MRS. A. B. NICHOLS DEAD

Known Throughout the United States As a Most Successful Florist.

Mrs. Anna B. Nichols, a woman who in her chosen field attained wide prominence throughout the United States, died Wednesday morning at 7:12 o’clock, at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. V. E. Carneal, 1214 Chaparral, at the advanced age of 84 years.

For more than a quarter of a century Mrs. Nichols, was engaged as a florist at Laredo, and achieved the distinction of being the most successful woman to ever engage in that business in the South. As a hobby she raised cactus and the exhibit that she gathered from along the border and from all sections of Mexico, engaged such attention that it was sent to the Worlds Fair at Chicago and placed on display. Later it was sent to Washington and displayed for several weeks.

Mrs. Nichols was a native of Ohio. For the past two years she had been living in Corpus Christi. She is survived by a brother, E. H. Eells of San Luis Potosi, Mexico and by two granddaughters, Mrs. Carneal of this city and Mrs. Irene Vera of Dallas.

The funeral will be held from the Carneal residence this afternoon at 3:30 o’clock. Father Peter Hanley of St. Patricks Catholic Cathedral officiating.

Members of the local lodge of Elks will officiate as pall bearers. George W. Grim, T. F. Wood, T. E. Willis, William G. Blake, John J. Coates and Fred L. Magnenat, being selected.

Source: The Corpus Christi Caller, Corpus Christi, Texas, Jan. 4, 1917, Thursday, Page 3
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See her family tree at the link below for additional info.

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/74397447/person/172161717505/facts

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First Husband:
David Foote Eells
Birth: June 30, 1826, Cornwall, Addison, Vermont, USA
Death: AUG 1866, Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
m. Feb. 20, 1854, Knox, Illinois

Son: Benjamin H. Eells Sr. (b. Seb. 10, 1855, Altona, Illinois, d. 1933, Los Angeles, California)
Daughter: Mary Irene Eells (b. Nov. 20, 1857, Altona, Illinois, d. Apr. 22, 1935, Kansas City, Missouri)

1870 census (Brownsville, Texas) indicates she was living with her second husband and her son Benjamin and daughter Irene in Brownsville, Texas.

Second Husband:
Peter Nickels
Birth: abt 1824, Maryland
m. June 30, 1869, Cameron County, Texas
* Lawyer per 1870 census, Brownsville, Texas
* Chief Justice of Hidalgo County, Texas
* Sheriff of Cameron County, Texas
* Commanded company of Texas Rangers during Cortina War
Source of above: Fronteras: Cortina: Defending the Mexican Name In Texas, By Jerry D. Thompson, page 70.

Her death certificate lists her name as Mrs Anna Buck Nichols and indicates she was born July 7, 1832. The death certificate informant was the husband (Virgil E. Carneal Sr.) of her granddaughter (Elvira M. Vera).

Her headstone lists her name as Anna B. Nickals and indicates she was born June 10, 1832.

Suggested edit: Botanist, cactus collector, businesswoman. At least in her botanical work she clearly used the spelling "Nickels". See for instance: https://kiki.huh.harvard.edu/databases/botanist_search.php?mode=details&id=5794
Contributor: Brian Youmans (49552212)