Nic-Nye: Nicholas through Nye

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


NICHOLAS, John, 1756(?)-1819, jurist.  Democratic Member of U.S. Congress from Virginia, 1793-1801.  Opposed slavery as Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 511; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, p. 483; Locke, Mary Stoughton. Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808). Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901, pp. 93, 160; Annals of Congress). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, p. 483:

NICHOLAS, JOHN (1756?-December 31, 1819), member of Congress from Virginia, brother to George, Wilson Cary, and Philip . Norborne Nicholas [qq.v.], and son of Robert Carter [q.v.] and Anne (Cary) Nicholas, was born in Williamsburg, Virginia. Almost nothing is known of his early life, but being the second son of the Treasurer of the Colony, he doubtless received every advantage that the little provincial capital afforded. It appears that he attended the College of William and Mary, studied law, and practised for a time in Williamsburg, but his career was interrupted by the outbreak of the Revolution, which occasioned the removal of his family to the comparative safety of an estate in Hanover County. Though at some time during his career John lost the use of one of his eyes, he appears to have continued his studies or his practice during the war, and to have taken no part in military operations. In 1781, on the death of his father, his family removed from Hanover to Albemarle County. It is not clear that John followed them to their new home, for we presently find him located in Stafford County, where he married Anne Lawson, daughter of Gavin Lawson, by whom he had eleven children. In 1793 he was elected to the Federal House of Representatives and, being thrice reelected, served until 1801. He came to be recognized as one of the leading supporters of the Republican cause on the floor of the House. He was effective in debate, and his speech advocating repeal of the Sedition Act was published in 1799 as a Republican pamphlet and later included by Alexander Johnson in his collection of Representative American Orations (1884, I, 83-95). Nicholas appears to have suffered financially as a consequence of his public service, and in 1799 desired to give up his seat in Congress but consented to serve another term in the interest of the Republican cause. It was presumably due to this economic situation that he finally retired from public life in 1801 and two years later removed to Geneva, Ontario County, New York (Manning J. Dauer, "The Two John Nicholases," American Historical Review, January, 1940, 338-53). In his new home he engaged in agricultural pursuits and in 1806 was elected to the state senate, which place he held until 1809. From 1806 until 1819 he acted as judge of the court of common pleas of Ontario County. He died at his home in Geneva on December 31, 1819, and was interred in Glenwood Cemetery. Little is known of his private life except that he was a devout member of the Episcopal Church.

[There is a meager account of John Nicholas in the Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); and another Alexander Brown, The Cabells and their Kin (1895), pp. 200-01. See also: Louise P. da Bellet, Some Prominent Virginia Families (n.d.), volume II; Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, July 1901; Ori, Clark, A Funeral Address, Delivered at the Interment of the Hon. John Nicholas I820 (n.d.); Richmond Enquirer, January 15, 1820.)

T.P.A. 

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 511:

NICHOLAS, John, jurist, born in Williamsburg, Virginia, 19 January, 1761; died in Geneva, New York, 31 December, 1819, was elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 2 December, 1793, till 3 March, 1801. He removed to Geneva, New York, in 1803, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. From 1806 till 1809 he was a state senator, and he was first judge of the court of common pleas in Ontario county from 1806 until his death.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 511.


NICHOLS, C.C., Chelsea, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1850, Executive Committee, 1850.


NICHOLS, Clarina Irene Howard (January 25, 1810-January 11, 1885), reformer, editor, publicist. In October 1854, with her two eldest sons, she joined a company of 225 emigrants to Kansas. She went directly to Lawrence and at once began lecturing and speaking on woman's rights.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, pp. 490-491:

NICHOLS, CLARINA IRENE HOWARD (January 25, 1810-January 11, 1885), reformer, editor, publicist, was born in Townshend, Windham County, Vermont, of English and Welsh ancestry. She was the daughter of Chapin and Birsha (Smith) Howard and the grand-daughter of Levi Howard or Hayward who removed to Townshend from Milford, Massachusetts, about 1775. She became a teacher in public and private schools and is said to have founded a young ladies' seminary in Herkimer, New York, about 1835. On April 21, 1830, at Townshend she was married to her first husband, Justin Carpenter. On March 6, 1843, she was married, also at Townshend, to George W. Nichols who was the publisher of the Windham County Democrat at Brattleboro. His illness forced her, soon after their marriage, to take the financial and editorial control of his paper. It was in these columns that she began the work for woman's rights that marked the whole of her long career. She wrote editorials from 1843 to 1853, when the paper was discontinued. A series of articles, published in 1847 and addressed to the voters of Vermont, dealt with the property disabilities of women and were important in influencing the passage, in 1848, of the Vermont law to secure to a wife the real estate owned at marriage or thereafter acquired by gift, devise, or inheritance even against the debts of the husband, with the corollary right of disposing of her property by will as if "sole." In 1850 she began speaking for woman's suffrage in her native state, in New Hampshire, and in Massachusetts. In September and October 1853 she traveled 900 miles in the state of Wisconsin as agent of the woman's state temperance society. As a result of her work and that of others, a law was passed by the Wisconsin legislature to secure to the wives of drunkards their own earnings along with the custody and earnings of their minor children.

In October 1854, with her two eldest sons, she joined a company of 225 emigrants to Kansas. She went directly to Lawrence and at once began lecturing and speaking on woman's rights. Her husband followed with another party but died a few months after his arrival. She returned to Vermont to settle his estate and, while in the East, lectured on Kansas and its problems. In the winter and spring of 1856 she also wrote for the Herald of Freedom, published at Lawrence, Kansas, a series of articles dealing with women's legal disabilities. Upon her return to Kansas in 1857 with her daughter and her youngest son she went to Wyandotte County, where for some years she made her home. When in 1859 the constitutional
convention for Kansas met at Wyandotte, she, knitting in hand, the only woman present, sat through its sessions, "watching every step of the proceedings, and laboring with members to so frame the Constitution as to make all citizens equal before the law" (History of Woman Suffrage, post, UI, 704). After the Kansas woman's rights association was formed in 1859, as its representative she attended the session of the first state legislature at Topeka in 1860 and by invitation addressed both houses. For the two years preceding this legislative session she had spoken in the towns and hamlets of Missouri that lay along the Kansas border. In 1860 and 1861 she lectured in Wisconsin and Ohio. From December 1863 to March 1866 she was in Washington, D. C., writing in the military and revenue departments, and acting as matron in the home for colored orphans. She returned to Kansas in 1869 and two years later removed to Mendocino County, Cal. She died in Potter Valley. "A good writer, an effective speaker, and a preeminently brave women," she was "gifted with that ra rest of virtues, common sense." She "may be said to have sown the seeds of liberty in three states in which she resided," Vermont, Kansas, and California (History of Woman Suffrage, post, III, pp. 764-65).

