Joshua and Isaac Nichols moved to Marion County, AL by way of Bedford County, TN. According to bounty-land applications filed in Marion County, AL, they served in the War of 1812 from Sumter District, SC. Joshua's military papers state that he was discharged in Charleston, SC and his place of rendezvous after discharge was Salem County, SC. In 2003, I posted the contents of Joshua's and Isaac's bounty land applications to the Marion County Message Board at Rootsweb. You will find the information at the following links. http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.alabama.counties.marion/1090/mb.ashx http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.alabama.counties.marion/1090/mb.ashx Joshua and Isaac Nichols are both listed on the 1820 Sumter County, SC census. Joshua is listed living alone and Isaac is listed as having a wife and children. I have a set of old South Carolina Maps and they show the evolvement of the South Carolina Counties. Salem County the place of Joshua's rendezvous (see above) was done away with sometime between 1810 and 1820 and I believe that put them in the newly formed county of Sumter. After the 1820 Sumter, SC census was taken, it appears that Joshua and Isaac Nichols moved to Bedford County, TN where Isaac's first wife died and he then married Chania/Chaney Cochran in Bedford County. Chania as Isaac's widow filed for bounty land in Marion County and she said in her application that she married Isaac Nichols on the 22 September 1826 in Bedford County, TN and that Isaac died in Marion County, AL on 9 May 1847, aged 57 years. Joshua Nichols married Elizabeth Cochran. Proof of Elizabeth's maiden name is found in her daughter Mary Elizabeth (Nichols) Wiginton's death certificate which says her father was Joshua Nichols and her mother was Elizabeth Cochran. It may be that Chania and Elizabeth were sisters and that Joshua married Elizabeth after moving to Bedford County. James C. Lawler's first book of Marion County land records, entitled "First Land Settlers of Marion County, AL, 1820-1850" lists Isaac Nichols in "Section 33, Township 9, Range 14, Certificate #19562, dated 30 Oct 1844. In Mr. Lawler's second land book, entitled "Land Settlers of Marion County, AL, 1851-1860's", Benjamin Nichols is listed in this same Section, Township and Range. Certificate # 29146, dated 4 Oct 1858. According to Marion County Section, Townsh8ip and Range map, this land is located near Bethany Church. I've been told that a record found in Benjamin Nichols' granddaughter's papers states that Benjamin's parents were Isaac and Mary Alice Nichols. According to Benjamin Nichols tombstone at one of the Nichols cemeteries in Marion County, he died 23 Dec. 1887 - age about 62 years. By this tombstone record, he apparently was born about 1825, the year before Chania Cochran married Isaac Nichols. Jimmie