Born on the 8th day of February, 1835. He was the son of Samuel V. Nichols, a native of Virginia, and Katurah, nee Decker, a native of New York City, and a lineal descendant of the Holland Dutch stock, and whose ancestors were among the early settlers of Manhattan. When Samuel D. was about four years and a half old, the family removed to New York, where he was reared and educated until he had attained the age of fourteen, when they removed to Hancock County, Ohio. Here he taught the district schools before he had numbered his seventeenth year, and on attaining that age he entered upon the study of law. A close application to his study for two years now ensued, and then he made a trip to South Carolina, in which state he taught school for almost six months. He then journeyed to Loudoun County, Virginia, where he remained about eighteen months, still engaged in teaching. In 1857 he came west, and located at Panora, and being admitted to the bar, commenced the practice of law, opening an office for that purpose. Having given some attention to the study of surveying he combined that business with his law practice in 1861, when, in company with Houston and Hoxsie, he started the Guthrie County Ledger, in Panora, acting as editor-in-chief. On the 26th of May, 1861, he enlisted in a company raised in the county of Guthrie and which was afterward known as Company C, 4th Iowa volunteer infantry regiment. On the organization of the company he was elected to the position of first lieutenant. By gallant conduct in the field and close attention to duty, and an inherent bravery, he rose to the command of the regiment, and although made colonel, was mustered out of the service as lieutenant -colonel, his commission for this higher office not having arrived. On his return to the more peaceful scenes of life he took up the practice of his profession. He was appointed district attorney of this judicial district, which then comprised some ten counties. In 1865 he was elected to the same office, filling it satisfactorily for some three years, when he resigned and resumed his private practice. In the meantime, in 1864, Mr. Nichols had purchased a half interest in the mill at Panora, with J. H. Hanyon, his father-in-law, which in 1878 he became sole owner. In 1875 he was elected by the suffrages of his fellow citizens to the exalted position of state senator, and four years later re-elected to the same, holding it for eight years, ending January 1, 1884. He was united in marriage on the 2d of May, 1859, to Miss Esther A. Hanyon, a native of New York. The colonel, as he is familiarly called, was a prominent member of the Odd Fellows' order, and of the Grand Army of the Republic, the post of which order in Panora he was the first post-commander.
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