., April 23, 1874; Dorsey R., October 6,
1876; Jessie E., October 8, 1879.  These children are all living except one,
Laura M., who died October 21, 1878.  In 1868 Mr. Nichols made an extensive tour
through the Eastern States and Canada, and in 1871 he removed from California to
where he now resides in Umatilla county, Oregon, near Milton.  A view of his
farm residence may be seen in this book.  The home farm includes 400 acres, 100
of which are timber land; all in enclosed and 150 under cultivation.  Mr.
Nichols also has 300 acres in Spokane county, where he is largely interested in
the justly famed baths at Medical Lake.  Many incidents along through the years
of his life have transpired of a character well worth relating, that the limits
of this work will not warrant recording.  Enough was crowded into the three
weeks' trip, in 1862, between Burnt and Raft rivers, to fill a small volume.
Every night of it witnessed the repulsion of Indian attacks, and several days
the murder of his companions or the finding of dead white men that had been
waylaid and scalped by those desert Arabs.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in September 2005 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.