Former Home of E. B. Nichols Destroyed by Fire

Photo:  Bay Area Entertainer

On Tuesday, May 16, 2023, Nicholstone House, the former home of E. B. Nichols, the first High Priest of Washington Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, was destroyed by fire.  It is believed that the house was struck by lightning during the storms that passed over the Houston area that day.  At the time of the fire it was considered the oldest existing house in Dickinson.

Nicholstone was built by Companion Nichols in 1857 as a summer home.  Located on Dickinson Bayou, it is said that Companion Nichols consulted with the local Native American population at the time to determine the highest point along the bayou.  The location proved advantageous, as Nicholstone was untouched by the massive flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Upon Companion Nichol's death in 1872, his estate was divided among his seven sons.  One of those sons, Fred McCraven Nichols, bought the home and surrounding property from his brother in 1890.  Originally a single-story frame structure with a central hall, the house was remodeled by Fred Nichols in 1895 to include a second story with a balcony and Victorian design elements including fretwork and a cupola.

The home and property have remained in the Nichols family for over 165 years and is presently owned by Cora Schelling Wright, the great-great-granddaughter of Companion Nichols.  In recent years, the Queen Anne Victorian-style residence had been added to the Galveston Historical Foundations "Heritage at Risk" list.

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Ebenezer Bacon Nichols was born on October 12, 1815, in Cooperstown, New York.  After attending the Lutheran Academy at Hartwick, New York, and serving as a broker in New York City, he traveled to Texas with a load of lumber in 1838. and eventually settled in Houston.  With money acquired from speculation in pecans, Companion Nichols entered into a partnership with Companion William Marsh Rice that was known as Rice and Nichols, "dealers in dry goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, etc., at wholesale and retail."  He married Margaret Clayton Stone on August 7, 1842, with the union resulting in seven children.

Having acquired interests in Galveston, Companion Nichols moved there in 1850, became an officer in the Galveston Brazos Navigation Company, and gradually withdrew from the Houston scene (his two-story Greek Revival Houston residence, now located in Sam Houston Park in downtown Houston, was sold to Companion Rice in 1856).  In Galveston, E. B. Nichols and Company, cotton factors and commission merchants, which he formed with Julius Frederick, took over the Brick Wharf.  The firm represented the house of Peirce and Bacon, which ran a line of vessels transporting Texas goods to the East Coast and to Europe.

Though he was initially opposed to secession, Companion Nichols had a change of heart and served as a delegate to the Secession Convention.  He was there made a state commissioner to raise and disburse funds for the public safety, negotiate the surrender of Fort Brown and other fortifications, and handle ammunition and stores in Brownsville and Port Isabel.  He was made a captain in the Galveston Rifles, converted his home on the Galveston Strand into an armory and headquarters for General John B. Magruder, and served on General Magruder's staff and as a financial agent for the Confederacy.

After the war, in 1866. Companion Nichols organized the Bank of Galveston, which later merged with the National Bank of Texas.  He also dealt in Galveston real estate, was president of the Galveston City Company, and took part in forming the Galveston Gas Company, the Galveston Wharf Company, the Texas Ice and Cold Storage Company, and the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad (a private spur of this railroad once ran onto the Nicholstone estate).

Photo: Grand Lodge of Texas

E. B. Nichols joined the masonic fraternity in 1844, when he was entered, passed, and raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason by Holland Lodge No.1 in Houston.  Three years later, he was elected to the office of Worshipful Master.  In January 1848, before the completion of his term as Worshipful Master, he was elected Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Texas, and continued in that office until 1855, when he was elected Grand Master.  He was again elected as Grand Treasurer in 1858 and again in 1859.  On declining re-election in 1860, Brother Nichols was presented by the Grand Lodge of Texas with a Grand Treasurer's jewel, "in token of appreciation of his faithful services, and the estimation of the Craft."

Records are incomplete, and research is ongoing, but it appears that Companion Nichols was exalted a Royal Arch Mason in Houston Chapter No. 8 sometime in 1846.  Houston Chapter was under the jurisdiction of the Grand Chapter of the Republic of Texas, which was considered irregular by the General Grand Chapter of the United States.  Because of this, Companion Nichols and eleven other members of Houston Chapter No. 8 broke away and established Washington Chapter No. 2 in May 1848, under the jurisdiction of the General Grand Chapter.  Companion Nichols served as Washington Chapter's first High Priest for three years, from 1848 through 1850, and was the Chapter's delegate to the convention in 1850 that established the Grand Chapter of Texas.  He went on to serve as the Grand High Priest for that body for the 1851 - 1852 capitular year.

Companion Nichols died at his home in Galveston on November 30, 1872.  He is buried in Trinity Episcopal Cemetery, on Avenue K, in the City of Galveston.