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The construction of the Wilmington and
Manchester Railroad, completed in 1854, and the establishment of depots at Nichols and Mullins,
formed a nucleus for a town at each point. At first, and for years afterwards, these places
were mere hamlets. There gathered near them a few families and some few business men; several
houses were built here and there around the depots, without any seeming regard to an ultimate
town, but with an eye only to their then personal convenience. Thus they were and thus
remained until after the war. After the war, churches were built, a Methodist and a Baptist
Church, and perhaps a colored church or two.
The lands above the railroad belonging to the estate of the late Harman Floyd were sold, and
with a view to the building up of a town, were sold near the depot in convenient lots. The
purchasers began to build, and did build several very good dwellings and storehouses upon
their respective purchases.
The turpentine business there was pretty extensive and profitable, and under these influences
Nichols took on a little boom for a while, and seemed to outstrip its neighbor, Mullins, in
business enterprise and business prospects; but in a few years the turpentine began to flag,
and finally in a measure played out, and with it Nichols came to a stand-still. Recently,
however, the cultivation of tobacco for market has found its way into the country around it
and in upper Horry, just across the river, which has given Nichols an impetus, and she is
again looking up and is forging her way to the front. A. B. Nichols, a good and successful
business man and a man of large means, has erected a commodious warehouse there for the
handling and sale of tobacco, and the quantity sold there is having its effect upon the town,
and she is looking up.
The population, I suppose, is 200 or more. There are three or four stores, owned and managed by A. B. Nichols, John H. Stroud and C. R. Ford, there may be others. The section of country around Nichols is not as agricultural as it is around Mullins and other sections of the county. Mullins is situated in one of the many good sections of the county for agricultural purposes, and in that respect has the advantage of Nichols. For a while she ran a turpentine business, but not to the extent that Nichols did, and she abandoned it earlier. There was not much emigration to either, but more to Mullins than Nichols.
Source: A History of Marion County, South Carolina, by W. W. Sellers, Esq., Columbia, South Carolina, 1902.
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