[History of Woman Suffrage, ed. by E. C. Stanton, S. B. Anthony, and M. J. Gage, esp. volumes I, III (1881- 87); Annals of Brattleboro, ed. by M. R. Cabot, volume I (1921); Gazetteer .. . of Windham County, Vermont, comp. by Hamilton Child (1884), p. 304; P. W. Morgan, History of Wyandotte County, Kansas (19II), volume I; records in office of secretary of state, Montpelier, Vermont; clipping from Ukiah (Cal.) City Press, January 16, 1885, in library of the Kansas State Historical Society]

L. K. M. R.


NICHOLS, George Ward (June 21, 1831-September 15, 1885), promoter of art education and music in Cincinnati, author, Union officer with General W.T. Sherman.  From a full diary which he kept while in the service, Nichols immediately compiled a volume entitled The Story of the Great March (1865), which had a sale of 60,000 copies within a year.  This books discussed in detail the emancipation of numerous slaves by the Union Army during the famous march to the sea.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, p. 494:

NICHOLS, GEORGE WARD (June 21, 1831-September 15, 1885), promoter of art education and music in Cincinnati, was born in the village of Tremont, Mount Desert, Maine, the son of John and Esther Todd (Ward) Nichols. His father and grandfather were sea-captains. In 1835 the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where George received a public-school education. He appears to have entered journalism promptly upon leaving school. Later he went to Kansas and was active in the political and military struggle which attended the organization of that state. In 1859 he spent some time in Europe, principally in Paris, where he studied painting under the direction of Thomas Couture, and upon his return was art editor on the New York Evening Post, writing also for magazines. On April 25, 1862, he entered the Union army as a captain, and served at first on the staff of Fremont. Subsequently (1863), he was detailed to assist the provost-marshal general's department in Wisconsin, after which duty he was a recruiting officer until 1864, when he was made aide-de-camp on the personal staff of General Sherman. He accompanied Sherman on his march to the sea and was with him until the conclusion of the war. Upon his resignation he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel of volunteers.

From a full diary which he kept while in the service, Nichols immediately compiled a volume entitled The Story of the Great March (1865), which had a sale of 60,000 copies within a year, besides being reprinted in English newspapers and being translated (it is said) into Spanish, French, and German. Perhaps hoping to repeat this success-which, however, resulted from the fame of Sherman's exploits rather than from Nichols' literary skill-he utilized the same matter in the composition of a war-novel, The Sanctuary (1866). This artless story, conventional in motivation and stilted in language, attracted no widespread attention and was soon completely forgotten.

Shortly after the close of the war, Nichols went to Cincinnati with Sherman, and there met Maria Longworth, aunt of Nicholas Longworth, 1869-1931 [q.v.], whom on May 6, 1868, he married. From this time Cincinnati was his home, and he quickly made himself felt there as an energetic, commanding force, promoting the cultural development of the city. He had much to do with the founding of the School of Design, which was at first a part of the University of Cincinnati and was later transferred to the Art Museum. Convinced that a large and profitable field awaited the employment of trained artists and craftsmen in industry, he busied himself in advancing the cause of art education. In 1877 he published Art Education Applied to Industry, and in 1878 Pottery: How it is Made, its Shape, and Decoration. These are straightforwardly written and well-arranged manuals, on the whole skilfully adapted to their purpose. His most conspicuous and important service to the arts, however, lay in another direction. The Harmonic Society of Cincinnati under his presidency and management gave a series of concerts which were so successful as to suggest a more elaborate undertaking, and in 1872 the May Festival Association was organized with Nichols at its head. The first musical festival took place in 1873, and he continued to direct the affairs of the Association until 1880, during which time three festivals were held. Meanwhile, in 1879, with the aid chiefly of Reuben R. Springer [q.v.], he established the College of Music of Cincinnati and became its first president, a position which he held until his death from pulmonary tuberculosis. He was a born "promoter," with remarkable executive capacity, determination, and self-confidence, with the result "that his career often seemed to those about him too full of his own individuality for the most comfortable enjoyment of easy social friendship" (Cox, post, p. 25). Yet it may be said, in general, that Cincinnati owes its importance as a musical center very largely to his audacity and diligence.

[Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, September 16, 1885; Cincinnati Times-Star, September 15, 1885; Circulars, Papers and Annual Meeting of the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion During the Year 1885 (1887); J. D. Cox, in Memorial Services in Honor of George Ward Nichols . .. March 4, 1887 (1887); C. T. Greve, Centennial History of Cincinnati (1904), volume I; The Biographical Cyclopedia and Portrait Gallery with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio, volume IV (n.d.); Harper's Weekly, September 26, 1885; local records, Town of Mount Desert, Maine]

R. S.


NILES, Hezekiah (October 10, 1777-April 2, 1839), newspaper editor, Niles' Weekly Register.  Niles devoted many editorials to the institution of slavery, which he declared should be abolished, though gradually. While in Delaware he was an officer of the state abolition society.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, pp. 521-522:

NILES, HEZEKIAH (October 10, 1777-April 2, 1839), editor, was born at Jefferis' Ford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, whither his parents had gone for safety just before the battle of the Brandywine. His father, Hezekiah Niles, a plane-maker of Philadelphia, had married Mary Way of Wilmington, Delaware, and moved to the latter place. Both were of the Quaker faith, though the father was "disowned" a few years after going to Wilmington. Though definite record is lacking, it is probable that the younger Hezekiah attended the Friends' School in Wilmington. At seventeen he was apprenticed to Benjamin Johnson, a printer of Philadelphia, with whom he worked for three years, until 1797, when he was released because of his master's lack of funds. Niles's first writing was done in Philadelphia; in 1794 he published in newspapers several essays favoring  protection, and in 1796 arguments against Jay's Treaty. He married Ann, daughter of William Ogden, of Wilmington, May 17, 1798, and they had twelve children. She died in 1824, and two years later Niles married Sally Ann Warner, by whom he had eight children. At the time of his second marriage he was  described by an acquaintance as "a short stout-built man, stooping as he walked, speaking in a high key, addicted to snuff, and with a keen gray eye, that lighted up a plain face with shrewd expression" (J. E. Semmes, John H. B. Latrobe and His Times, 1917, p. 184).

