For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 388
JAY IRA NICHOLS. The owner of a valuable farm of three hundred acres of good land in Muscatine county, the Hon. Jay I. Nichols has attained success financially. He has also been honored by his fellow citizens with important public offices, which he has filled with the highest credit. He ranks today as one of the leading men of the county and is recognized throughout the state as a man of marked ability who has assisted in no small degree in advancing the permanent interests of Iowa.A native of Muscatine county he was born May 13, 1855, and is a son of Ira and Elizabeth (Luse) Nichols, the former a native of New York state and the latter of Morrow county, Ohio. The parents were married in Ohio and came west in 1853, settling on a farm in Muscatine county. The father was very successful in business affairs and acquired about fourteen hundred acres of good land, being the owner at the time of his death, in 1888, of four hundred acres. The wife and mother passed away in February, 1910. Unto them seven children were born, namely: C. M., of West Liberty; I. A. a banker, also of West Liberty; Jay Ira, the subject of this review and one of twins, the other dying in infancy; Viola, deceased; Pliny Clay, who gave up his life for the cause of the Union in the Civil war; and John Bunker, also deceased.
Jay I. Nichols was educated in the common schools and also attended the high school. Starting in life on his own account at twenty-one years of age, he settled upon the place where he now lives and has made it one of the most productive farms in Wapsinonoc township. He has applied up-to-date methods and made use of the latest machinery, devoting himself not only to agriculture but also to stock-raising with most gratifying results. He is now retired from active labor, having rented his farm to others. He has taken a deep interest in all subjects pertaining to agriculture and has served as president of the Iowa Condensed Milk Company, the Union District Agricultural Society, and for five years was a member of the Muscatine county board of supervisors and was instrumental in instituting a number of improvements which have been of practical value to the county. Politically a republican, he has wielded a strong influence in the councils of the party and served as representative of the forty-second district in the twenty-ninth, thirtieth and thirty-first general assemblies and also as state senator for a term of four years, from 1906 to 1910. In all his duties, both public and private, he has displayed a judgment and discrimination that have reflected credit upon himself and those with whom he has been associated.
On the 23d of November, 1876, Mr. Nichols was united in marriage to Miss Lucy M. Birkett, who was born in Muscatine county, November 24, 1856, a daughter of Thomas and Lucy (Hargreaves) Birkett. Her father was born in England and her mother in New Jersey. They were married in the east and early in the '50s came to Muscatine county, where Mr. Birkett gained a high standing as a farmer. His wife passed away in 1859 and Mr. Birkett was married two years later to Susannah Hargreaves, a sister of his first wife. Mrs. Susannah Birkett died in 1896 but he is still living as the age of eighty-one years in West Liberty. By his first union two children were born: Lucy M., now Mrs. Jay I. Nichols; and Charles, deceased. By his second union Mr. Birkett became the father of the following children: Lilla, now the wife of Ed. Fitzgerald, of West Liberty; Edith, the wife of Charles Mosher, of West Liberty; Bertha, the wife of Walter Mosher, also of West Liberty; Leslie, who died in infancy; Vincent, now living on the old homestead; Lindley, also on the old homestead; and Frederick, of Kansas City.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Nichols has been brightened by the birth of four children: Fay, born September 14, 1877, who married Miss Lena Schilling, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and has one child, Howard; Ethel G., who was born March 17, 1880, and is now the wife of Wiliam Anderson, living near West Liberty; Wilma B., who was born May 17, 1887, and will graduate in June, 1911, from the State University at Iowa City; and Wayne, who was born June 28, 1896, and is now a student in the junior class of the high school at West Liberty. Fay Nichols graduated from the civil engineering department of the Iowa State College at Ames and served for two years in the Philippine islands as a civil engineer for the United States government. On his return he came around the world and now makes his home in Pittsburg. Ethel G. (Nichols) Anderson is a graduate of thee State University at Iowa City, and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society and also of the Phi Delta sorority. She has a first grade certificate and has taught school for ten years, during five of which she was engaged as a teacher in the high school at Washington, Iowa. Mrs. Nichols was educated in the common schools and also attended an academy at Iowa City, for nine months.
Mr. Nichols and his family are active members of the Methodist Protestant church, and are prominently identified with the social life of the community. He early learned that conscientious application is at the foundation of success and he applied himself with such diligence that he readily attained a competence. By his public spirit, his genial manner and cordial disposition he made many friends and years ago he attained recognition as one of the leading citizens of Muscatine county. Few men have been more closely identified with the development and prosperity of this part of the state. In all his intercourse with his fellowmen, Mr. Nichols has so demeaned himself as to gain their highest esteem and confidence.
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