Asher Peters Nichols was appointed to the Board of Park Commissioners in August, 1878 to fill the vacancy created by Pascal P. Pratt declining to serve an additional term on the Board. His service on the Board was cut short, however. Mr. Nichols died from a heart attack on 30 May 1880 while he and his wife were visiting the home of a good friend in Clinton, Oneida county, New York.
A native of Whiting, Vermont, Asher Nichols was born on 20 October 1815. Details of his early life are fairly sparse, but we know that his father, a physician, and family relocated to Rushville, in Yates county, during his youth. In 1832 he was in attendance at Springville Academy, at Springville, in Erie county, New York. He graduated from that institution, and then moved to Canandaigua, New York to become a law clerk for George W. Clinton, Esq.; Mr. Clinton was the same individual who later was also serve as a Park Commissioner. In 1836, Mr. Clinton moved to Buffalo, as did Mr. Nichols. In due course, Mr. Nichols passed his examination for the bar, and he became a partner in Mr. Clinton’s law office for a number of years. Later, he was a partner in several other practices.
He ran for New York State Senate in 1867 on a Democratic ticket, and won handily. One bill he sponsored had considerable import for Buffalo; to provided for construction of an asylum for the mentally ill at Buffalo, initially called the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane and, after 1890, the Buffalo State Hospital. While the bill did not pass during Mr. Nichol’s term, and he was himself unsuccessful in his bid for reelection in 1869, in April, 1870, the act was passed. The city of Buffalo donated the land, the site containing 303 acres, located at a short distance from the site of the new main city park. Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, construction began in 1870, and the asylum was officially opened in November, 1880. The grounds were laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. (Initially, only the administration building and eastern wards of the primary complex were funded by the state. In 1889, the state approved funds for the remainder of the construction. As Mr. Richardson had died in 1886, architects Green and Wicks, with William W. Carlin, completed the project, following fairly closely Richardson’s style for the remainder of the asylum. Construction was completed in 1895.)
In June 1870, Mr. Nichols was given an interim appointment by the Governor to complete the term of State Comptroller recently resigned to accept an Appeals Court judgeship. He won the ensuing special election that November and served the remainder of the term. He sought reelection to the position in 1873, but was unsuccessful in a three-way race. He was then nominated for a seat in Congress in 1874, but lost that race.
He was one of the original trustees appointed by the Governor to oversee the Buffalo State Hospital for the Insane, and at the time of his death was Chairman of that board’s Executive Committee. He was also the Senior Warden of Christ Episcopal Church in Buffalo.
Asher Nichols married Emily Child, of Rochester, in August 1851. The couple had no children. Mrs. Nichols survived her husband. The couple are both buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York.
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