Upon returning to Wilmington in 1797 Niles assisted in publishing an almanac and did job printing. After two years he formed a partnership with Vincent Bonsal, but the partnership was dissolved because of losses incurred in the publication of The Political Writings of John Dickinson (2 volumes, 1801). In 1805, following the failure of a short-lived literary magazine, the Apollo, Niles moved to Baltimore and became editor of the Baltimore Evening Post. This paper supported the Jeffersonian party in all of its policies; it was sold in June 1811, and Niles immediately issued the prospectus for his Weekly Register (later Niles' Weekly Register) which after seven years of publication had over 10,000 subscribers. This paper he edited and published until 1836, with the assistance of his son, William Ogden Niles, from 1827 to 1830, and on it his reputation is based. In these twenty-five years he made it the strongest and most consistent advocate of union, internal improvements, and protection to industry, in the country. Niles was probably as influential as any in the nationalist economic school which sponsored the American System after the War of 1812. He was the intimate associate of Mathew Carey and Henry Clay. He was a principal mover in the protectionist conventions at Harrisburg in 1827 and at New York in 1831; for the former he wrote the address to the people of the United States; of the latter he was the chief secretary (Niles' Weekly Register, August 11, October 13, 1827; November 5, 1831). In each instance he gave spirit and form to the work of the convention, and utilized, besides, his remarkable talents and opportunities as a propagandist in its behalf. His opinions and advocacies developed as he advanced. He opposed the recharter of the first Bank of the United States in 1811, believing it to be unconstitutional and a harmful monopoly. But he espoused the recharter of the second Bank of the United States in Jackson's administration, declaring that it had become a necessity to prosperity. In politics, Niles was a Jeffersonian until 1816 or 1817, when he described himself as a no-party man. On January 10, 1824, he wrote: "I cannot believe that either [Jackson or Calhoun] will be elected, and should regret votes thrown away. I esteem both, personally and politically; and though my private wish is rather for Mr. Adams, I shall be content to accept any other than Mr. Crawford" (Darlington Collection, post). When Jackson came into office in 1829, Niles differed sharply with his policies, and became a Whig.

Niles devoted many editorials to the institution of slavery, which he declared should be abolished, though gradually. While in Delaware he was an officer of the state abolition society. In his arguments for the protective tariff, he exerted himself with much ingenuity to win the agricultural interest to his side. His writing was characterized by vigor and decision. He was a tireless worker, and supplied statistical evidence where many in his group were content with eloquence. Besides a number of pamphlets, he published the Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America (1822). He never held national office, but in Wilmington was twice town clerk and twice assistant burgess; in Baltimore he served two terms in the first branch of the city council. He was elected and reelected (1818-19) grand high priest by the Masonic Order in Maryland. He was a leading figure in the Baltimore Typographical Society. He died in Wilmington.

[R. G. Stone, Hezekiah Niles as an Economist (1933); biographical notices in Niles' National Register (as it was then called), April 6, 13, 1839; Philadelphia North American, April 4, 1839; Baltimore Patriot and Commercial Gazette, April 3, 1839; " Village Record, West Chester, Pennsylvania, Notae Cestrienses, No. 34," in Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Colls. The Register is the best source for his opinions and activities. See also H Clay and Darlington collections in MSS. Div., Library of Congress; E. T. Schultz, History of Freemasonry in Maryland, II (1855); J. S. Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1881); Edward Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth Century (1903), volume I.]

B.M.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 521:

NILES, Hezekiah, editor, born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, 10 October, 1777; died in Wilmington, Delaware, 2 April, 1839. He learned printing, and about 1800 became a member of an unsuccessful publishing firm in Wilmington. He then removed to Baltimore, Maryland, where for six years he edited a daily paper. He is chiefly known as the founder, printer, and publisher of “Niles's Register,” a weekly journal published in Baltimore, which he edited from 1811 until 1836, and which is considered so valuable as a source of information concerning American history that the first 32 volumes, extending from 1812 till 1827, were reprinted. The “Register” was continued by his son, William Ogden Niles, and others, until 27 June, 1849, making altogether 76 volumes. He advocated the protection of national industry, and was with Mathew Cary a champion of the “American system.” In addition to a series of humorous essays entitled “Quill Driving,” published in a periodical, he compiled a work entitled “Principles and Acts of the Revolution” (Baltimore, 1822). The towns of Niles, Mich., and Niles, Ohio, were named in his honor. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.


NILES, Nathaniel, 1741-1828, lawyer, jurist, theologian.  U.S. Congressman from Vermont, October 1791-March 1795.  Voted against Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.  Leading his party in Vermont, he fought against slavery and against banks.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 521; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, p. 523; Annals of Congress, 2 Congress, 2 Session, p. 861; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928);

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, pp. 523-524:

NILES, NATHANIEL (April 3, 1741-October 31, 1828), inventor, theologian, preacher, politician, and man of business with a somewhat less happy dash of the poet, was born at South Kingston, Rhode Island, the son of Samuel and Sarah (Niles) Niles and the grandson of Samuel Niles [q.v.]. His parents were cousins german. Like his father and grandfather, Nathaniel was sent to Harvard College but because of illness he left that institution after his first year. Later (1765), with his brother Samuel, he entered the College of New Jersey where he graduated in 1766. His many interests proved at first somewhat of a handicap; he could not decide upon his life work. For a time he studied medicine, then law, and finally turned to theology under the direction of Joseph Bellamy. Though he preached in several New England towns, he was never ordained. Shortly before the Revolution he settled in Norwich, Connecticut, where he married Nancy, the daughter of Elijah Lathrop, a prosperous trader and manufacturer. He entered Lathrop's factory and is said to have invented an improved type of wool card and to have discovered a new method of applying water power to the drawing of wire from bar iron. These inventions, however, seem to have left no mark upon American industry. Meanwhile he was preaching frequently at Norwich and elsewhere. Several of his sermons he published. He also found time for politics, serving in the Connecticut legislature for three sessions (1779-81). Toward the end of the Revolution he bought a large tract of land in Orange County, Vt., and in 1782 or 1783, he abandoned his business career to move with several friends into the northern forest. They were the first settlers in what became the township of West Fairlee.

