| Home Surname List Name Index Sources | Fifth Generation117. John H. B. Nichols3,4,12,20,29,30,31,32,33,34.
Birth: 16 September 1849, Sevierville, Sevier County, Tennessee.12,20
Parents: James P. Catlett and Sarah F. (Sally) Nichols.
Census: 1850, Sevier County, Tennessee.12 Obituary: Sevierville, Sevier County, Tennessee, Montgomery Vindicator, April 14, 1926. Death Certificate: "A few years after my grandfather John Nichols married, he went to Missouri, no doubt near the place where some of the Flayl Nichols families had gone. He later sent for his family and they went on to Missouri. The climate did not agree with his wife Martha or his daughter Loretta at all, they having the chills and the fever. It did not seem to affect my father Frank too much as he was just a tiny baby in arms. His wife and the children returned to East Tennessee, their physical condition being very poor from the chills and fever. My grandfather stayed on in Missouri." "It took a long time for my grandmother and Aunt Loretta to fully recover from their illness and she was most reluctant to go back to Missouri although my grandfather urged her to come back. They finally drifted apart and my grandmother divorced him." "John Nichols, my grandfather, did not return to East Tennessee for thirty-three years. During that time his mother, Sally Nichols, died and my father had died from drowning." (Note: Wyatt's father was Robert Russell Wyatt Nichols who died in 1897.) "I remember the first time I saw my grandfather Nichols. I was about five or six years old. Mother took us children to Uncle Wyatt Nichols' home at Nichols Ferry and he and all his immediate family met there and spent the day." (Note: Uncle Wyatt Nichols must have been Wyatt F. Nichols who was Wyatt's great granduncle rather than his uncle -- the brother of his great grandmother Sally Nichols. Wyatt F. Nichols did not die until 1903 when Wyatt himself would have been seven years old.) "He then took up residence at Sevierville, Tenn. with his two sisters Aunt Mary and Aunt Nancy Nichols. Here he resided until his death." "My own home was about ten miles from Sevierville and we were able to go visit him occasionally." "I remember on several occasions my brother Ralph and myself spent several nights with him as my Uncle John McAndrew was in the lumber business and he sold lots of lumber in Sevierville. We would ride from home to Sevierville on the lumber wagons and spend a few days with him, especially during the summer school vacation." "He had a very fine personality and was liked by everyone whom he came in contact with. I never saw him show any emotion but once. Ralph and I were spending the night with him and sometime during the night he had come over to the bed in which my brother and I were sleeping and as I awakened he was sobbing as if his heart would break. I was about ten years of age at that time. I knew then that he was a good man at heart and no doubt wished more desperately that if circumstances could have only been different he no doubt would have been a very happy man." (Note: Wyatt was ten years old in 1906.) "He was a very fine horse trader and mule trader and I have often said to my cousin John Cox that he came by his mule trading honestly as our grandfather was one of the best in the business." "As I grew older and would see him more frequently, he seemed to take delight in getting me into arguments about Republicans and Democrats. I have been raised a staunch Republican and he a Democrat since 1892. He told me in the Panic or Depression under the Grover Cleveland Administration of 1892, he made more money then, than he ever did in his life. He was in Chicago at that time. He would buy up old scrub mules and horses for a little or nothing and take them to Wisconsin. There he would trade them to the Swedish farmers for their fine stock and give them a little money to boot so they could pay their taxes in order to keep their farms. Then he would bring the fine stock back to Chicago and sell them to the wealthy people of that area and make a tremendous profit. He said ever since he had been a Democrat." "He was a tax assessor in Sevierville for quite a few years and was liked and respected by everyone." "He lived long enough to see quite a few of his great grandchildren, including my own daughter Roberta. I remember the last time he saw him. My wife and I and our daughter Roberta, who was about one and half years of age at that time, arrived at his home and there was just a little bit of snow on the ground, it no doubt would have melted in an hour. He grabbed Roberta out of my arms and dashed up the street, returning a little while later with a little pair of overshoes for my daughter and also a pair for my wife. That is the last time I saw him alive. He died in 1926 and is buried in the Shiloh Cemetery just a few miles outside of Sevierville." "I cannot help from thinking that if fate had been a little more kind to him and my grandmother, he would have gone far in his lifetime. I know that his he was kind and well liked by all that knew him. I also knew that my grandmother was one of the finest and best women that ever lived." John H. B. Nichols and Martha P. Reneau. Marriage: 8 April 1871, Jefferson County, Tennessee, John H. B. Nichols, to Martha P. Reneau.35 Divorce: about 1881, from Martha P. Reneau. Martha P. Reneau1,3,30,33,34,37,38,39,40, daughter of Isaac Wesley Reneau and Leana Burchfiel,.
Birth: 24 December 1851, Jefferson County, Tennessee.40 It is suspected that her middle name was Priscilla. She was the granddaughter of Priscilla Denton. She was the grandmother of Ruby Priscilla Cox. It seems likely that the name "Priscilla" came down through the generations, skipping a generation each time.
Parents: Isaac Wesley (Wesley) Reneau and Leana (Seanie) Burchfiel.
Census: 1860, Jefferson County, Tennessee. The following text about Martha's burial is from The Nichols Book by Wyatt Nichols. "She was originally buried at Muddy Creek where many of her people were buried. But later when Douglas Dam was built across the French Broad River all the bodies had to be moved from that cemetery because water covered it and the Federal Government made a new cemetery at a place called Hills Chapel. This cemetery is on the Dandridge-Chestnut Hill highway about half way between the places. Her second husband, John Cox, is also buried there." The cemetery referred to by Wyatt Nichols as Muddy Creek was also known as Pleasant Hill. The conventional modern name of Hills Chapel where she was re-interred is Hills Union United Methodist Church Cemetery. Burial: Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Jefferson County, Tennessee.41 The following general text about Martha is from The Nichols Book by Wyatt Nichols. "Martha P. Reneau Nichols, My Grandmother. Martha P. Reneau Nichols was born in 1850. She was the oldest child of Wesley and Senie Burchfield Reneau. Her father was of French Hugenot ancestry." "Martha P. Reneau married my grandfather, John Nichols about 1870, after living in Sevierville a few years, then going to Missouri and later returning to East Tennessee because of ill health. After a few years my grandmother and grandfather drifted apart and she finally divorced him. A few years later she married John Cox from Greene County, Tennessee. He was a widower and had five children. They lived in Greene County awhile and later came back to Jefferson County." "As I remember my grandmother, she was one of the finest women I have ever known. She was beautiful and had a very fine personality and one of the fine singers of that country. Not only was she all those things, but she was said to have been one of the best spinners and weavers and tailoress of that area, spinning the thread and weaving the cloth and making most of the garments for her family. The memory of her beautiful voice while sewing is something that I shall always cherish all my life." "She was deeply religious and staunch Methodist and one of the best loved women in Jefferson County. Her favorite hymn was "I Need Thee Every Hour". John H. B. Nichols-3262 and Martha P. Reneau-3263 had the following children:
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