William T. Nichols
William Thomas Nichols (March 24, 1829 - April 10, 1882) was a 19th-century politician, soldier, and businessman. He served in both houses of the Vermont legislature and commanded the 14th Vermont Infantry during the American Civil War. After the war, he became a founder of the Illinois village of Maywood, now a suburb of Chicago. Biography William T. Nichols was born in Clarendon, Vermont, the son of James Tilson Nichols and Minerva D. (Briggs) Nichols. Trained as a lawyer, he served as an assistant clerk in Vermont’s House of Representatives and then as the state's attorney in 1858–59. In 1855, he traveled to Kansas Territory and became involved in the dispute over whether the territory would enter the United States as a slave-owning or free state. At one point, he volunteered for the risky task of delivering dispatches from the journalist William A. Phillips to Charles L. Robinson, a Free-Stater who was acting as territorial governor and who would later become the first governor of the state of Kansas. For this service, Nichols was appointed to Robinson's staff with the rank of colonel. He returned to Vermont the following year. Nichols served in two volunteer Vermont regiments during the Civil