This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Nichols Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/RRB.2ACE/6064.1 Message Board Post: The following information is from The History of Ischua by the late Sally Squire Pettengill, pps. 36 and 37: Richmond Steven Nichols (b. 1832-d. 1916), a son of James and Mary (Polly) Ireland Nichols, came to Ischua, N.Y., from Bainbridge, Chenango Co., N.Y. in 1867. He became a farmer for a few years, then opened a hotel in 1876. In 1878 he built the Nichols House hotel on Mill Street. It was built next to the original railroad depot and catered to train travelers. The hotel had a bar, where only men were allowed, and a dining room with a large dining-room table where all the guests ate together. The kitchen and pantry were in the back and the rooms for overnight guests were upstairs. The family lived downstairs, a side porch extending off their living quarters. On a Sunday afternoon, the dining room was often frequented by the people of Ischua who came for Sunday dinner. Richmond loved to play cards. Solitaire was a favorite of his, or he and some of ! his cronies could be found gathered around a round card table any time of the day or evening, testing each other's skills at poker, with a big brass spittoon in proximity. These were the days of tobacco chewing, and the conversation was either interrupted or accented by a slight "ping" as a bit of "spit" was aimed and found its target. Many of the "genteel" ladies of the day didn't approve of this habit, but this was a part of the men's world at that time. During some of the years of its existence, square dances were held at the hotel. Richmond's granddaughter, Maxine Nichols Fancher, remembered one particular dance called "The Basket Weave", where the men interlocked arms with the ladies and swung them right off their feet. In a young girl's eyes, it all seemed very rough and noisy;bodies were twirling everywhere! She said she often wondered how the ladies survived the dance! Raymond S. Nichols married, first, Eliza Pike (b. 1839-d. 1870) They had no children! . His children by his second wife, Sarah E. (Nellie) Wickwire (b. 1852 - d. 1884) were Charles Blake (b. 1873 - d. 1939); Grace Blanche (b. 1874 - d. 1943) who married George Allison, M.D.; and Robert Ray (b. 1880 - d. 1918). Flora Gilbert (b. 1865 in Akron, Ohio), the daughter of John and Mary Gilbert, became Richmond's third wife in 1885. She helped him run the hotel and continued to run it after his death with the help of her stepson, Charles. She also took care of her blind sister, Maude, who lived with her. Flo later married Henry Lapp and the hotel was sold. She died in 1938; Henry in 1950 at the age of 79, and they're buried in the Ischua Village Cemetery. Richmond and his first two wives are also buried there, but there's no tombstone marking his grave. The oldest son, Charles B. Nichols, married Adeline Clayson (b. 1879 - d. 1960), a daughter of Thomas and Mary Thomas Clayson. He was Supervisor of Ischua from 1905 to 1915 and became Cattaraugus C! ounty Sheriff about 1916. He and Addie eventually left Ischua and moved to Los Angeles, California, where he is buried in the Veterans National Cemetery. He was a Spanish American War veteran. Addie is buried in Cuba, N.Y. The youngest son, Robert R. Nichols, married Arlene Elliott (b. 1880 - d. 1918), the daughter of George and Margaret Hamilton (or Hambleton) Elliott of Ischua, and had two children: Maxine (b. 1912 - d. 1984), who married Lester Fancher and lived in California, and Ruth (b. 1915), who married, first, Michael Koziar and second, George Janesick.