The rest of his strenuous life Niles spent in Vermont, preaching frequently, attending the sick when physicians were not available, writing on theology, but devoting himself primarily to the management of his land and to politics. His position as the largest proprietor in the neighborhood, his undoubted intelligence, his positive and democratic ideas, his forceful and aggressive character, all contributed to his success in politics. From 1784 to 1814, when at the age of seventy-three he retired to his farm, he was almost always in office, on occasion filling two positions simultaneously. For eight terms he sat in the lower house of the Vermont legislature. From 1784 to 1787 he was a member of the supreme court of the state; hence his title of judge by which he was called thereafter. For many years he was a member of the Council, a popularly elected executive and legislative body. From 1791 to 1795 he sat in the federal House of Representatives. He took a leading part in the state convention of 1791 which ratified the federal Constitution, and in another of 1814 which revised the fundamental laws of the state. Unlike most New England clergymen he was a Jeffersonian Democrat. Leading his party in Vermont, he fought against slavery and against banks; he gave vigorous support to the second war with England and as vigorous condemnation of the Hartford Convention. His influence, however, was not widespread for the Federalist triumph in Vermont in 1794 kept the state Democrats out of national office for many years.

In 1793 he was made trustee of Dartmouth College, a position he held until 1820. Characteristically he took his duties with the utmost seriousness. In temperament and in religious and political ideas he was in sharp contrast to President John Wheelock. He early became convinced that the college was suffering under the latter's direction and he soon headed the opposition in the board of trustees. When matters came to a crisis in 1815, he joined with his Federalist fellow members to oust the president and to defend the institution against the state authority. Besides his sermons he published numerous theological articles. His one attempt at poetry, an ode called The American Hero, was written in celebration of the battle of Bunker Hill. Set to music it gained wide popularity during the Revolutionary War. Posterity will not regret that thereafter Niles turned his talents to other fields. Despite weak health in his youth his physical and mental vigor was remarkable; even in extreme age he spent long hours renewing his knowledge of Latin. He left nine children, five of them by his second wife, Elizabeth Watson of Plymouth, Massachusetts, whom he married on November 22, 1787.

[J. A. Vinton, The Vinton Memorial (1858); F. M. Caulkins, History of Norwich, Connecticut (2nd ed., 1866); A. M. Hemenway, The Vt. History Gazetteer, volume II (1871); W. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, volume I (185'7-); J. M. Comstock, A List of the Principal Civil Officers of Vt. (1918); J. G. Ullery, Men of Vt. (1894); J. K. Lord, A History of Dartmouth Coll. (1913); E. B. Huntington, A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family (1884); Vt. Watchman and State Gazette (Montpelier); November 18, 1828.]

P.D.E.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 521:

NILES, Nathaniel, lawyer, born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, 3 April, 1741; died in West Fairlee, Vermont, 31 October, 1828, studied at Harvard, and was graduated in 1766 at Princeton, where he was known as “Botheration primus.” Subsequently he studied medicine and law, taught for a time in New York city, and then studied theology under Dr. Joseph Bellamy. He preached in various New England towns, and finally settled in Norwich, Connecticut, where he invented a process of making wire from bar-iron by water-power. He afterward erected a wool-card manufactory in that town. After the Revolution he bought a tract of land in Orange county, Vermont, in what is now West Fairlee, being the first inhabitant of that place, and preaching in his own house there for nearly forty years. He was a member of the Vermont legislature, serving as its speaker in 1784, a judge of the supreme court, six times a presidential elector, and a representative to congress, serving from 24 October, 1791, till 3 March, 1795. He was also a “censor” for revising the state constitution. He received the degree of A. M. in 1772 from Harvard, and in 1791 from Dartmouth, of which institution he was a trustee from 1793 till 1820. He published “Four Discourses on Secret Prayer” (1773); “Two Discourses on Confession of Sin and Forgiveness” (1773); two upon “Liberty”; two sermons entitled “The Perfection of God,” the “Fountain of Good” (1777); a sermon on “Vain Amusements”; and a “Letter to a Friend concerning the Doctrine that Impenitent Sinners have the Natural Power to make to Themselves New Hearts.” He contributed papers to the “Theological Magazine,” and was the author of “The American Hero,” a popular war-song during the Revolution, written upon hearing of the news of the battle of Bunker Hill. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 521.


NILES, William Watson, West Fairles, Vermont, clergyman.  Agent of the American Colonization Society in New England.  Traveled in Maine and Eastern Massachusetts. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 122-123, 130, 131)


NOBLE, John Willock (October 26, 1831- March 22, 1912), soldier, lawyer, secretary of the interior.  In 1855 he moved to St. Louis, but, shortly becoming convinced that, as a Free-Soiler and a Republican, he could not succeed in the pro-slavery atmosphere there, he moved to Keokuk, Iowa, where from 1856 to 1861 he acquired an extensive law practice and shared with Samuel Freeman Miller the leadership of the state bar. 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, pp. 539-540:

NOBLE, JOHN WILLOCK (October 26, 1831- March 22, 1912), soldier, lawyer, secretary of the interior, was born at Lancaster, Ohio, the son of John and Catherine (McDill) Noble, Pennsylvania Presbyterians who had migrated early to Ohio. After attending the public schools of Cincinnati, he spent three years at Miami College, before his graduation with honors from Yale in 1851. The year following he received his law degree from the Cincinnati Law School but continued to study in the office of Henry Stanbery before his admission to the bar. In 1855 he moved to St. Louis, but, shortly becoming convinced that, as a Free-Soiler and a Republican, he could not succeed in the pro-slavery atmosphere there, he moved to Keokuk, Iowa, where from 1856 to 1861 he acquired an extensive practice and shared with Samuel Freeman Miller the leadership of the state bar. In August 1861 he enlisted in the 3rd Iowa Cavalry and during the Civil War served with distinction in every grade from lieutenant to colonel, seeing service in various western campaigns and in raids into the lower South. He also acted as judge-advocate-general of the Army of the Southwest. "For gallant and meritorious services" he was brevetted brigadier-general in 1865. On February 8, 1864, he married Lisabeth Halsted, of Northampton, Massachusetts, a woman of marked intellectual power and a leader in early social welfare movements.

