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The Old Nichol House
w By Mary Elisabeth Hit*
Much has been said about the burveying and naming of our .“First Washington,” but little has been said about the «first house in this town. .
The “Old Nichol House” still stands. It is not what it used to be but there are still traces of beauty. Open wide the door to 4 imagination and the vision comes of a once beautiful colonial cottage, using a quotation from ah authority on such, it is described as “beautiful in line and proportion and planted with taste and a real feeling for design.” It is built of logi, which would establish its antiquity. Latef it was weatherboarded over. The ancient . boxwood about it lends an air of distinction.
It was before 1800 that Michael Nichol brought his family to live in this house. He had married Sarah, daughter of Henry Miller JI of “Sunnyside," and his wife, Achsah Warner. This Henry was the son of Henry the pioneer, who built the first stone house “of which there is not one stone left upon another.” . Living in the cottage after the War Between the States were two maiden sisters of the Niehol family. The pioneer business women 'of Rappahannock county were they! In their own home they opened a milinery store and you can, I am sure, imagine how the ladies of the town and neighborhood loved to gather, here and try on bonnets.
There is a gentleman living in the county who tells this story of his boyhood. He then lived several miles from town. His mother would lend him to the various ladies, living close by, as escort and protector on their way to buy spring bonnets. Bitting behind the lady on a horse, he would have his “eye skinned” to see if other boys were looking. One day the lady took so long to fiind the most becoming hat that when they Teached her home “the shades of evening were stealing across the sky.” •
The brave protector of ladies must go through a woods to reach his own home. He ran so fast he stumped his toe and .fell down, losing the piece of money the lady had given him. No loss since has ever seemed half so big as this loss of his piece of money in the leaves of the woods that night.
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