Sacramento County

Biographies

 

H. L. NICHOLS, A. M., M. D.

 

H. L. Nichols, A. M. , M. D.—The oldest practicing physician in Sacramento is Dr. Nichols, the subject of this sketch; born in the city of Augusta, Maine, his parents being Asaph R. and Lucy (Lambard) Nichols.  His father, a prominent attorney at law holding many positions of responsibility and trust, having been clerk of the Supreme Court for many years and Secretary of State, also postmaster; he died in 1860, at the age of sixty-five years, while his mother reached the advance age of eighty-one.  Both families were prominent in the annals of New England, going from Massachussetts to Maine about the year 1800.  The Doctor’s preliminary education was had in his native city, and he graduated from the medical department of the celebrated Bowdoin College, in the class of ’45, subsequently taking a post-graduate course at the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia; he returned to his native city and at once commenced upon the practice of his profession.  In the meantime his maternal uncle, Allen Lambard, had emigrated to Sacramento, in 1852, and had, in connection with General Redington, established the Lambard Flouring Mills, located on the corner of Second and I streets, and also the Sacramento Iron Works, where the driving wheels of the first locomotive ever used on a California railway were turned.  And it was owing to Uncle Lambard’s enthusiastic description of the opportunities to be had in California, that the Doctor concluded to migrate to the Golden State, which he did in 1853, landing in Sacramento in January of that year, and, opening an office at Second and I streets, began the practice of his profession, which has been continued without interruption, except by official duties as will appear further on, for over thirty-six years.  Earnestly anxious for the advancement of his adopted city, the Doctor early became interested in political matters, and in the campaign of 1858 was chosen president of the board of county supervisors, and under the bill known as the Consolidation Act, was, as president of the board ex-officio mayor of the city.  In 1867 he was elected Secretary of State, holding that position for four years, and ex-officio member of the Capitol Commission and the Board of State Prison directors.  He was appointed by Governor Haight one of the Trustees of the State Library, filling the unexpired term of Governor Bigler.  For six years he has been a member of the State Board of Health, and secretary of that association; he is also the health officer of the Capital City.  The Doctor was married in 1847, prior to his coming to California, to Miss Cole, daughter of Samuel Cole, a merchant of Augusta, Maine, and a scion of an old New England family.  They have one son and two daughters.  It will readily be seen that the Doctor’s life has been an unusually busy one, strictly devoted to the advancement and well-being of the cause of humanity.  In politics he has been a life-long Democrat, casting his first vote for President James K. Polk, but never a partisan in the offensive sense of the term; he was on the reception committee at the time of the visit of Horace Greeley to Sacramento in 1859, and presided at the mass meeting held at the St. George building upon that occasion, and also at the meeting held at the celebration of the laying of the Atlantic-cable in 1859.

 

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 477-478. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

© 2005 Karen Pratt.