NICHOLSON, Delos F.

NICHOLSON, CADY, BLAIR, JAMISON

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/19/2014 at 04:16:10

Biography ~ Delos F. Nicholson

"Biographical and Historical Record of
Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa"
(Lewis Publishing Company (1887)), pp. 551-53:

DELOS F. NICHOLSON, hardware merchant at Lamoni, was born in Schuyler County, New York, December 11, 1855, a son of CHARLES and FANNY (CADY) NICHOLSON, natives of New York State, the father born in Dutchess County, and the mother in Oneida County. The father was the youngest of a family of ten children. He removed with his family to Sandwich, Illinois, in 1870, and died August 27, 1883, aged sixty-four years. he had been in the book business forty years, commencing as a canvasser, and afterward, as a dealer and general agent, furnishing employment to others, handling the works of standard authors, Bibles, encyclopedias, etc. After moving to Illinois he bought a farm, where he resided when not traveling. His widow still occupies the homestead, which is located near Sandwich, living with her two youngest children, and is now fifty-eight years of age. DELOS F. NICHOLSON, our subject, remained in his native county till he came with his parents to Sandwich, Illinois. at the age of seventeen years he devoted his earnings to educating himself, attending the high school at Sandwich, and later attended the classical seminary at East Paw Paw, Illinois. He devoted the following four years to teaching, during which time he taught one year in public school at Paw Paw, and one year at in the Paw Paw Seminary, finishing his career as an instructor in the Sandwich High School, where a few years previous he was a pupil. In the spring of 1880 he went to Salt Lake City and engaged in the agricultural trade, and soon after entered the employ of D. M. Osborne & Co., of Audurn, New York, implement manufacturers, with a branch house at Salt Lake City, holding the position of bookkeeper and cashier for that firm for five years, and also at times acted as special traveling agent. He was married March 6, 1876, at Sandwich, Illinois, to Miss MINNIE BLAIR, who was born at East Paw Paw, August 1, 1855, only daughter of W. W. and ELIZABETH BLAIR, now residents of Lamoni. They have two sons HENRY CARL, aged seven, and WALTER BLAIR, aged three. Mr. NICHOLSON resigned his position with D. M. Osborne & Co. in January, 1886, and came to Lamoni, where he had previously invested his earnings in property, thus giving to this place one of its most enterprising business men. He established his present business in March, 1886, and carried the largest stock of hardware in Decatur County, everything in his line being found on the shelves of his warehouse. Mr. NICHOLSON is one of the self-made men of the county. One of his first ambitions was to be placed in charge of the high school at Sandwich, Illinois, which he had entered as a student, and this desire was gratified, and he honored the position. As a business man he had charge of vast interests and was never found lacking in energy or executive ability. Being a close observer of men and nature as well as of books, his travels through Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Colorado have endowed him with a well-stored mind. Several times he has crossed the backbone of the continent and has stood where the waters flowed to both the Atlantic and Pacific. To our subject’s parents were born eight children, of whom five are yet living – ARTHUR, a dentist living at Edgerton, Wisconsin; DELOS F., whose name heads this sketch; LOUISA R., wife of L. W. JAMISON, of East Paw Paw, Illinois, and THOMAS C. and LYBIE W., living at the homestead near Sandwich. Three children, MARY, FLORENCE and HELEN died when young, in the State of New York. During his career as a student and teacher, at odd hours he learned the preservative art, which trade he afterward followed during vacations to increase his earnings. He also acted as reporter and correspondent for several newspapers. His pen pictures of the Rocky Mountain country has appeared in several Eastern periodicals and has been read with much interest. In 1882, Governor MURRY, of Utah, under the organic act, appointed Mr. NICHOLSON Territorial Treasurer, but the Mormon Legislature afterward refused to confirm him because he was opposed to polygamy. Mr. NICHOLSON is now thirty-one years old. commencing life without a dollar, by his own energy and industry he has won a place among the foremost business men of the West.

Transcribed by Sara LeFleur, Decatur County Historial Society Musuem, January of 2014