In 1865 Noble returned to St. Louis. His subsequent career was divided between professional and public interests. At the instance of his former teacher, Stanbery, he was appointed in 1867 United States district attorney for the eastern district of Missouri. During three years of hard work and of harder fighting Noble prosecuted with intelligence and thoroughness numerous violators of the internal-revenue laws. The chief offenders were certain of the whiskey and tobacco interests and their corrupt and entrenched governmental allies, a notorious combination which defrauded the government of huge sums. Against this group, the forerunner of the Whiskey Ring, Noble fought with some success and set in operation forces which eventually exposed the ramifications of the system. In 1870 he resumed practice and won immediate success. His clients included large corporate and railroad interests of the Southwest. He was very effective both in trial and in appellate practice, despite a too frequent reliance upon oratory. He declined in 1872 the position of solicitor-general. He was considered well qualified for the secretaryship of the interior to which Harrison named him in 1889 (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 4, 1889). As an esteemed Grand Army man and as an exponent of the orthodox Republican view that the surplus collected largely under the tariff laws should properly be distributed in pensions, Noble favored a policy of great liberality and repeated in his reports many of the platitudes concerning the old soldier. He absolutely refused, however, to sanction the highly irregular and illegal administrative activities and rulings of "Corporal" James Tanner, the commissioner of pensions. A sharp difference arose over the policy of reratings, and the two men clashed frequently. Harrison supported Noble in the controversy, and Tanner, "insubordinate in the last degree," finally resigned (W. H. Glasson, Federal Military Pensions in the United States, 1918).

The pension act of 1890 received Noble's cordial approval, although its administration was beset with fraudulent claimants, political sentimentalists, and astute claim attorneys whom he found impossible to control. With reference to the timber lands, his practice was to dispose of the thousands of cases in the Land Office by a more liberal interpretation of the land laws in favor of the settler (Report of the Secretary of Interior, 1889, 1891). In this manner the cases were rapidly settled but probably many fraudulent claims received approval. In 1890 Noble strongly supported the views of the American Forestry Association and the Division of Forestry and was responsible for the introduction of the forest reserve sections in the revision of the land laws in 1891 C John Ise, The United States Forest Policy, 1920). Harrison acted immediately and withdrew for national forests millions of acres of valuable lands. The act of 1891 remains Noble's most significant achievement. At his retirement from office in 1893, the general administrative functions of the department were efficiently conducted. Politically, he was generally regarded as a follower of the president rather than of Blaine. He was austere and forma! in his official relations but friendly and democratic in his personal contacts. Upon his return to St. Louis he reentered his profession but found it difficult to regain his practice. Concerning his public life he ruefully declared, "I spent my whole fortune living up to the office. My house cost me more than my salary. . . . I thought I was doing well but when I came home I had no practice and came near starving" (I. H. Lionberger, "Glimpses of People and Manners in St. Louis," 1920). A mining interest provided him with necessary resources. He was not again active in political affairs but remained an interested and benevolent figure at veterans' gatherings and college reunions. He died in St. Louis after a month's illness.

[L. D. Ingersoll, Iowa and the Rebellion (1866); B. E. Fernow, A Brief History of Forestry (1907); I. H. Lionberger, "Glimpses of People and Manners in St. Louis" (1920); J. T. Scharf, History of St. Louis City and County (2 volumes, 1883); D. L. McMurry, "The Bureau of Pensions during the Administration of President Harris on," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, December 1926; annual reports of the secretary of the interior, 1889-92; Who's Who in America, 1912-13; Obituary Record of Yale Graduates, 1911-12.]

T.S.B.


NOBLE, Linnius P., New York, abolitionist leader

(Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971)


NORRIS, Joseph P., abolitionist leader, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Guardians, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

(Nash, Gary B., & Soderlund, Jean R. Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 129)


NORTH, John W., Northfield, Minnesota, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1855-57.


NORTH, William, Freetown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839.


NORTHRUP, A. T., New York, American Abolition Society.

(Radical Abolitionist, Volume 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)


NORTHUP, Solomon, born 1808, free African American man.  Northup was kidnapped by slavers in Washington City in 1841 and illegally forced into slavery for 12 years.  In 1853, he was rescued by Northern abolitionists and returned to his family in Washington.  Northup wrote Twelve Years a Slave in that same year.  He worked as a member of the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves to flee to Canada.  His book was published by Northern abolitionists, and was used prominently in the abolitionist cause.  The date of his death is unknown.  His book was made into a major motion picture by the same name in 2013.  It was nominated and awarded the Best Picture Oscar in 2014. 

(Northup, 1853; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 47, 55).  


NORTON, Elihu P., Edgartown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1842-


NORTON, Jesse O., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)


NORTON, John T., New York.  Officer of the New York Society of the American Colonization Society. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 129)


NORTON, John T., Farmington, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-1840, 1840-1841.  Vice President, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS).



