Name/Title
Stephen D. Nichols by Frank NicholsEntry/Object ID
2021.41.80Scope and Content
One-page photocopy of typewritten text about Saugatuck's first lighthouse keeper and entrepreneur by his son Frank Nichols. Text dated Feb. 16, 1920, Chicago, Illinois was likely collected by May Francis Heath.
Text includes Frank's memories of living at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River as a boy, the mills and a school at Singapore, Singapore Bank notes, trading with Native Americans, and his siblings Alice (Nichols) Coates, spouse of Captain L.B. Coates, Dan, Frank, Jennie and Cornelia.Context
Nearly identical text from "Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan, 1830-1930" by May Francis Heath:
STEPHEN D. NICHOLS
By his son, Frank Nichols
Chicago, IL Feb. 16 -- 1920
Stephen D. Nichols was born in Hampstead, New Hampshire in 1806. He came west to Chicago in 1830, crossed Lake Michigan to Michigan and went to Michigan City where he was married in 1833. In 1834 he moved to the mouth of the Kalamazoo river where he built a store, warehouse and docks and became keeper of the Lighthouse which position he held for seventeen years.
The first lighthouse was built of stone and stood on the north side of the river, about ten rods from the mouth.
He sold the warehouse in 1860 to a man named John Shores who moved it up the river on scows and landed it just south of the old chain ferry. The old lighthouse stood for many years, part of it after the new one was built in 1859. The Underwood boys, my brother and myself used to catch black and grey squirrels on the sand hills and put them in the old house and we would have thirty or forty there at a time.
The barn where my father stabled his horse was gradually covered with sand and I well remember the roof just showing. Father had a store in Singapore about 1858 and just opposite the store was a long shed built of slabs, one end was used for drying slabs and the other for a schoolhouse. An old circular saw was used for a bell and this called me for my first days in school.
We lived at Singapore several years where were then two saw mills, known as the upper and lower, one owned by Robert Helmer, the other by F. B. Stockbridge.
Father had bought 59 acres of farm-land (the Halverson farm) and he built a house in 1855, moving the family there. It was known all over the country as the "Nichols Homestead" and great was the entertaining and many the guests. My mother owned the first cow and cook stove in that part of the country; her father, Mr. Van Meter started with two cows from Michigan City to go down the lake shore but one got away and never was found.
Father had a store in Saugatuck, then known as the Flats, the township being called Newark. I do not know how long he was in business but the building stood for many years on what is now the Walz corner.
I well remember the old bank at Singapore, it was called the "Wild-Cat" bank and we had paper money which was called Shin Plasters and ranged in three, five, ten, fifteen, twenty-five and fifty cent small bills.
At one time father had two vessels sailing from the mouth of the river to Chicago; he bought furs from the Indians and also fancy things as baskets and ornaments made from willow and colored with wild roots and skoke berries: can remember many squaws coming to our house on the farm with fat little Pappooses strapped to their backs and carrying great bundles of baskets, all of different colors, in their arms.
There were three girls, Alice (who became the wife of Capt. L. B. Coates), Cornelia (Mrs. Frank Hutchinson) and Jennie and two boys, Dan and Frank, in the Nichols family.Collection
1830 Settlement, pioneer eraCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2021.41Source or Donor
Schmiechen, James A.Acquisition Method
DonationRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Nichols, Stephen D. 1806-1887, Coates, Lintsford B. 1834-1906, Coates, Mary Alice (Nichols) 1840-1928, Nichols, Mary (VanMatre) 1813-1880Create Date
November 9, 2025Update Date
November 9, 2025
