Thomas D. Nicholls Explained

Thomas David Nicholls (September 16, 1870 – January 19, 1931) was an Independent Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Formative years

Thomas D. Nicholls was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on September 16, 1870. During his childhood, he and his parents moved to Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, where he worked in the area's mines as a boy, studied mining by correspondence and passed a state examination in 1897, after which he was awarded a mine foreman's certificate of competency.

Career

Subsequently appointed superintendent of mines, he became district president of District No. 1 of the United Mine Workers of America. He served in that capacity from 1899 until 1909 when he resigned for health reasons.

Nicholls was elected as an Independent Democrat to the Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses, but was not a candidate for renomination in 1910.

After completing his legislative tenure, he settled on a farm in Somerset County, Maryland, near Princess Anne and engaged in the raising of poultry, beginning in 1911.

Death and interment

Nicholls died in Princess Anne on January 19, 1931; he was interred in the Antioch Methodist Episcopal Cemetery.

Sources