John Louis NICKLES

NICKLES, DIDIO, FRAKES, DOOLITTLE, MOURLAM

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 12/30/2014 at 14:29:21

John L. Nickles

Modern agriculture, no less than other fields of interest, is demanding a superior type of men in order to keep step with the modern march of civilization. Progressive methods are as necessary to scientific farming as they are in business or in professional life. Therefore it is not surprising that John L. Nickles, who has always kept abreast with the times, is in the vanguard of the farming industry as pursues in this county. He is the possessor of a well-equipped and splendidly improved farm located seven miles east of Woolstock.

John L. Nickles, who was born on June 27, 1870, is the son of John L., Sr., and Mary (Didio) Nickles. The senior Nickles, as well as his son, was born in Vosges, France, the birth date of the former being 1846. He died at the home of his son, John, in 1896, being fifty years of age. He was one of a large family consisting of nine children, of whom three were boys and six girls. Of these, two, John L., Sr. and a sister came to America. John L., Sr., was a sawyer by trade, and this he followed during all of his life in France. There he was educated, grew up and was married, and died at his home in Wall Lake township in 1896. Their only child was John L., who was named for his father.

It was in the 1875 when Mr. and Mrs. Nickles left their home in France for America, and their boy was then four years of age. They first settled on a rented farm in La Salle county, Illinois, and after three years residence there removed to this county, renting one hundred and sixty acres in Wall Lake township, this land belonging to Mrs. Nickles's father. With courage and hope these good people made their home in the wilderness, a place of beauty and profit. Mr. Nickles, later, purchased forty acres of this farm and John L., Jr. has since bought the other one hundred and twenty acres. One hundred and sixty acres north of this land is also owned by John L. Nickles, Jr.

When his parents brought him to this county, John L. Nickles was a lad of seven summers. He attended the old Waterman district school and later took a business course at Highland Park and Shenandoah. Until his twenty-second year he was a valuable assistant to his father. He was at that time married to Sadie Frakes, a native of Woolstock, being born there in 1875. The wedding took place on March 19, 1892. The bride is the daughter of John and Ida (Doolittle) Frakes, who were among the early settlers who came to this county. Sadie was the second born of this family. Her elder sister, whose name was Elizabeth, is deceased, as is also her next younger sister, Lottie, the youngest being Ilo. Since their marriage they have resided on the old homestead, which now consists of three hundred and twenty acres of well-improved land in sections 20 and 29, of Wall Lake township.

An attractive eight-room house, well situated, a large and commodious barn, forty-eight by sixty-four feet, a double corn-crib, granary and other buildings, complete the structural equipment of this estate. Mr. Nickles raises from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty acres of corn, averaging fifty bushels to the acre, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five acres of small grain. He feeds about one hundred and twenty-five head of hogs and keeps about fifty head of dairy and beef stock.

To Mr. and Mrs. Nickles have been born a family of seven children, these being Rayner, Lula (now Mrs. Alfred Mourlam and residing on a part of the parental farm), Ilo, Mary, Myrtle, Louis and Lottie.

Mr. Nickles is a member of Camp No. 9 and Canton No. 23, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Webster City; he is also a member of Woodstock Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, and the Modern Brotherhood of America. He votes with the Republican party and has been a trustee for the past ten years, and previous to that time was for six years township assessor. The long time of office with which Mr. Nickles was honored, both as trustee and assessor, speaks volumes regarding his trustworthiness as a public official and as a man. Public duty is to him a sacred obligation, and in payment for the confidence of his fellow men he has rendered efficient and honorable service. His geniality and ability to keep the friends he has made has given him a large acquaintance in the county which is proud to claim him as one of its representative agriculturists.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES IN HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY IOWA ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS BY HON. B.P. BIRDSALL, B.P. Bowen & Co., Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, 1915, page 465.