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BORN:
4 May 1848 | Cass County, Indiana
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DIED:
19 December 1914 | McMinnville, Oregon
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SPOUSE:
Rev. William D. Nichols
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MARRIED:
31 July 1864 | Dayton, Oregon
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CHILDREN:
- Minnie Myrtle Nichols (1874 – 1884)
- George Abraham Nichols (1886 – 1949)
Early Life
Sarah Catherine Coovert Nichols was born in May 1848 to Abram and Martha Coovert. She was the second of seven children and one of four who survived to adulthood. At the age of three, she crossed the plains with her family as part of the Odell wagon train, arriving in Oregon in September 1851. Sarah was the granddaughter of John and Sarah Odell (founders of the Odell Pioneer Cemetery) through her mother, Martha Odell Coovert.
Marriage to Rev. William D. Nichols
Sarah married the Reverend William D. Nichols on July 31, 1864, when she was 16 and he was about 29. William was a Methodist pastor whose work took him throughout the Pacific Northwest. He served in a number of appointed posts under the Methodist Episcopal Conference.
Little is known about William’s early life. His identity has not yet been confirmed in census records before 1870, and no reliable records have been found regarding his birth date, birthplace, or parents. This is not unexpected given the demanding nature of circuit-rider life, which involved continual travel across large territories and frequent reassignments, leaving little opportunity to establish or maintain personal records (United Methodist Church, n.d.).
William’s Pastoral Work
William’s first appointment noted in newspapers was in Port Townsend, Washington, when he was 24 (Oregon Statesman, 1859). He later served as the circuit preacher for Wasco and Klickitat Counties (Weekly Oregonian, 1860). By 1863 he was a professor of mathematics and ancient languages at Lafayette Academy (Weekly Oregon Statesman, 1863), which may have brought him into the Dayton area where he met Sarah.
Throughout his career, he served as principal of several Methodist-affiliated private schools, including the Santiam Academy from 1868 to 1869, which by 1873 had grown to 150 students and a library of 400 books (Yarnes, 1957, p. 161). Sarah often worked alongside William as the head primary school teacher at these schools.
(Albany Democrat, 1868)
Santiam Academy in Lebanon, Oregon, 1936 (Maxwell, 1936, Salem Public Library, via Wikipedia).
The couple moved frequently across Oregon due to William’s pastoral appointments. In many communities, no church building yet existed, and William carried out his work as a circuit rider. While circuit riders were theoretically assigned to the community where they lived, the reality was far more demanding. As Yames explains in A History of Oregon Methodism:
“But in practice circuits seem to have been created by appointing a man to a very indefinite territory with the understanding that he must visit the people from place to place and house to house, or cabin to cabin, and preach where he could get a handful of people together, and then go on a few miles to some other place where he could find lodging and another handful of people. And so on and on until he had covered a territory sufficient to travel over in a month or six weeks, perhaps, telling the people at each place that he would be back at a certain time to preach again.” (1957, p. 117)
Children
Sarah and William welcomed a daughter, Minnie M., in 1874 while living in Corvallis, where William was appointed pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Minnie died on February 6, 1884, a “long severe and lingering illness” (Corvallis Gazette, 1884). Her burial location is unknown.
Their son, George Abraham, was born in 1886, two years after Minnie’s death.
Missionary Work and William’s Death
In 1891, William was transferred by the Methodist Church to serve as a missionary in Liberia, where he was principal of the Cape Palmas Seminary (Statesman Journal, 1893). During his service he became ill and traveled to the Canary Islands to recuperate. Although his health is noted to as have improved, he died suddenly during his return voyage to Liberia and was buried at sea on February 4, 1893.
Later Years
In November of 1890, Sarah purchased about ten acres from her parents near the intersection of SE Webfoot and Palmer Creek Roads in Dayton for the sum of $300.00, approximately $10,000.00 today (Yamhill County (Oregon) County Clerk, n.d.). It is unclear why the land transfer is only listed in Sarah’s name, but she and her son George likely moved to the farm upon William’s relocation to Africa to be close to her family.
In 1909 she purchased a lot in the Baker and Martin’s Addition in McMinnville, where she and George were living by the 1910 U.S. Census. The home appears to have been on present-day Adams Street between 8th and 10th Avenues. Census records suggest she rented a portion of the house to another couple. George, then 23, was working as a laborer in a lumber yard.
Death and Burial
Sarah died in McMinnville on December 19, 1914, at the age of 66. Her death certificate lists organ and heart disease as the primary causes, with epilepsy of 20 years’ duration noted as a contributing factor. She was attended by her physician in the weeks leading up to her death.
Sarah was interred at the Odell Pioneer Cemetery alongside her parents, siblings, and extended family. Her grave is unmarked, and the exact location of her burial is unknown.
REFERENCE LIST
Albany Democrat. (1868, September 12), p. 3, col. 3. Albany, OR. Retrieved November 21, 2025, from Newspapers.com.
