Nichols, Gustave (1885-1972)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1972 Oct 26 p. 11

Birth date: 1885 Aug 17

text of obituary:

GUSTAVE NICHOLS

Gustave Nichols was born Aug. 17, 1885 near Newton, Kan. He departed this life Sept. 23 at the age of 87.

When a small child he accompanied his parents to homestead in what was then known as the "Oklahoma Strip" which had been opened up in the Chickashaw Indian Territory.

When he was eight years old his family moved near Goessel, Kan., where he attended elementary school. Gustave became a Christian when he went tot he Holiness Bible School, which eventually became Bresee College, in Hutchinson. He was baptized into the Mennonite faith in the fall of 1913.

When a young man he worked in flour mills in Claflin and Hutchinson.

On July 13, 1913 Gustave married Bertine Schultz, a deaconess-nurse at Bethel Hospital. They lived in matrimony 59 years. To this union were born two sons, Arthur of Oakley and Watson of Great Bend, and two daughters, Mrs. Guy (Hannah) Moore of Pawnee Rock and Mrs. Glenn (Lillian) Leonard of Glendale, Ariz. Also surviving are 15 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren; and one brother, Jonas Nickell of Newton, Kan.

Gustave and Bertine started their farming business in McPherson County. They also farmed near Dundee and west of Hesston. On the eve of the depression in 1930 the family moved to their present home west of Great Bend.

Upon arriving in the Great Bend community, they found a small, struggling Nazarene Church located in a remodeled school building, with only 28 people in Sunday school. In 1939, with a team of horses, he helped dig the foundation of the present church building, of the Church of Christ, which used to be the Nazarene Church at Twelfth and Stone Streets. Although he could not work physically on the building of the present church edifice, he always gave liberally toward its support.

He was a kind and loving husband and father. His philosophy was never to speak evil of others. First Corinthians 13 was a favorite Scripture.