March 2009

Dear Donald and Ray,

I remember my Grandmother, Ann, showing
this
photograph of her grandfather to my brother,
Mark, and
to me when we were both very young.

During many conversations with her, she’d add
gravitas to pronouncements anticipated to be
significant to my future by saying: “when you’re old and
have a L-O-N-G white beard…”

When she said this (which was quite often) always, it
brought to mind your photo of Alexander Nicholl in
the February Journal”!

I know very little about Alexander Nicholl, and very
much look forward to reading what you’ve found out
about him.

Two of Ann’s stories do–if dimly–come back to me.

Both relate to his apparently being one of those
Englishmen who loved exploration.

1) He visited Yosemite immediately following its
discovery.
And, 2) While on Madagascar, he became friendly with
its ruler.

Unfortunately, a time came when the king wanted
Nicholl to remain as a guest on his island indefinitely.
According to Ann, this put a strain on her grandfather’s
side of the friendship. However, a discreet midnight
departure eventually ameliorated this friction.

Also, Donald and Ray, your fascinating account of the
Huguenot origins of the name Jerrems left me with a
question: could there be a branch on the Jerrems
family tree connected to Winston Churchill’s mother,
Jenny Jerome?

In closing, I want to let you know of my gratitude for
having discovered many EXCITING insights from
reading your Jerrems Family Newsletter.

Sincerely,

Vince Healy

Previously, despite obtaining lots of information about
Nicoll the Tailor, I was only able to obtain a sprinkling
of information about Alexander himself. Because his
daughter called herself Mary Nicholl Jerrems after she
married William I assumed that Alexander’s correct
surname was Nicholl, a quite popular Scottish name
which I found to be difficult to research because of that
popularity.

It is now clear to me that although I had found some
references to him under the name “Nicholl” (possibly
attributable to errors by people transcribing
handwritten documents) he must have used the name
Nicoll.

Here is a newspaper article which tells us a
lot more
about Alexander. It was published in the St Louis
Republic newspaper in Missouri on November
10,
1895, and I located it by courtesy of the website
genealogybank.com.
<brThe Newspaper
Article – BURIED IN GREENWOOD
The Body of Alexander Nicoll, the Tailor, Brought Over
From London

The body of Alexander Nicoll, who was for a number of
years one of New York’s most prominent business
men, and who died in London on September 25, was
placed in Greenwood cemetery on Sunday November
3.

Mr Nicoll’s fatal illness resulted from a cold which he
contracted while in Scotland early in September.
He was born in London on June 1, 1821 and in 1859
he came to New York, with a capital of only $300, and
opened a tailor shop at 143 Bowery. The basis of his
rapid and complete success was the introduction of
low priced custom tailoring. For six years he had no
imitator. Within that time he opened six branch stores
in different parts of the city, and enlarged his store in
the Bowery until it occupied half a block. After
establishing his New York stores he opened many
out-of-town branches, and by the fall of 1879 he had
52 stores distributed throughout all the States in the
Union.

In ???? he decided to retire from the
business and began closing his branches. His
Chicago and other Western stores he sold to his son-
in-law, WG Jerrems of Chicago and his son, Donald
Nicoll, became the proprietor of the New York and
Eastern branches. Donald Nicoll is now conducting
the two New York stores, one at 147 Bowery and the
other at 171 Broadway.

Mr Nicoll was always quick to adopt every new
invention in machinery that could be used in his
business. He was the first business man in New
York to use electricity for illuminating purposes, and
was one of the first to use the telephone. He was a
thorough believer in advertising, and often spent as
much as $100,000 a year for this purpose. He was
warmly admired and beloved by all his employees.
After his retirement from business in 1885 he went
around the world twice, and crossed the Atlantic 40
times, travelling all the time merely for pleasure. He
was in excellent health until his last illness.

Socially he was of a retiring disposition, but
he was remarkably well informed on many subjects.
He was a member of St George’s Society and the
Reform Club.”

</br

Alexander the Business Man.
The “Nicoll
the Tailor”
business was certainly a major enterprise. Indicative
of this is the figure of $100,000 spent annually on
advertising. The current day equivalent of this could be
in the vicinity of ten million dollars.

Through trade cards (I currently have copies of 82
such cards) and other sources I have located about
45 stores in Washington DC and 20 States. The
States were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington,
and Wisconsin.

Also, Alexander had a mail order system where
customers outside the cities which had stores could
be sent instructions on how to measure themselves,
complete with a tape measure. Men’s suits were then
made up according to the measurements. I have
located newspaper advertisements for this in States
as far afield as North and South Dakota.

Greenwood Cemetery
According to Wikipedia Green-Wood Cemetery was
founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County,
New York, now in Brooklyn. It was a popular tourist
attraction in the 1850s and was the place most
famous New Yorkers who died during the second half
of the nineteenth century were buried.

It is still an operating cemetery with approximately
600,000 graves spread out over 478 acres (1.9 km˛).
If you are in the area pop in and pass on our regards
to Alexander.

Conclusion
The newspaper article provides a lot more information
on the previously elusive Alexander Nicoll. Now that I
know his correct name I might be more successful in
my research.

Being a ghost means he can just float around to any
ceremony without credentials.

We understand the Jerrems Guardian Angel,
Angie, was also in Washington DC. She is
supposed to prevent these intrusions embarrassing
to our family name.