Ezra Nicholson (February 8, 1835 January 15, 1915) Buried at Lakeview Cemetery Father: James E. Nicholson (1783 1859) Mother: Betsy Bartholomew Nicholson (1792 1879) Married: Alice Samantha Fowles in 1863. Born in 1843 Children: Grace Eloise Nicholson (1863 1942) Alfred Nicholson James Nicholson E. Lewis Nicholson C.P. Nicholson (ancestry.com) He spent his entire life in Lakewood. He lived on the home farm and inherited the homestead of 365 acres. He was also prominent in lake transportation. In 1885 he became a member of the Cleveland firm of Johnson & Palmer, lake vessel owners, and after that was identified with remarkable progress in vessel construction and operation. He devised the Nicholson recording ship log, a device for recording the speed of vessels. It was patented. He also invented the Nicholson distance and rang finders. To control, produce and supply his patented inventions he organized the Nicholson Company in which his sons joined him as partners. He married in 1863 to Alice Fowles.
In 1885 Mr. Nicholson became interested with the firm of Johnson & Palmer in the ownership of lake vessels, which at that time was very profitable business. He had lived to witness the remarkable development of lake transportation. In 1893 Mr. Nicholson laid out what is know as the Nicholson allotment in Lakewood. The cross street Grace Avenue and Clarence Avenue were the first streets west of Kentucky to be paved and were supplied with all modern improvements. These street were named after his children, and the deed to the property were given to Mr. Nicholson s father by the state treasurer of Connecticut, for in the early days this land was owned by the state of Connecticut and for a time was termed Connecticut before the name of Western Reserve as adopted. (Cleveland History. Vol. 1 page 148) Ezra Nicholson, father of E. Louis, was one of the prominent men of his day in Cuyahoga County". He was born in what is now Lakewood February 8, 1835, and spent all his life in that one community. He died January 15, 1915, when nearly eighty years old. As a boy his education came from the district schools and later he attended school at Cleveland. He lived on the home farm, and on the division of this property he inherited the homestead. He came to own 365 acres right in the heart of the present Town of Lakewood, and now practically all built over as a residence section. When the Village of Lakewood came into existence he served as its first clerk. He was always prominent in the community and did much to promote its development. In 1893 he laid out the Nicholson allotment of Lakewood, which was rapidly improved and by means of which the original Nicholson farm was cut up and sold for building lots. Thus for many years Ezra Nicholson had many responsibilities in connection with real estate. He was also
prominent in lake transportation circles. In 1885 he became a member of the Cleveland firm of Johnson & Palmer, lake vessel owners, and after that was identified with the remarkable progress in vessel construction and operation which has done so much to advance the City of Cleveland. Marine men all over the world appreciate the originality and inventive genius of the late Ezra Nicholson. He devised the Nicholson recording ship log, a device for recording the speed of vessels. It was the first practical instrument of the kind, and no one so far has ever proved a serious competitor of its advantages. Ezra Nicholson patented it in the United States and in all other maritime countries. Its many obvious merits soon secured for it extensive introduction, and it was officially adopted by the United States Government for the battleships and other vessels of the navy. Ezra Nicholson also invented the Nicholson distance and range finders, which has become a valuable adjunct for coast navigation. To control, produce and supply his patented inventions Ezra Nicholson organized the Nicholson Company, a Cleveland concern, in which his two sons joined him as partners. This business is now the Nicholson Ship Log Manufacturing Company, owned by his son E. Louis. Ezra Nicholson was a republican and during the war was member of a home guard regiment known as the Squirrel Hunters, whose chief active service was in repelling the Morgan raiders from Cincinnati. In religion he was a Swedenborgian. Ezra Nicholson married in 1863 Alice Powles, a native of Wisconsin. She died at Lakewood in 1912. She was the mother of five children: Alfred, who died at the age of seven years; James, who died in infancy; Eloise, wife of C. L. Thompson, who is manager of the Susquehanna Coal Company and lives at Erie, Pennsylvania; E. Louis; and C. P., who is an oil promoter and has leases and acre property in the oil fields of Oklahoma,
