Hon. George E. Nichols, one of the prominent and representative citizens of Fargo, North Dakota, and president of the Cass County Abstract & Guaranty Company has shown in his successful career that he has the ability to plan wisely and execute with energy a combination which, when possessed by men in any walk of life, never fails to effect notable results. He was born in Windham County, Vermont, March 25, 1856, a son of William E. and Jane E. (Prouty) Nichols, natives of Connecticut and Vermont respectively. They passed their entire lives in New England, the father being employed as a mechanic.
In the schools of his native state our subject acquired his literary education. On leaving home at the age of fifteen years he went to Marshall, Michigan, where he remained for ten years, coming to Fargo in the spring of 1878. Here he was in the employ of N. K. Hubbard, proprietor of the Headquarters Hotel, until 1885, and was then employed as deputy county treasurer under H. H. Burke, in which position he served for six years. In the fall of 1890 he was elected treasurer and filled that office for two terms of two years each. At the end of that time, in 1894, he was elected state treasurer, and was re-elected in 1896, serving in all four years with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. In 1892 he organized the Cans County Abstract & Guaranty Company, of which he has since been president, and was also one of the organizers of the Fargo National Bank, of which he is now a director. He is a business man of more than ordinary ability, is far-sighted and energetic, and the success that he has achieved in life is due entirely to his own well-directed efforts, for he commenced life for himself empty-handed. Socially he is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine, and politically, he is a pronounced Republican.
In 1882 Mr. Nichols married Miss Elizabeth I. Crane, who was born in Connecticut, and they have become the parents of four children:
Source: Compendium and History of North Dakota 1900 Page 192