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Jerrems Journal – October 2016 Edition 139
NICOLL THE TAILOR PART 8
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Introduction by Ray Jerrems
Here is a photo of the panel of the Nicoll Family Memorial recording the death (in the top entry) of Donald Nicoll (Senior). In this article we continue the story of the children of Alexander Nicoll (“Nicoll the Tailor”) who set up his tailoring empire in the 1870s and 1880s in the United States. Tracing the descendants of Nicoll the Tailor has solved the last great mystery in my research. In previous articles we have followed the careers of most of Nicoll’s children. Now we turn to Nicoll’s son Donald as the result of recent research. An intriguing aspect is that his descendants are distant cousins of many of the Jerrems readers who live in the United States. |
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| Donald’s early days
Donald was born in 1853 in St James, Westminster, London. As described in a previous article, Nicoll the Tailor and his family migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1854 or 1855, where he quickly set up business as a tailor. Briefly, according to US Censuses (which merely repeated information supplied by Donald), Donald arrived in New York in 1867 when he was fourteen. According to my calculations he was still living in Australia in 1867, but this is not important. Regardless of when he actually arrived in New York, Donald married Lee Coleman (b1855 England) in 1873 in New York, and in quick sequence they had four children who reached adulthood, a daughter (Florence born 1880) and three sons, Alexander (b1881 ), Donald (b1882 ) and Wallace (b1883 ). We do not know a lot about the young couple (when they were married Donald was twenty and Ellen was eighteen) but we do know that they had a baby girl (Elizabeth) in 1874, who was baptised in Manhattan. Sadly she died in 1877 and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. |
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Nicoll Family Memorial
This four-sided Memorial, shown in my previous article, is located in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. The cemetery features strongly in the Nicoll story so I will give you some facts about it.
The cemetery opened in about 1840 and has over 560,000 burials. It covers the enormous area of 478 acres. This is of course not as large as the famous Arlington Military Cemetery (624 acres, 253 ha) in Virginia but as far as I know it is still far larger than any Australian Cemetery. The Nicoll Memorial has ten members of the Nicoll family engraved on its four panels, comprising (a) Nicoll the Tailor and his wife Elizabeth on the front Notable absentees are Donald Snr’s other two children, Florence (who is buried elsewhere in the cemetery) and Wallace Jnr. |
Donald manages Nicoll the Tailor Stores This is a photo of Nicoll the Tailor’s store at 620 Broadway, with fire escapes added much later. The entrance, flanked by columns, is very ornate. Two of these stores were very upmarket, one being situated at 620 Broadway (see above photograph) and one at 139-151 Bowery. The latter store was the main store, described in the Jerrems Journal of November 2007.They were only about 1000 yards apart. The third was in downtown Brooklyn. An 1889 New York Times article extolled the virtues of the Bowery store, which had been severely damaged by fire in the previous year. as follows: “The most striking front on the Bowery is at 145 and 147, and is owned by Nicoll the Tailor. Mr Nicoll says that it is of the old Norman style of architecture. It is certainly attractive…The woodwork is of oak and is handsomely carved. The entrance is laid in tiling of unique design. The plate-glass windows are of immense size, the largest measuring 11 feet by 10 and a half feet. At each of four corners are big cylindrical shaped windows. They are said to be the largest of their kind in the country, the casting and finishing taking two months. The American and State flags wave from the top of the building, each storey of which has a unique construction. Altogether the exterior of the establishment is of a character to attract attention, and to this Mr Nicoll does not in the least object.” Nicoll and the stores had previously gained significant fame, thanks to Nicoll the Tailor’s publicity campaigns and his entrepreneurial flair. In the 1880s he spent the enormous sum of $100,000 a year (possibly 10 million dollars in today’s terms) in advertising and publicity. |
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Nicoll the Tailor’s publicity stunts
Readers with very long memories will recall Jerrems Journal articles about Nicoll’s stunts. For lesser mortals I will summarise them. Perhaps Nicoll’s most flamboyant activity was to light up the street outside his original Bowery store. He did this before street lighting had been introduced to New York. He used the store’s electric lighting (in itself being very innovative) to light up the street. This attracted headlines from the newspapers, whose managers were always looking for something out of the ordinary. The public flocked to see the lights. As recorded in the publication “The Clothier and Furnisher” in 1884 a suit was actually made in three hours and thirteen minutes for a bet of $100. Unfortunately the bet was for three hours, so the store lost the bet. No doubt this publicity provided a strong commercial base for future generations of the Nicoll family. However Nicoll was even more famous for introducing a mail order system whereby the numerous stores would make men’s suits by mail order. On request the stores would send instructions (complete with tape measure) for intending purchasers to measure themselves and have a suit made to those measurements. |
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Donald and Ellen die
Ellen died in in about 1918, after having remarried to John Bennett in 1903. Donald died in 1919 and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, recorded on a panel of the Nicoll Family Memorial.
