Charles R. Nichols, of the town of New Lisbon, was born in the town of
Laurens in 1840.  He is a son of Abraham D. Nichols, who was born in New
Hampshire in 1806, and died in September, 1887.  His wife, the mother of the
subject of this sketch, was Almira Washburne, and she was born, it is
thought, in the State of New York.  They were married in Otsego County in
1828.  Mr. Nichols was a carpenter by trade, and lived in the town of
Laurens.  His wife died when our subject was a babe of six months.  She left
three children, viz:  John, now a tinsmith  in New Berlin, Chenango County;
Ensign living in Bainbridge, a farmer and dealer in tinware by wagon; and
Charles R.  Mr. Nichols was married the second time, to Julia Ann Thomas, of
Morris, and daughter of John Thomas.  by this marriage there are now living
four daughters and one son, viz:  Abraham, Mary and Julia (twins), Freelove
and Abigail.  Mary is the wife of Frank Perry, of Oneonta, and Julia is the
widow of Monroe Hinman, of Portlandville.  The mother of these children died
in Laurens when past middle life.
 
Charles R. Nichols was reared at home by his stepmother until he was eight
years of age, at which time he went out to work, and earned the first pair
of shoes he remembers having.   At the age of eighteen he bought his time of
his father, who had collected his wages up to that time.  His first summer's
wages were his food and a second-hand cotton coat, but he soon received from
$4 to $5 per month, the highest wages he received before the war being $13
per month.  In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company I, 121st New York
Volunteer Infantry, under Captain John Kidder.  He served in the army until
the battle of Fredericksburg, in which he was badly wounded in teh left arm,
near the shoulder, by a minie ball.  He was taken prisoner, and three days
elapsed before the arm was amputated.  The three days were to him a living
death, and added an age to his life.  At length his arm was unjointed at the
shoulder by a Confederate surgeon, named Todd, who was a brother of Mrs.
Abraham Lincoln.  He was most skillful in his profession, to which fact Mr.
Nichols is a living testimony, as not one person in a thousand survives such
an operation.  Mr. Nichols was as well cared for as possible in the church
barracks which were used.  Many others were taken prisoners at the same time
  and were placed in the Potomac Creek Hospital, in Virginia.  He remained
there three weeks, and was then removed to the Haddinton Hospital, in
Philadelphia, remaining there some six weeks, and arriving at his father's
home in Laurens in August, 1863.
 
His first work after coming home from the battlefield was to clerk in a
hotel in West Laurens, then quite a business little town.  Two years later
he went to school in New Berlin, and there took a six-months course in the
academy, learning single and double entry bookkeeping.  He was married, at
West Laurens, September 28, 1865, to Miss Alvira J. Harrington, of New
Lisbon, daughter of Matthew and Susan (Adams) Harrington, the former of whom
was a farmer, and died in 1851, at the age of sixty-five.  They were the
parents of seven children, five sons and two daughters, of whom Mrs. Nichols
was the youngest.  Three of them are still living:  Asa, in the stone quarry
business at Lanesboro, PA.: Mary, wife of David Weeks, of Hartwick; and Mrs.
Nichols.
 
Mrs. and Nichols have lived on the farm most of their lives since leaving the hotel, 
and have resided in their present home twenty-three years.  Here they have forty 
acres of land, most of which is cleared.  Mr. Nichols has a portable steam 
engine and sawmill, attending to the engine himself.  He is engaged in the 
manufacture of lumber.  His two sons, Albert H. and  Charles W., are engaged 
with him as sawyers.  They are both married, and each has a little son.   Albert 
H. married Cora E. Bard, and Charles W. married Flora Goodenough.  Mr. Nichols 
as followed the auctioneering business for the past twenty years, and has sold 
many thousand head of cattle and many thousand dollars' worth of property.  He 
spent the winters of 1887 and 1888 in Albany, as orderly and messenger.  He is a 
stanch Republican, and was Town collector one year, having been elected in spite 
of a  Democratic majority of eighty in the town.  he spent seventeen years ona 
cart as tin peddler, and made of the the business a great success.  Mr. and Mrs. 
Nichols are both young looking and active, notwithstanding they have two little 
grandsons.  Mr. Nichols was a brave and patriotic soldier, and was one of those 
who were ready to lay down their lives on their country's altar.  Such as he the 
Nation delights to honor.