Schuyler Nichols, M. D., a practicing physician at Herington, is one of the honored citizens of Dickinson county and a representative of a family whose name has been identified with Kansas affairs for a quarter of a century. Dr. Nichols was born at Allerton, Wayne county, Iowa, Nov. 14, 1875, the eldest son of Dr. Herman V. and Alice T. (Townley) Nichols, the former born in Mohawk county, New York, April 5, 1851, and the latter in Boston, Mass., of English parentage. The father was a physician by profession, a graduate of Rush Medical College of Chicago, and was also a druggist and a lawyer. He came to Kansas in 1887, first locating at Bloom, but later removed to Liberal, where he invested in lands. He represented the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Legislative district, as a Republican, in the State legislature in 1893, and in 1901 went to Alaska, prospecting, and died there, Nov. 3, 1907. He was married to Miss Alice T. Townley, June 25, 1872, at Waukesha, Wis., and soon thereafter located at Allerton, Iowa, where he practiced medicine two years. Upon first coming to Kansas, in 1874, he located in Reno county, where he homesteaded land. To him and his good wife were born seven children—three sons and four daughters: Dr. Nichols is the first in order of birth; Harriet Grace, born Dec. 22, 1878, is the wife of R. P. Donohoo, a county official in Quay county, New Mexico; Roscoe Townley, born Feb. 20, 1881, is a successful physician at Liberal, Kan.; Lillian, born Feb. 5, 1884, died Dec. 14, 1888; Gladys Irene, born April 23, 1888, graduated at the Kansas State Agricultural College, with the class of 1910, and resides with her mother at Manhattan; Jesse, born Dec. 8, 1891, is a student in the Kansas State Agricultural College, and Henry Victor, born May 24, 1896, died Jan. 30, 1901.

Dr. Nichols secured his educational training in the schools of Trenton, Mo., and Liberal, Kan., his final literary discipline being in the Kansas State Agricultural College, which he entered in September, 1894, and graduated with the class of 1898. He worked his own way through this institution, without financial assistance from anyone. He then entered Barnes Medical College, at St. Louis, and graduated in April, 1901. Soon thereafter he began the practice of his profession at Liberal, Kan., and remained in that place until May 1, 1905, when he removed to Herington, where he has succeeded in building up a large practice and is the local surgeon for the Rock Island Lines and the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. He has been a keen student of medical progress and has given some time to post-graduate study. In 1903 he attended the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical College and Hospital, and in 1905 took a special course in surgery at that institution. In 1909 he attended the clinic of the Drs. Mayo, at Rochester, Minn., on surgery, and in 1910 studied a third time in Chicago. He is a Thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar, and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, Isis Temple, Salina.

On Nov. 27, 1907, Dr. Nichols married Miss Capitola, daughter of H. W. and Leonora Collier, of Wichita, where the father is engaged in mercantile pursuits. Of this union there is a daughter, Leanor, born Sept. 11, 1908, and a son, Vedder, born May 8, 1911. Mrs. Nichols took a full course in the Kansas University, graduating with the class of 1906. She is a member of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Collier, the mother of Mrs. Nichols, died in February, 1910.