I will now devote this article to Donald’s oldest son Alexander, and in a later article I will tell you about his other children.
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Donald’s oldest son Alexander, the surgeon
Alexander had an illustrious career as a surgeon, certainly one of the most illustrious careers in the extended Jerrems family, taking into account that my great great great grandfather (George Jepson) was a surgeon in Gainsborough, as also was Alexander’s great grandfather (another Alexander) in London. According to his obituary and eulogies published in the New York newspapers Alexander attended Yale University and graduated in 1903 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He interned and served as house surgeon in gynaecology at St Vincent’s Hospital, New York. He was appointed in 1907 to the visiting staff of Fordham Hospital, in New York and was Director of Surgery in the Hospital’s First Division from 1914 until he retired from that position in 1946. Fordham Hospital (shown in the above photo taken at about the time Alexander joined the hospital) was operated by the City of New York. It was the first public hospital in the Bronx area of New York, and opened in 1892. As shown in the photo it was relocated in 1907. Alexander was also a member of the visiting surgical staff of St Elizabeth’s Hospital and St Francis’ Hospital. |
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War Service in France
Alexander was called to active duty in the Army Medical Corps in World War l and commanded the Fordham Hospital Reserve Unit in France. He was discharged with the high rank of Lieutenant Colonel after the War. Alexander marries, children (a) Margaret Emma Nicoll (1911-2001), I will give you more information about these daughters in a later article. In which Alexander does a very brave thing The Herald Tribune’s eulogy contained a detailed account of one of Alexander’s earlier exploits: “Dr Alexander Nicoll saved a policeman’s life with a daring heart operation in 1938 when he was director of surgery at Fordham Hospital. Patrolman William Manning was close to death with a knife wound that had cut off part of his lung and scraped his heart when he was taken to Fordham hospital in April 1938. Dr Nicoll, acting with what his colleagues termed pioneering courage, opened the patrolman’s chest, picked up the heart, made a slit, drained out blood that had collected and was exerting deadly pressure, sewed up the slit, replaced the organ and sewed up the chest.
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Medical Opinion Opposed
At the time, according to a heart surgeon, prevailing medical opinion was against any kind of heart surgery, and Dr Nicoll’s unhesitating decision to operate required a high degree of courage. In recent years heart surgery has become more and more common.
Patrolman Manning made a dramatic recovery.
Alexander belonged to lots of Associations
Alexander was a busy bee. He was a member of the American College of Surgeons, the New York County Medical Society, the Bronx County Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Hippocrates Society of New York. He finally hung up his scalpel (retiring from practice) in the spring prior to his death at the age of about seventy five.
Alexander, who formerly had offices at 50 E 72nd St New York, lived at
Holbrook, Long Island at the time of his death.
Alexander and Adeline die
Alexander died on 31/10/1956, and Adeline died on 4/2/1963. Both are listed on the Nicoll Memorial in Green-Wood cemetery.
Eulogies
There were numerous eulogies recording his medical service at Fordham Hospital, St Elizabeth’s Hospital, and St Francis Hospital Bronx (where he appears to have been an honorary surgeon “serving the poor”).
Conclusion
In a later article I will tell you about Donald’s other children, Florence, Donald Jnr and Wallace to bring to finality the last great mystery in my research. |