Person:William Nichol (1)

William Nichol of Nashville, a merchant, planter, steamboat owner and Mayor of Nashville. He was known as the first Tennessee Millionaire. Their gracious antebellum home still stands on Donelson Pike and Brielry Parkway.

[Alamance County_Feb 2006_backup.FTW]

A BRIEF SKETCH OF WILLIAM NICHOL

    William Nichol, Banker, Steamboat Entrepreneur, Planter, Merchant and Mayor of Nashville, died at his residence on the Lebanon pike, (later called Belle Aire), six miles from the city of Nashville, on Nov. 23, 1978.  His  death was sudden; his life was a long and useful one.  He was born at  Abingdon, Virginia, 12 Feb 1800.  His father, Josiah Nichol, was for long years a citizen of Nashville., a self-made man, a well-known merchant of solid worth, who became and was the president of the United States Bank at Nashville for many years, and until it ceased to exist. Josiah Nichol was one of Nashville’s worthies”,--industrious, diligent in his calling, of rare good common sense and sound judgment--an honest man.  There was no man who knew him that did not respect and esteem him. He was a real, genuine man, and no sham.
    Josiah Nichol brought up his son, William, to industry, diligence, and

work. In early life, having served an apprenticeship under his father, he at the early age of sixteen went into the dry-goods business as a partner of Joseph Vaulx, which continued until 1825, in which year, he was married to Miss Julia Lytle, daughter of William Lytle, of Rutherford county, and, sister of the wife of Ephraim H. Foster, Senator, Lawyer and Statesman.

    Immediately after William Nichol’s marriage, he went into the general

commission business, and specifically formed a partnership with Harry R. W. Hill, who afterwards took into the firm Mr. Porterfield. In the fall of 1825, they owned the steamer “De Witt Clinton”, and subsequently built the steamer“Nashville” and a “lighter”, to bring up goods from Harpeth Shoals, called the“Talleyrand”. The enterprise was remarkably successful, and was known throughout the county for its high character and credit. The firm was dissolved in 1833, and Harry Hill went to New Orleans, became a member of the house of Dick and Hill, greatly increased his estate, and died.

    William Nichol became secretary of an insurance company, in which he continued until the establishment, by the State, of the Bank of Tennessee, when he was made its first president.  He invested his estate made by his own skill, and judgment and business talent, in Nashville city property, and in a large farm and tract of land with improvements of great value, dwelling house, etc., on the Lebanon pike, the late residence of Mr. Jo. Clay; here for the remainder of his life he made his family residence, and lived in a liberal and hospitable style and reared a large family of children, giving to each all the

advantages of education the country could afford. He, also invested his capital in a cotton plantation and large tracts of land in Arkansas, on the Arkansas River, which yielded him for many successive years a princely income, where he settled his son Josiah on a cotton plantation, and, later, his son, Alexander. At the end of Civil War, William Nichol’s estate was estimated at one million dollars. He is said to have been the first Tennessee Millionaire.

    William Nichol was Mayor of Nashville when an effort was made to get the Legislature, then in session, to locate the Capitol at Nashville. Other rival places for the seat offered sites for the Capitol building. It was thought it would aid in its location at Nashville to offer a site for Capitol building, and would probable make it decisive.  William Nichol suggested and became active in obtaining and offering such a site, free of cost, to the State.  He, and others, contracted with George W. Campbell for the purchase of “Capitol Hill”and made themselves personally responsible for the purchase money, the sum of thirty thousand dollars, and offered it as a site, and the seat of government for Tennessee was located at Nashville.  William Nichol was reimbursed for his money in three payments starting in 1845, and ending in 1847.
    William Nichol’s character was without a stain or blemish.  He was a kind husband, and had full confidence in his wife’s good sense and judgment, a generous father, a kind neighbor, and citizen, and a humane master, firm and gentle.   He was punctual in his business transactions, and had great pride of character, never seeking popularity, but set a high value on the good-will and respect of his friends and the public at large.  The character of an “honest” man was fully accorded to him.

(The above was copied from the History of Davidson, 1850, by W. W. Clayton who war personally acquainted with William Nichol. )