NOTT, Charles Cooper (September 16, 1827-March 6, 1916), jurist, He was an active Republican and in 1860 was one of the committee responsible for bringing Lincoln to New York to deliver his Cooper Institute speech. A friendship between the two men began at this time. Shortly thereafter Nott secured from Lincoln the manuscript of his address which, with Cephas Brainerd, he published with notes in September 1860.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, pp. 579-580:

NOTT, CHARLES COOPER (September 16, 1827-March 6, 1916), jurist, was born at Schenectady, New York, the son of Joel B. and Margaret Cooper Nott. His paternal ancestors were of early Connecticut stock but for two generations the family life had been interwoven with that of Union College of which Nott's grandfather, Eliphalet Nott [q.v.], had been president, and in which his father was professor of chemistry. It was but natural that the boy's education, uneventful in its earlier phases, should culminate in his graduation from the college in 1848. For two years thereafter he studied law in Albany and was admitted to the bar in 1850. He then moved to New York City where he practised successfully until the outbreak of the Civil War. He was a fairly active Republican and in 1860 was one of the committee responsible for bringing Lincoln to New York to deliver his Cooper Institute speech. A friendship between the two men began at this time. Shortly thereafter Nott secured from Lincoln the manuscript of his address which, with Cephas Brainerd, he published with notes in September 1860. After the outbreak of the war he entered the Union army under an appointment by General Fremont as captain in the Fremont Hussars. He later served in the 5th Iowa Cavalry and in the New York volunteers. He finally became colonel of the 176th New York Regiment. In June 1863 he was captured at Brashear City, Louisiana, and remained a Confederate prisoner for thirteen months. He did not see further active service and emerged from prison seriously impaired in health. He returned to the practice of law in New York.

The entire course of Nott's later life was determined by his appointment by President Lincoln as judge of the United States Court of Claims on February 22, 1865. He remained a member of that tribunal for forty years, retiring December 31, 1905, and from the time of his promotion by President Cleveland in 1896 he served as chief justice. When Nott took office the Court of Claims was still in its formative period and his life was spent in aiding in the establishment of a system of jurisprudence under which the claims of a contractual or business nature of the citizen against the federal government might be recognized and enforced. The record of his labors is found in opinions spread through forty-eight volumes of the Cases Decided in the Court of Claims. No small part of Nott's service to the Court lay in his reporting of its decisions. From 1867, when the publication of regular reports began, until 1914, Nott served as reporter. Until 1872 he was aided in this labor by Judge Samuel H. Huntington and from that date on by his brother- in-law, Archibald Hopkins. This long series of his reports is broken only in 1882-83 when his illness necessitated a year's absence from all official duties.

During his adult years Nott was a fairly voluminous contributor to the press and to more substantial publications. Much of his writing was done anonymously in the form of editorials and reviews. His longer works include: A Treatise on the Mechanics' Lien Laws of the State of New York (1856); Sketches of the War (1863); Sketches in Prison Camps (1865); The Seven Great Hymns of the Medieval Church (1865); and The Mystery of the Pinckney Draught (1908). Nott was married on October 22, 1867, to Alice Effingham Hopkins, the daughter of Mark Hopkins [q.v.], president of Williams College. Of this marriage there were born a son and a daughter. He died at the home of his son in New York City on March 6, 1916.

[See Who’s Who in America, 1914-15; New York Times, New York Herald, March 7, 1916.]

R.E.C.


NOTT, Eliphalet (June 25, 1773-January 29, 1866), college president, Presbyterian clergyman, inventor. As early as 1811, in baccalaureate addresses, he advocated the abolition of slavery; he often served as moderator in church trials; the religious revival of 1838 inspired some of his most memorable sermons, which added further to his reputation as a preacher.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, pp. 580-581:

NOTT, ELIPHALET (June 25, 1773-January 29, 1866), college president, Presbyterian clergyman, inventor, was born in Ashford, Connecticut, the son of Stephen and Deborah (Selden) Nott. His father proved himself a failure in each of his undertakings, but his mother was a woman of superior culture. She instructed the boy in the rudiments, and he prepared for college under the supervision of his brother Samuel [q.v.], pastor of the Congregational church at Franklin, Connecticut. At sixteen, he taught in the district school at Franklin. A year later, he became principal of the Plainfield Academy, and studied Latin, Greek, theology, and mathematics with the Reverend Dr. Joel Benedict, pastor of the local Congregational church. In 1795 he entered Rhode Island College (Brown University), and without completing a full year there, was admitted to the degree of master of arts upon passing a special examination. On June 26, 1796, he was licensed to preach by the New London Congregational Association. In the following month,  July 4, 1796. he married Sarah Maria, eldest daughter of Joel Benedict.

Commissioned by the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut, he set out for the wilderness of upper New York State, and in the fall became pastor of the Presbyterian church at Cherry Valley. Here he founded an academy which he conducted successfully while discharging the obligations of his pastoral office. His reputation as a preacher grew, and in 1798 he removed to Albany, where, on October 13, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. At Albany, he established himself as a peculiarly gifted preacher, learned, eloquent, and convincing, and was soon considered one of America 's greatest pulpit orators. Among the most celebrated of his published sermons was A Discourse ... Occasioned by the Ever to be Lamented Death of General Alexander Hamilton (1804), delivered at the invitation of the Common Council of Albany. His interest in education expressed itself in his persistent efforts to reform the antiquated public-school system of Albany. As a result of his recommendations, first outlined in March 1803, the Albany Academy was finally incorporated, in 1813. On March 11, 1804, his wife died, and on August 3, 1807, he married Gertrude (Peebles) Tibbitts, widow of Benjamin Tibbitts of Troy. After her death, early in 1840, he married Urania E. Sheldon of Utica, August 8, 1842.

Meanwhile, in 1804, he had succeeded Jonathan Maxcy [q.v.] as president of Union College, Schenectady, of which he had been a trustee since 1800. He found the college laboring under a heavy debt, while its income was far less than its necessary expenditures. His executive abilities were manifest at once in his admirable, far-sighted program. The state legislature responded to his appeal, March 30, 1805, by authorizing four lotteries for the purpose of raising the sum of $80,000 for the college, and the following year Nott secured a loan of $15,000 from the state to defray pressing current expenses. Eight years later, when the drawing finally took place, the college realized but $76,- 000. By this time, there was an urgent need for a larger sum, and again Nott appealed to the legislature, which on April 13, 1814, made an additional grant of $200,000, to be raised in the same manner. After waiting eight year~ without results, Nott took up on himself the management of the lotteries, and with such success that he was able to extricate the college from its embarrassments. By heroic personal efforts, he placed the endowment fund upon a secure basis. The building program we nt forward satisfactorily, the college developed rapidly from within, and achieved a high reputation for the excellence of its instruction. His form of control enabled the students to enjoy a larger measure of self-government than was customary in American colleges at that time. Among his innovations was the introduction of the scientific course as an alternative to the traditional classical curriculum.