but lives at Lakewood. (A History of Cleveland and its Enviors; Biography, 1918, page 512) Nicholson, Ezra; inventor; manufacturer and real estate: born, Lakewood, O., Feb. 8, 1835; son of James and Betsy Bartholomew Nicholson; educated, common and high schools Cleveland; married. Lakewood, June 9, 1863, Alice Samantha Fowles; issue. six children; three living and three died when young; was the first clerk and treas. of Lakewood, and one of a committee of two to select a name for the town; in 1862, at the call of Governor Todd for volunteers, to protect Cincinnati against the rebel army under command of Gen. Kirby Smith, he enlisted with sixteen others under Capt. Rice, and went to Cincinnati, were known as Squirrel Hunters ; father, James Nicholson, died in 1859, leaving him a farm of 270 acres; for seven years, he ran this farm, setting out many acres to fruit and grapes; had 50 acres of the latter, the first grown in this section; in 1893, began allotting the farm; laid out Grace and Clarence Aves. putting in all improvements; procured the rightof way free, excepting two pieces of land, and promoted the Rocky River R. R., a steam suburban rail road, since sold to the Nickel Plate R. R.; made preliminary survey and located part of Nickel Plate R. R.; invented and patented The Nicholson Self Recording Ship Log and Speed Indicator, with electric attachment; Wane Motor for storing electricity; Marine Engine Speed Recorder; Clutch Geering for Electric Block Signal for railroads; Recording Electric Meter and several other inventions; was the first pres. and held office for four years, of The Rocky River R. R. Co.; director The Fanner Mnfg. Co., The Lakewood Savings Bank, The Nicholson Realty Co.; pres. the First New Jerusalem Church of Lakewood; several years school director and chairman of the board; when his father came to Cleveland, there was only one house on the West Side; there
was no road but the trees were marked to indicate one; bears and wolves were plentiful and Indians camped on his father s land; this land is now laid out in beautiful streets and built up with modern residences, school houses, and churches; has lived for 75 years in the house his father built in 1838; it is the oldest residence in Lakewood; located on Detroit Ave. Recreations: Traveling in Foreign Lands, and Own Country, Motoring, Yachting, Reading, Inventing and Making Useful Things. (Book of Clevelanders, 1914, page 94) EZRA NICHOLSON. Ezra Nicholson has been a witness of Cleveland s growth and development through seventy five years and has also participated in many public events which have left their impress upon the history of the city. His birthplace, which was his father s farm comprising several hundred acres, now constitutes the present site of Lakewood. He was there born in 1835, a son of James Nicholson, who was one of the pioneer settlers on the west side of the Cuyahoga river, only two other houses being on that side of the river at the time of his arrival, one of these being at Rocky river while the other was the property of the ferryman. James Nicholson settled there about 1812. He was born in Chatham, Massachusetts, in 1783, of good old Puritan stock, and having arrived at years of maturity married Betsey Bartholmew of Waterbury, Connecticut. There was a tiny village on the site of Ohio s present metropolis at the time of his removal to the west. There was little lake navigation and the era of railroad travel through the western forests had not been dreamed of. The only way of crossing the river in those days was by ferry, Mr. Carter operating a ferry boat at the little village. Mr. Nicholson, of this review, remembers of his father telling him of the first high pressure steamboat on the great lakes. It was
called Walk on the Water" and ran between Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit. James Nicholson was a man of remarkable vitality and devoted his life to general agricultural pursuits, owning and cultivating an excellent farm of several hundred acres, to which he devoted his energies until his death in 1859. His widow survived him for many years and died in 1886, in her eighty sixth year. She left three children, Delia, Louis and Ezra. (A History of Cleveland, Ohio Biographical, 1910, page 350)