22 
Dr. Andrew Nichols was born in the rural part of Dan- 
vers, Noy. 22, 1785. He was the son of Andrew and 
Eunice (Nichols) Nichols, and studied medicine under 
Dr. Waterhouse, settling in that part of Danvers, now 
Peabody, in 1808, where he practised successfully, remain- 
ing there until his death, March 31, 1853. 
He was particularly interested in the local natural his- 
tory of this region, and in 1816 delivered a series of 
lectures on botany, the first of such in this part of the ~ 
country. Dr. Nichols was one of the founders of the 
Essex County Natural History Society and its president, 
retaining unabated till death his interest in his favorite 
study. : 
William Oakes must be acknowledged as the most 
eminent botanist of Essex County birth. He was the 
son of Caleb Oakes and was born at Danvers, July 1, 
1799. He was educated at Harvard receiving the degree | 
of A. B.in 1820. He early developed a taste for natural 
history relinquishing the practice of law, his chosen pro- 
fession, to study this branch of science. 
Mr. Oakes’ work was chiefly in New England, collecting 
extensively in Essex County, Mass., Vermont, the White 
Mountain region, and southeastern and western Massa- 
chusetts. He prepared the list of plants of Vermont for 
Thompson’s history of that state; and his work at the 
White Mountains was so thorough that recent collectors, 
with all the advantages of improved roads and easy access 
to every portion of that region, have failed to add but few 
to the number of species which he discovered there. It was 
his intention to have published a flora of New England, 
but was deterred by the appearance of Beck’s Botany. 
He afterwards became deeply interested in a work, with 
illustrations by Sprague, upon White Mountain scenery, 
which was published in 1848 ; but not until after his death 