Corvallis Gazette. (1884, February 8), p. 4. Retrieved November 19, 2025, from Newspapers.com.
Maxwell, B. (1936). Santiam Academy, Lebanon, Oregon [Photograph]. Salem Public Library. Retrieved November 21, 2025, from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/Santiam_Academy.jpg.
Oregon State Archives. (1914). Oregon, Death Records, 1864–1967 [Death record for Sarah C. Coovert, Certificate #3458]. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Archives. Retrieved November 18, 2025, from Ancestry.com: Oregon, U.S., State Deaths, 1864–1971 (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2021).
Oregonian. (1893, April 12), p. 4, col. 5. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from Newspapers.com.
Statesman Journal. (1893, April 14), p. 4, col. 1. Retrieved May 2, 2018, from Newspapers.com.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1850). 1850 United States Federal Census. Jackson, Indiana, dwelling 53, family 47, p. 481a, Absalom Covert [Abram Coovert] household. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication M432, Roll 137. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from Ancestry.com.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1860). 1860 United States Federal Census. Dayton, Oregon, p. 664, Abram Coovert household. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication M653, Roll 1056. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from Ancestry.com.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1870). 1870 United States Federal Census. Lebanon, Oregon, p. 657A, William D. Nichols household. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication M593, Roll 1286. Retrieved November 19, 2025, from Ancestry.com.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1880). 1880 United States Federal Census. Elk City, Oregon, E.D. 008, p. 98B, William D. Nichols household. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication T9, Roll 1080. Retrieved November 21, 2025, from Ancestry.com.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1900). 1900 United States Federal Census. Dayton, Oregon, E.D. 0166, p. 13, Sarah Nichols household. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication T623, Roll 1353. Retrieved November 21, 2025, from Ancestry.com.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1910). 1910 United States Federal Census. McMinnville, Oregon, E.D. 0284, p. 1B, Sarah Nichols household. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication T624, Roll 1290. Retrieved November 21, 2025, from Ancestry.com.
United Methodist Church. (n.d.). The hard road of a Methodist circuit rider. UMC.org. Retrieved November 19, 2025, from https://www.umc.org/en/content/the-hard-road-of-a-methodist-circuit-rider.
Weekly Oregonian. (1860, September 1), p. 2, col. 4. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from Newspapers.com.
Weekly Oregon Statesman. (1863, August 10), p. 2, col. 7. Retrieved November 19, 2025, from Newspapers.com.
West Side Telephone. (1887, January 7), p. 3, col. 4. Retrieved August 21, 2021, from an online source.
Yarnes, T. D. (1957). A history of Oregon Methodism (pp. 116–117). Nashville, TN: Parthenon Press for the Oregon Methodist Conference Historical Society. Retrieved November 19, 2025, from https://archive.org/details/historyoforegonm01yarn.
Yamhill County (Oregon) County Clerk. (n.d.-a). Yamhill, Oregon, United States records [Image 196 of 322; Image Group Number 102625199]. Yamhill County Clerk’s Office, Yamhill County, Oregon. Retrieved November 19, 2025, from FamilySearch: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS8N-V9TB-1?view=explore.
Yamhill County (Oregon) County Clerk. (n.d.-b). Yamhill, Oregon, United States records [Image 146 of 322; Image Group Number 004474760]. Yamhill County Clerk’s Office, Yamhill County, Oregon. Retrieved November 21, 2025, from FamilySearch: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6L2B-35?view=explore.
Works Consulted – Newspapers
Albany Democrat. (1883, August 31), p. 3, col. 6. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Albany Register. (1869, August 7), p. 3, col. 1. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Albany Register. (1869, September 4), p. 2, col. 5. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Albany Register. (1876, September 1), p. 3, col. 5. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Corvallis Gazette. (1884, September 12), p. 5, col. 3. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Corvallis Gazette. (1893, April 21), p. 2, col. 3. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Liberal Republican. (1870, September 3), p. 3, col. 3. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Liberal Republican. (1873, August 2), p. 3, col. 1. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Morning Oregonian. (1867, November 2), p. 3, col. 1. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1871, May 20), p. 3, col. 3. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1871, August 15), p. 3, col. 2. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1873, September 10), p. 1, col. 6. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1875, August 18), p. 1. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1875, November 22), p. 4, col. 1. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1878, September 4), p. 1, col. 5. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1880, August 25), p. 1, col. 5. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1881, July 26), p. 3, col. 4. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1888, September 4), p. 2, col. 1. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1889, December 14), p. 8, col. 2. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1890, September 19), p. 6, col. 5. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Oregonian. (1891, September 2), p. 1. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Statesman Journal. (1885, September 1), p. 2, col. 3. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Statesman Journal. (1891, August 21), p. 4, col. 2. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.
Weekly Oregon Statesman. (1864, September 5), p. 2, col. 7. Retrieved from Newspapers.com.