T.J. ‘Cap’ Nicholas is pictured. (Photo courtesy of the Negaunee Historical Society)

NEGAUNEE — Thomas John Nicholas, a Cornishman, left school at age ten to work in the Cornish tin mines.

T.J. “Cap,” as he was known, followed the difficult route as many other immigrants did.

In the summer of 1888, at age seventeen he journeyed to Michigan, with Ishpeming as his destination.

He arrived in the United States with $5 to feed himself and to find lodging.

On the day he arrived in Ishpeming he took the first job available to him, that of a teamster, delivering groceries for the English Co-op Store. He became involved in a labor dispute and the opposition ran him out of town. He was angered by this and for years he wore a “plug hat,” in which he carried a .38 caliber revolver.

He couldn’t shoot but it made him feel good just to know it was there. As soon as it was available he took a job as a skip-tender in the mine. He tried other mining areas in the country and in 1912, he was called by the Cascade Mining Company to be the superintendent of the new Isabella Mine in Palmer.

After the Isabella closed he became Resident Manager of Mining Interests, and held that job for 40 years. He also served as Richmond Township Supervisor and chairman of the Marquette County Board of Supervisors. He built a fine home in Palmer, which in the 1920 census it was listed on Primrose Lane (now M-35) His gardens were a showcase.

T.J. Nicholas married Sarah Jane “Jenne” Boase. Sarah was born in Moriah, Essex County, New York in 1880 and moved to Ishpeming when she was four years old. T.J. and Sarah had three sons, Lester, Ralph, and Thomas.

The Methodist Church in Palmer was the oldest church body in Richmond Township and was experiencing a decline when a sincere group of Christians appeared on the scene in 1912 to give it new leadership.

Among that group were T.J. and Sarah Nicholas. Sarah would become the church organist, and held that position for 54 consecutive years. Sarah had a stroke and died on Christmas Eve, 1946, playing the organ for one of the best loved Christmas carols, “Joy to the World.”

T.J. “Cap” Nicholas, was the author of a book, “Cornwall and the “Cousin Jack,” He received a Cornish Godsedd award for the book, which was about the story of a miner, written in poetic form. Being a life-long miner, he wondered what a book would look like, written by a man without an education.

He tackled the job, and putting down his heavy tools that he used as a miner, clutched a tiny pencil in his hands and embarked on writing his book that covered three quarters of a century.

The swing of the lines comes from a hymn sung in his early boyhood days. It is written in poetic form to make it easier to read. Here are just a few verses, out of 928:

“The workers owned the business, and every shed,

This fact of being owners,

Was too much for their heads; their shift, it must be shorter,

bid pay for overtime, but teamsters for them working,

Were forced to overtime.

“From Cornwall’s tin ore, precious, Held in Cambrian rock,

To Lake Superior’s iron mine, Huronian unlock,

Here came the Cornish miner, resources to explore,

and raised up Marquette County, by mining iron ore.

“Cornwall will live forever, spread out in distant strands,

the spirit of the Cornish, Root deep in mining lands;

she pioneered in mining, Gave worth to church and State,

for tolerance and freedom she fought through human hate.

“I’m glad I came from Cornwall, the land that gave me birth,

And proud to be adopted by freedom’s orb on earth;

If I my life could order, by a fresh start tonight

I’d as no other guerdon, just strive for freedoms light.”

Thomas John Nicholas got his naturalization papers in 1896. He died in 1955. His book is on display at the Negaunee Historical Museum