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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published by John M. Gresham & Co. in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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IRA C. NICHOLS. Of the various great industries of the United States, few have more capital invested or more people employed in its different branches than the lumber business, beginning at the standing tree and following the log through its various processes of manufacture and sale until the finished stock is delivered to the carpenter, who skillfully manipulates his tools and leaves the result of his labors in a place of usefulness. A leading representative of this great business is Ira C. Nichols, of Kennedy, who is a son of Andrew and Cordelia (Holcomb) Nichols, and was born at Clayton, Jefferson county, this State, March 16, 1840. His ancestors came from New England to northwestern New York. David Nichols was born in Claverack, New York, about 1780, and emigrated to Jefferson county during the first decade of the present century; he was a tiller of the soil, and died, about 1830, at Cape Vincent. He married a Miss Dimmick, and their union resulted in six children. During the war of 1812 he served in the capacity of an ammunition charger. Mr. Nichols was a man of thrift, energy and economy, and cast his sympathies with the whigs. Sullivan Holcomb was the father of subject’s mother, and came to Jefferson county from the State of Connecticut, where he was born about 1776; settling at a point near Cape Vincent, he prepared him a beautiful home and lived ninety years to enjoy it. Having married Abigail Lee, a daughter of Seth Lee, he became the father of five children. Like subject’s paternal grandfather, he served in America’s second fight with Great Britain, and took a prominent part as private and officer. Andrew Nichols was a native of western Oneida county, New York, where he was born April 2, 1806. He went with his parents to Jefferson county, and thence, in 1870, to Chautauqua county, and settled at Kennedy. He died May 13, 1891, in the last mentioned village at the unusual age of eighty-five years. He followed farming and lumbering, the latter mainly along the St. Lawrence river. He married Cordelia Holcomb in 1830, and she bore him eight children, five sons and three daughters. Politically he was a democrat, and took an active and enthusiastic part in partisan matters. He was a member of the Methodist church, had a seat on the local school board and amassed his competency through his own industry and business tact.

Ira C. Nichols spent the first twenty-two years of his life in Clayton, and then, in 1862, he enlisted in Company M, l0th New York Artillery, and served three years and four months. His superior officers recognized his ability, recommended him for promotion, and he was given a lieutenancy in the 13th regiment, U. S. colored troops, heavy artillery. He was acting commissary at Cumberland Gap; was under fire at Cold Harbor and spent two months in the trenches before Petersburg during that long siege. While at Eddyville, Kentucky, he was captured by the Confederates but was soon after again at liberty. Immediately after returning from the army he came to Kennedy and embarked in the lumber business and has been located there ever since. He votes with the Republican party and has held several local offices. Mr. Nichols is a public-spirited man and has done much to build up the town of Kennedy in a material way, and the schools have been improved by his services on the board of control.

In July, 1867, he married Salina Abbey, of Clayton, New York, a daughter of Samuel Abbey, and their union has resulted in the birth of five children: three sons, E. Ross, Lynn A. and Leigh S., and two daughters, Mary and Edna. All of these live at home and make a pleasant and happy family.

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This family biography is one of 658 biographies included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published in 1891. 

View additional Chautauqua County, New York family biographies here: Chautauqua County, New York Biographies

View a map of 1897 Chautauqua County, New York here: Chautauqua County, New York Map

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