Clara Nickels née Berry, 1845-1923
Headstone GPS Coordinates:
Birth: 13 April 1845 Gardiner, Kennebec County, Maine
Death: 30 April 1923, Seattle, Kitsap County, Washington
Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Samuel Nickels, Augusta “Gussie” Nickels, Frank Nickels, Baby Clara Nickels.
American Revolutionary War Patriots*:Nathaniel Berry (Massachusetts) DAR# A009622;
Samuel Edward Berry (Massachusetts) DAR# A009627
Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards
Clara Nickels née Berry was born in Gardiner, Maine, on April 13, 1845, to Elbridge Berry and Angeline Carey. On March 26, 1864, she wed Samuel Nickels in Pittston. By the time their first child, Alice Gertrude, was a year old, the young mother was already preparing for a life far removed from the familiar shores of the Atlantic.
By 1869, Clara and Samuel had pushed West to California, where their second daughter, Augusta “Gussie,” was born. The journey continued northward, and by 1870, the Nickels family arrived in the mill town of Seabeck, Washington Territory. The transition was stark; Alice Gertrude later recalled the family’s first moments on the wharf:
“We came from Pitchen, Maine, and when we landed, there were several Indians on the wharf, but no white men. I asked Mother if they were the only kind of people who lived there… I thought they looked horrible, and I was afraid of them.”
The family grew when they landed in Seabeck. They had Nellie (1871), and a baby named Clara who died on July 16, 1874. It’s unknown what year Clara was born. She was buried in Seabeck cemetery.
It was at this time Jacob Hauptly, noted in his diaries that “Sam Nickels is crazy” and recorded putting him on a ship for the asylum at Steilacoom. At some point, Sam recovered enough to return to his family in Seabeck to work in the mill.
Clara and Sam continued to have children: Frank (1875), Arthur Eugene (1878), Samuel Augustus (1880)
The eldest daughter, Alice Gertrude, was married by 1900, and living in Seabeck with her husband John Walton and their children.
The family continued living in Seabeck where in 1910 Samuel was listed as a farmer and owned his own farm. Arthur and Samuel (who was a widower) were living in Samuel and Clara’s household. However in 1920, Clara was listed as the head of household as married. Her two sons, Arthur (41) and Samuel (39) were still living with her and working as fishermen on Puget Sound. Samuel was not listed in the Seabeck census. Samuel likely had a relapse in his mental health and had to go live as a patient at Western Washington State Hospital in Steilacoom in Pierce County.
For years, Clara was the pillar for a family haunted by “senile dementia” and “insanity,” conditions that would eventually claim not only her husband but also her children, Frank and Augusta “Gussie”, both of whom were eventually admitted to Steilacoom.
Clara Nickels passed away on April 30, 1923, at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, a victim of the influenza epidemic. She was 78. She was buried in the family plot at Seabeck, leaving Samuel to follow her just one year later.
Upon Samuel’s death in 1924, local correspondents reflected on the couple’s reunion in the Kitsap Herald. The writer known as “Brutus” captured the sentiment of a community that had watched Clara and Samuel weather decades of hardship:
“He had tasted bitterly of the wormwood of this life, but his spirit is now intermingled with the spirit of his dear old companion, who preceded him about a year ago. May the good angel of the Lord watch over the hallowed spot where what was earthly of him rests…”
Another neighbor, writing as “Little Sunbeam,” noted the simple grace of the couple being reunited:
“His body was placed beside that of his wife, whose death occurred a year ago… It must be a soothing balm to his children and friends to know that his death came so peacefully.”
Today, Clara rests in the Seabeck Cemetery alongside Samuel and three of their children. While the family faced immense struggles with health and loss, their deep roots in the Puget Sound remain.