Butte County
Biographies
NICHOLL BROTHERS
NICHOLL
BROTHERS.--The enterprising firm of Nicholl
Brothers consists of John Gault, Charles Francis and
James Milton Nicholl, sons of the late John and Helen
(Gault) Nicholl, pioneers
of Butte County,
and perhaps the best known of all the families who have ever lived on Butte
Creek. John Nicholl
was a well-known miner in the early days, as well as an expressman. He met an accidental death at the age of
sixty-three years, in 1890, as a result of concussion of the brain caused in a
run-away.
John Nicholl was
born in County Antrim, Ireland,
and came to America
when he was a lad of twelve years, and through sheer force of character he
succeeded in making his own way and gaining a good education. He became a good bookkeeper and was engaged
with some of the leading firms in New York City until the
news of the discovery of gold in California
reached him. He sailed from New
York via Panama and
arrived in San Francisco on July 5, 1849. He at once proceeded to the mining country and
operated in Tuolumne, Shasta, Placer, Eldorado and Nevada
Counties. He was mining in Grass
Valley in 1850 and opened a general
sore there which he successfully conducted for over a year. He was a genial, affable man and made many
friends, counting among his personal friends many of the noted miners of the
state at that early period. He was
successful in business and saved his money, and went back to New
York via Nicaragua
in 1852 to visit home.
The elder Nicholl
was united in marriage in 1853, in New York, with Miss
Helen Gault, who was born in New
York State. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Nicholl returned to California via Panama and started
mining at Oregon Gulch, later he came to what was known as Helltown,
on the west side of Big Butte Creek, and took up a homestead and mineral
claim. These he nicely improved by
building a comfortable house, suitable barns and built a good stone fence, as
well as by setting out a family orchard, consisting of orange, fig, pear,
peach, plum, persimmon, pawpaw , and apple trees. Aside from placer-mining, he engaged
extensively in the stock business and met with more than the ordinary degree of
success that usually attended men at that period. In 1857 he was joined by his
wife and their son John, who was born in New York,
coming via Panama, and landing in San
Francisco from the Golden Age; thereafter they made
their home on his model ranch and Mr. Nicholl
enlarged his operations, building up from a firm foundation. The ranch was located at Sunnyside, about a
quarter of a mile west from Helltown and two and one
half miles from Whiskey Flat, and about a mile from Paradise Flat. Together with his other business, he carried
on an express business, running out of Oroville. For eight and one half years he carried
express and papers from Oroville to points on the way to Sunnyside.
The home life of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholl was ideal.
Mrs. Nicholl kept the family together and was
a most devoted wife and mother. She died
in 1907 at the age of seventy-six years and four months, mourned by all who had
known her, for her high moral character and sympathetic disposition. Mr. Nicholl served
as deputy sheriff for many years and was impartial in the discharge of the
duties imposed upon him by that office.
His father, Samuel Nicholl, was also born in Ireland
and came to California with his
family in 1855. He died, at the age of
sixty-six years and was buried in the cemetery at Centerville,
with Masonic honors, having been a charter member of Chico Lodge, No. 111, F. &
A. M. Mr. and Mrs. John Nicholl left three children: John Gault, who was
born in Ballston Spa, N. Y., on May 23, 1854; Charles Francis, who was born in Butte
County, on December 4, 1858; and James Milton,
who was born in Butte County,
on September 10, 1866.
Nicholl Brothers
are farming and carrying on an extensive stock business, and James Milton
engages in teaming to Chico,
driving a four-horse team and doing much heavy freighting. They all work together in harmony, are
enterprising and industrious, and have added to the original farm of three
hundred twenty acres left by their father, and now own seven hundred sixty
acres. They still maintain the old Nicholl home and dispense the California
hospitality now so seldom found by those traveling about the state. They are interested
in California history and have collected many relics of
pioneer times and of the Indians, and are well versed in local history of Butte
County.
Transcribed
by Priscilla Delventhal.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 594-595, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Priscilla
Delventhal.
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