His interest was not confined to the affairs of the college; as early as 1811, in baccalaureate addresses, he advocated the abolition of slavery; he often served as moderator in church trials; the religious revival of 1838 inspired some of his most memorable sermons, which added further to his reputation as a preacher. He was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Education at its second meeting, held in 1850 at Philadelphia. As an instructor of youth, he saw the dangers of intemperance, and became one of the most active and influential advocates of temperance in his time. His addresses on the subject,  Ten Lectures on the Use of Intoxicating Liquors (1846), Lectures on Temperance (1847), Lectures on Biblical Temperance (1863), were published and circulated widely. Another of his publications which went through numerous editions was Counsels to Young Men on the Formation of Character (1840). His Miscellaneous Works had appeared in 1810. In addition to his prodigious labors as an educator, he experimented with the properties of heat. The results of his research are recorded in some thirty patents, granted for applications of heat to steam boilers and generators. Among his inventions was the first base-burning stove for the use of anthracite coal.

Nott's extraordinary influence over men-exemplified in his influence over the New York legislature led him sometimes to accomplish his purposes by indirect means that laid him open to the accusation of double-dealing (Francis Wayland, quoted in Francis and H. L. Wayland, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of Francis Wayland, 1867, I, 90-92). In 1851, after a legislative inquiry concerning the financial condition of Union College, he was accused, in many newspapers, of misappropriating college funds. Upon examining the books of the institution, an Assembly commission reporting in February 1852 completely vindicated him of all charges of dereliction. As a fitting sequel to this unpleasant affair, he donated in 1854 to the endowment fund $600,000 of his own fortune. His active career was terminated by a paralytic stroke, which forced him, in 1859, to relinquish some of the duties of his office. He presided at commencements, however, until 1862. At his death, in 1866, he had been president of Union for sixty-two years, an unprecedented period in the annals of higher education in America.

[Cornelius Van Santvoord and Tayler Lewis, Memoirs of Eliphalet Nott (1876); American Jour. of Educ., March 1863; H. L. Ellsworth, A Digest of Patents issued by the U. S. from I790 to January I839 (1840); G. P. Schmidt, The Old Time College President (1930); J. T. Backus, Address at the Funeral of the Reverend Dr. Nott (1866); Albany Evening Journal, January 29, 1866.]

R.F.S.


NOURSE, James, Reverend, clergyman.  Agent of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in North Carolina.  Founded auxiliaries of the ACS in Cumberland, Randolph and Rowan Counties in North Carolina.  Grandson of Benjamin Rittenhouse. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 108)


NOYES, William Curtis (August 19, 1805-December 25, 1864), New York lawyer. Originally a Whig, he became a Republican upon the dissolution of the former party (1856). He was defeated for the office of state's attorney general in 1857, though running ahead of the party ticket. As a stanch Republican, he publicly attacked the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and Fugitive Slave Law. He was a delegate to the Peace Conference in Washington (1861), where he labored to harmonize conflicting views between the sections. His unionist convictions are summed up in the title of an address, which he delivered in 1862 to support the Emancipation Proclamation: One Country! One Constitution! One Destiny!

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 7, Pt. 1, p. 592:

NOYES, WILLIAM CURTIS (August 19, 1805-December 25, 1864), New York lawyer, was born in Schodack, New York, the son of George and Martha (Curtis) Noyes and a descendant of James Noyes who came to New England in 1633. He received a common-school and academy education, and at the age of fourteen years entered as a student the law office of Welcome Esleeck of Albany. He completed his studies in the office of Storrs & White of Whitesboro, was admitted to the bar as attorney in 1827 and as counselor in 1830. He practised law successively in Rome and Utica and became district attorney of Oneida County before his thirtieth year. In 1838 he removed to New York and rapidly advanced to the front ranks as an advocate.

Lacking a college education, he possessed the capacity to educate himself. He gradually built up a remarkable library, valued at $60,000, consisting of about five thousand law books and two thousand general works, all of which he bequeathed to Hamilton College on his death. He possessed a taste for miscellaneous reading and was a profound student of the law. His success as an advocate was enhanced by his exhaustive researches into the law and facts of his cases. He reduced his briefs to writing, memorized his speeches, and delivered them as though unpremeditated. In the "Huntington case" his masterly analysis of moral insanity secured the conviction of Huntington, a Wall Street broker on trial for forgery, who had set up a plea of insanity. Another notable suit was the Rose Will case (4 Abbott's Court of Appeals Decisions, 108), in which Noyes ably presented the history and doctrine of charitable uses. His greatest triumph occurred in the suit of the Mechanics' Bank vs. New York & New Haven R.R. Co. (13 New York Reports, 599). In this trial in the New York court of appeals Noyes defended the stockholders of the railroad against the claim that they should be deprived of their holdings without compensation, because the transfer agent of the railroad had issued fraudulent stock to a third party.

Although he was sincerely interested in public affairs and politics, he was never a politician in the ordinary sense. Originally a Whig, he became a Republican upon the dissolution of the former party (1856). He was defeated for the office of state's attorney general in 1857, though running ahead of the party ticket. As a stanch Republican, he publicly attacked the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and Fugitive Slave Law. He was a delegate to the Peace Conference in Washington (1861), where he labored to harmonize conflicting views between the sections. His unionist convictions are summed up in the title of an address, which he delivered in 1862 to support the Emancipation Proclamation: One Country! One Constitution! One Destiny! In 1857, with Alexander W. Bradford and David Dudley Field he was appointed to codify the state laws, and in this work engaged chiefly in the revision of the penal code, which he completed just before his death. Though the code was rejected in New York, it was adopted at a later elate by several western states. Noyes was a consistent Christian and philanthropist. For years he supported a home missionary without hinting of it to others. He was on the executive committee of the American Temperance Union, and was chosen president of the New England Society three clays before he died. He was twice married, first to Anne Tracy, who bore him three children, and second to Julia A. Tallmadge, to whom two children were born. He was survived by one daughter of each marriage.

