Ebenezer B. Nichols

b. 12 October 1815, d. 30 November 1872

Ebenezer B Nichols, 1815-1872
  • Ebenezer B. Nichols was born on 12 October 1815 in Cooperstown, Otsego County, New York.
  • He married Margaret Clayton Stone on 7 August 1842.
  • Ebenezer B. Nichols and Margaret Clayton Stone appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1850 in Houston, Harris County, Texas, and also in the household five clerks, including John R. Bostwick, living next to the Wm M. Rice household.. Other members of the household included W. H. Nichols, F. R. Nichols and E. M. K. Nichols.
  • He was a merchant, according to the 1850 census.
  • The following appeared in the Houston Telegraph & Texas Register: Notice. From and after this date our business will be conducted in the name of W. M. Rice & Co., at this place, and in the name of E. B. Nichols & Co., at Galveston. W. M. Rice. E. B. Nichols. Houston, Aug. 2d, 1852.
  • Ebenezer B. Nichols died on 30 November 1872 at age 57 in Galveston County, Texas.
  • Green Wood did a lot of business with William Marsh Rice and Ebenezer B. Nichols: first, the Houston mercantile firm of Rice & Nichols, a large export and import business that supplied plantations and settlers inland with goods from New Orleans and New York and acted as banker for many of its customers; and later Houston firm Wm M. Rice & Co. (from their billhead, "groceries, provisions and liquors, drugs and medicines, iron, steel, nails, castings, rope, bagging, &c &c") and Galveston firm E. B. Nichols & Co. (cotton factors and commission merchants). It appears that Green shipped his cotton to Rice in Houston who passed it on to Nichols to be sold. At some point, Marsh turned his railroad interests over to his brother Frederick A. Rice and business associates Abram Groesbeck and W. R. Baker, and moved to New York City where he remained until his death.
  • Ebenezer B. Nichols and William Marsh Rice were partners in the mercantile firm of Rice and Nichols, a large export and import business that supplied plantations and settlers inland with goods from New Orleans and New York and acted as banker for many of its customers.
  • For additional biographical information, see The Texas Handbook Online.
  • Last Edited: 23 Mar 2013

Family: Margaret Clayton Stone b. circa 1823