The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

NICHOLS, Otis (1798-1876) and (first wife) Sally Orne (1803-1824) and (second wife) Mary (c. 1800-1868)

The Nicholses were early public supporters of the visions of Ellen Harmon (White). Of Millerite background, Otis and Mary Nichols were prosperous farmers from Dorchester, Massachusetts, who opened their home to provide a base for Ellen Harmon during her travels in Massachusetts to relate her visions during the autumn and winter of 1845-1846. “I made my home at the house of Bro. O. Nichols,” Ellen wrote later. “They were attentive to my wants, and generously supplied me with means to travel.” Otis Nichols personally drove Ellen Harmon and her companions to meet with various Adventist groups in the Boston and New Bedford areas, groups which were often hostile to the visions. 1EGWLM 873.1

In April 1846 Otis Nichols wrote a letter to William Miller that included a lengthy section making his case for the genuineness of Ellen Harmon's visions. The continuing financial support of the Nicholses was of considerable importance to the impoverished James and Ellen White as they struggled to build up the emergent movement. Ellen White later recalled of Otis Nichols that “for several years nearly all the means necessary to bear our expenses came from his purse.” 1EGWLM 873.2

Although there is no record of Otis Nichols’ being a preacher, he did author a number of theological articles, published in the Review during the 1850s and early 1860s. He is also remembered for publishing the first Sabbatarian Adventist prophetic chart in 1850. Some historians believe that Nichols was an engraver and lithographer by trade, but contemporary census and tax records available to this study list him solely as “farmer.” 1EGWLM 873.3

See: Sherman Leland, The Leland Magazine, or a Genealogical Record of Henry Leland, and His Descendants (Boston: Wier & White, 1850), p. 176; E. O. Jameson, The Biographical Sketches of Prominent Persons and the Genealogical Records of Many Early and Other Families in Medway, Mass. 1713-1886 (Millis, Mass.: E. O. Jameson, 1886), p. 122; obituary: “Mary Nichols,” Review, Feb. 11, 1868, p. 142; obituary: [notice re. death of O. Nichols], Review, July 27, 1876, p. 40; Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 68, 69; “They Sleep in Jesus,” Review, Apr. 21, 1868, p. 297. For general surveys of Otis Nichols’ life, see Clifton L. Taylor, “The Robert Morris of the Advent Movement,” Review, June 13, 1963, pp. 7, 8; SDAE, s.v. “Otis Nichols.” 1EGWLM 873.4