[H. E. Noyes and H. E. Noyes, Genealogical Record of ... James, Nicholas and Peter Noyes (1904), volume II; 43 Barbour's Supreme Court Reports (New York), 649-73; S. W. Fisher, William Curtis Noyes, a Baccalaureate Discourse (1866); American Annual Cyclopedia .. 1864 (1865); David McAdam and others, History of the Bench and Bar of New York, volume I (1897); C. A. Alvord, printer, Library of William Curtis Noyes (1860); Charles Warren, A History of the American Bar (1911); New York Herald, December 27, 1864; letters from Noyes to G. C. Verplanck, April 18, 1840 and 1842, March 31, 1846, November 21, 1859 (MSS.), New York Historical Society]

A. L. M.


NYE, Charles, Sandwich, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40.


NYE, Horace, Muskingham County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39.


NYE, James Warren, June 10, 1814-December 25, 1876, governor of Nevada Territory, supporter of the Free-Soil movement.

(G. H. Nye and F. E. Best, A Genealogy of the Nye Family (1907); Frank Leslie's Illus. Newspaper, March 20, 1858, September 14, 1872; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 Volume 7 pt. 1 p. 600)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

NYE, James Warren, senator, born in De Ruyter, Madison County, New York, 10 June, 1814: died in White Plains, New York, 25 December, 1876. He was educated at Cortland Academy, Homer, New York, leaving it in 1832 to study law in Troy, New York. After being admitted to the bar, he practised in his native county, gained a reputation as an effective speaker before a jury, was chosen district attorney, and in 1840 was elected county judge, serving eight years, he was a Democrat in politics up to the time of the Barn-burner Campaign. In 1848 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress as a Free-Soil Democrat. Moving to Syracuse, New York, he practised there till 1857, when he went to New York City, having been appointed the first president of the Metropolitan Board of Police, which office he held till about 1860. He was a member of the Republican Party from its formation, and was identified with its Radical wing. He was a witty and eloquent platform orator, and during the canvass of 1860 did effective service for his party in a tour through the west in company with William H. Seward. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him governor of Nevada Territory, where he counteracted the influence of the Pro-slavery Party and, with Thomas Starr King, of San Francisco, did much to keep the Pacific States and Territories in the Union during the early period of the Civil War. On the admission of Nevada as a state, in 1865, he was elected U. S. Senator, and drew the short term, and in 1867 was re-elected. He was noted for his humor and conversational powers. After he retired from public life his mind became impaired.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 547.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 Volume 7 pt. 1 p. 600:

NYE, JAMES WARREN (June 10, 1814- December 25, 1876), governor of Nevada Territory, United States senator, was the son of James and Thankful (Crocker) Nye and a descendant of Benjamin Nye who emigrated from England to settle in 1635 at Lynn, Massachusetts. Born at De Ruyter, Madison County, New York, James grew up amidst the severe limitations of poverty. He secured secondary schooling at Homer Academy, however, and then studied law in Hamilton, New York, where he practised for some years. He was surrogate of Madison County, 1844-47, and judge of the county court, 1847-51. In 1848, running for Congress as a Free-Soil or "Barnburner" Democrat, he was defeated by the Whig candidate, William Duer. In 1851 he removed to Syracuse, continuing to enjoy a successful practice. Six years later, in 1857, he became one of the police commissioners of the metropolis under an act of that year amending the city charter.

When Fort Sumter was fired upon, Nye became an enthusiastic supporter of Lincoln, using his remarkable gift as a stump orator in behalf of the administration, and he was soon appointed governor of the newly created territory of Nevada. Upon arrival in Carson City, Nevada, July 8, 1861, he was confronted with the difficult task of organizing the territory. The bulk of the population was included in what had been Carson County, Utah Territory. Without friction, Nye absorbed the government of the old county into that of the new territory, and guided the latter swiftly into the position of an effective governmental organization, a task the more difficult because the $30,700 a year in greenbacks, voted by Congress for support of the territory, was worth hardly more than half its face value.

When in 1864 Nevada was advanced to statehood, and Nye County, newly created, was named for him, Nye logically became a candidate to represent the new state in the United States Senate and was elected in company with William M. Stewart [q.v.]. The two cast lots in the state Senate for the long term, Nye drawing the short term. Reelected to the Senate in 1867 after a hot contest with Charles E. DeLong, he served with honor on important committees, always stanchly loyal to the Republican party which had sent him to Washington. He concluded his term on March 3, 1873, having been defeated for reelection by John Percival Jones [q.v.]. This was his last political office. About two years later he sailed from San Francisco for New York, apparently in good health, but during the voyage he lost his mind, and after living many months under this cloud he died on December 25, 1876, at White Plains, New York.

Nye was of medium height, weighed nearly two hundred pounds, but was well built, with small hands and feet. His dancing black eyes, expressive features, and shoulder-length snow white hair gave him in his later years a striking appearance, while his genial humor, quick repartee, and natural gift for oratory gave him power in social as well as in political life. The name "Gray Eagle" was bestowed upon him in recognition of his abundant life and vitality. The friend of Captain Jim of the Washoe Indian tribe as well as of President Lincoln, he swapped stories with both. He was a prolific user of Bible quotations, though not always in anecdote of the choicest character. In Fabius, New York, he had married Elsie Benson, and they had two children.

[G. H. Nye and F. E. Best, A Genealogy of the Nye Family (1907); Frank Leslie's Illus. Newspaper, March 20, 1858, September 14, 1872; History of Nev. (1881), ed. by Myron Angel; H. H. Bancroft, History of Nev., Colo., and Wyo. (1890); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Daily Territorial Enterprise (Virginia City, Nev.), December 29, 1876; New York Times, December 28, 1876; Daily Alta California, May 24, 27, 1875, December 29, 1876, January 19, 1877.)

J.E.W.



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.