Aged
Pioneer Passes Away
John W. Nichols Dies in His Home
Friday Morning
Bodyguard
to Abe Lincoln
Was Guarding
the White House the Night President Lincoln Was Assassinated – Lived
Here Forty-Two Years
John
W. Nichols, for ten years a federal building watchman, died
suddenly Friday morning while sitting in a chair at his home, 2914 North
Twenty-eighth avenue. Heart
disease, it is supposed, was the immediate cause of death, although the
veteran watchman had been suffering from a complication of ailments for
several weeks.
I don’t feel
quite right this morning,” he said to his wife, a few minutes before the
death stroke came, but there was nothing in his appearance at that time to
indicate that the end was near.
Mrs. Nichols walked
across the room to her husband’s side when he remarked that he was not
feeling well, and he remarked that he was not feeling well, and he
breathed his last almost as soon as she reached him.
John
W. Nichols was a soldier for the union throughout the civil war,
and his intense loyalty to the federal flag goes with him to his grave.
He was extremely patriotic, being literally willing, say those who
know him best, to give his life for his country.
During a part of the troublesome days of the ‘60s Mr. Nichols
served as bodyguard to Abraham Lincoln and he was on duty with other
soldiers guarding the White House on the night of Lincoln’s
assassination.
Mr. Nichols was a
native of Pennsylvania and had lived in Omaha forty-three year.
Prior to accepting a watchman’s place at the federal building he
was employed by a local linseed oil company.
He leaves a wife and six children.
Had he lived until January he would have been 72 years old.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been completed, but it is
probable that the Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Republic will join
in the obsequies.
Omaha
[Nebraska] Bee News, 12 Nov 1910, page 11. Submitted by F. Richard
Barr
