Elizabeth Nichols

NICHOLS, JOHNS, RODGERS, JAMISON, STEPHEN, SEARL

Posted By: Charlene Nichols Hixon (email)
Date: 3/9/2009 at 13:51:47

Elizabeth Nichols was the oldest daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann “Polly” Rodgers Nichols; born 1 April 1828 in Fayette or Ross county, Ohio.
When Elizabeth was nearly ten years old, her father left Ohio to locate a new home in the Iowa Territory. He traveled with an Ohio friend, H. H. Winchester, to Muscatine county, where he bought the claim from a family named Carothers, the first settlers in the area.
Shortly after he returned from Ohio, on 5 January 1839, her mother died, probably from pneumonia. Her father decided to go ahead with the move to Iowa, so the family joined the wagon train arranged by Samuel’s sister, Elizabeth Jamison and her family. The entire group arrived in Louisa county in eastern Iowa in 1840.
Elizabeth and her younger brother and sisters stayed with their aunt and uncle, Merit and Elizabeth Nichols Jamison, in Louisa county while their father, Samuel, and her older brother, Benjamin, built the log cabin in Pike township, along the Wapsinonoc Creek in Muscatine county. [1840 Census of Muscatine County, Iowa, shows Samuel Nichols and a male aged 10-15 years.]

When Samuel married Nancy Stephen Searl in Louisa county on 17 February 1842 [Louisa County Marriage Records, Iowa Genealogical Society, page 4], the family settled into the log cabin which stood on the grounds where the Nichols Cemetery is now located. Nancy was the widow of Doctor Reuben S. Searl. [History of Louisa County, Iowa, volume 1, by Arthur Springer. Chicago. The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. 1912. page 257.]

Elizabeth met Hosea Johns, and they were married on 30 December 1848 in Samuel’s log cabin. [Brossart, Muscatine county, Iowa, Early Marriages, 1837-1879, page 7]

Hosea had been married before, and he brought children with him to this marriage.

Elizabeth’s only child was a daughter, Mary Melissa Johns, born 8 September 1849 in the log cabin. [Family Bible record]

The 1850 census of Pike township, Muscatine county, Iowa, shows family number 42-42:

Hosea Johns, age 37, born in Maryland

Elizabeth Johns, age 22, born in Ohio

George S Johns, age 14, born in Maryland

Loretta Johns, age 12, born in Maryland

Malise M Johns, age 1 born in Iowa.

Elizabeth’s step-daughter, Loretta Johns, died 31 March 1851.

Soon after, Hosea determined that his family would move with him to a new home in Texas. So they started in a covered wagon for Austin, Travis county, Texas.

The family story tells us that Elizabeth died in 1855 on the trip while in St. Joseph, Buchanan county, Missouri, aged 27 years. Another source says that she died 23 December 1852 in St. Joseph, Missouri. [No proof for either date or place, but I am inclined to believe the 1852 date.]

Melissa was very young, so she was returned to Iowa, where she lived with her grandparents, Samuel and Nancy Nichols.