Francis T. Nicholls

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Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls (August 20, 1834–January 4, 1912) served two terms as Governor of Louisiana after Reconstruction.

Nicholls was born in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1855, but resigned his commission one year later. He then attended the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University) and practiced law in Napoleonville, Louisiana until the start of the U.S. Civil War.

Nicholls joined the Confederate States Army in 1861, participating in the First Battle of Bull Run and in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. In May of 1862, Nicholls was wounded at the Battle of Winchester in Virginia, losing his left arm. On October 14, 1862, Nicholls was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. During the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, a shell ripped off Nicholls's left foot. Nicholls was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department to direct the Volunteer and Conscript Bureau until the end of the war.

After the war, Nicholls returned to practicing law. In 1876, he ran for governor against Stephen B. Packard. The election became disputed as both men claimed victory. As part of the compromise to resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876, President Rutherford B. Hayes recognized Nicholls as the winner.

Nicholls believed in having less government through lower taxes and fewer official functions. During his first term, he battled political corruption, taking on the State Treasurer Edward Burke, the operator of the convict lease system Samuel Jones, and Lieutenant Governor Louis A. Wiltz who supported the corrupt Louisiana Lottery.

Nicholls chaired the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1879, and moved the state capitol back to Baton Rouge from New Orleans. Nicholls served two terms as governor - from 1877 until 1880, and again from 1888 through 1892.

After serving as governor, Nicholls became Chief Justice of the Louisiana State Supreme Court in 1892, a post which he held until 1911. Francis Nicholls died in Thibodaux, Louisiana on January 4, 1912.

Louisiana State University-Thibodaux later became known as Nicholls State University. The mascot is known as the Fightin' Colonel, after Nicholls' military rank at the time of the Battle of Winchester.

Trivia

From 1913 to about 1950 there was a vocational school in New Orleans named for Nicholls, at 3649 Laurel Street. It opened as the Francis T. Nicholls Industrial School for Girls, and offered secondary vocational training, concentrating on apparel manufacturing. The school was later renamed Nicholls Vocational School for Girls, and even later Nicholls Evening Vocational School.

In 1940 a new public high school, Francis T. Nicholls High School, was opened at 3820 St. Claude Avene in New Orleans. Ironically, Nicholls had owned slaves, but in the late 20th century the high school was renamed for former slave and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass.

There is a Gov. Nicholls Street in New Orleans. Where it meets the Mississippi River near the downriver end of the French Quarter, there is a Gov. Nicholls Street Wharf. Atop the wharf shed there, the U.S. Coast Guard built a manned control tower with a red and green traffic signal to control vessel traffic rounding Algiers Point. When speaking to the controller via marine VHF radio, mariners address him or her familiarly as "Governor Nick."

When nominated for governor, the person nominating Nichols said, "I nominate all that is left of Francis Nichols."

Purported to be lucky, being the seventh son of a seventh son.

Had a friend who lost his right arm - anytime either got a gift of gloves, they'd give the spare glove to the other.

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