My Genealogy Hound

James M. Nichols, a well-to-do farmer of Knox County, was born March 22, 1827, in Bourbon County, Ky., and is the fifth child of William and Polly (McCoy) Nichols, natives of Ohio and Kentucky, respectively, who were married in Kentucky, where the father was taken by his parents, when a boy. After their marriage they lived in Bourbon County, where the mother died in 1837. The father remained there about eight years, and then moved his family to Boone County, where he died about 1850. He was a shoemaker by trade, but spent the most of his life farming. Our subject received a common-school education in Bourbon and Boone Counties. Soon after his father’s death he returned to Bourbon County, where he was employed as a farm overseer, after which he engaged in carpentering until the fall of 1864, when he went to Sangamon County, Ill., going from there to Morgan County, where he worked at his trade until March, 1866, when he crossed the Mississippi, and went to Knox County, Mo., settling upon a farm he had purchased, and on which he still resides. He was married to Mary E., daughter of Robert and Sarah (Bradfield) Morey, and who was born in Ohio in 1842. This lady came to Missouri with her parents, when a little girl and her marriage with our subject occurred December 9, 1869, at her home in Knox County. To this union these children have been born: Priscilla, Alice, Louisa and William Arthur. Mr. Nichols has always been active and energetic, and as a result of his labor now owns a fine farm of 360 acres, the most of which is improved and under a good state of cultivation, with fine buildings pleasantly and desirably located. In politics he is a Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote for James K. Polk in 1848. Although a strong supporter of his party, Mr. Nichols has never aspired to political office, and has refused all such honors. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.