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Thanks for your response, Nick. I had come to the conclusion that this was the correct Mary E. Nichols and am posting below the status of my findings. Perhaps this will help someone else as well ... and prompt some more input.
Mary E. Nichols was the daughter of Levi (b. about 1802 in ME; d. before 1880) and Lydia ____ Nichols (b. about 1796/7 in ME).
The 1860 Census: Charlestown, Middlesex Co., MA, shows that, residing with Levi and Lydia Frye is Elizabeth Grant, age 87, born in ME. It is possible that Lydia was Lydia Grant and that Elizabeth is her mother.
Mary E. Frye (b. about 1830/1 in NH, d. after 1880) was married first about 1847 to Charles H. Phelps (b. about 1822 in MA), with whom she had children Mary E., George H., Edward A., Charles F., and married second about 1857 to John Nichols (b. about 1815 in MA), with whom she had children John Gilman and Frances Rebecca.
Later, as reported in the 1880 Census, she had adopted daughter Emma J. Nichols.
From this we can conclude that Charles F. Phelps died sometime between 1854/5 and 1857. At the time of the 1850 census, his youngest child, Mary A. was 1; the 1860 census shows the youngest Phelps’ child, Charles F. Phelps, as 5.
Mary E. Phelps married John Nichols soon after Charles’ passing, as the first child born to John and Mary E. Nichols is John G. (later using the name “Gilman”), who is shown as 3 years old on the 1860 census. John Nichols apparently died following the 1870 census, as he does not appear on the 1880 census with Mary E. Nichols. The youngest Nichols’ child in 1870 was Rebecca (i.e. Frances Rebecca), age 10; there do not appear to have been any more children born to John and Mary E. Nichols.
The 1880 Census for Boston, Suffolk Co., MA, shows an Emma J. Nicholas, age 4, born in Massachusetts, residing as the “adopted daughter” of Mary E. Nichols, age 49, born in NH (with parents also born in NH). There are also two boarders in the household, plus Lydia Frye, 83, “mother.”
Tracing backwards, the 1870 census (Charlestown, Middlesex Co., MA) shows Mary E. Nichols, age 40, born in NH, as the wife of John Nichols; he was born in MA. In the household are children Gilman, 12 , Rebecca 10, and Charles Phelps, age 15, both born in MA.
The 1860 Charlestown census shows Mary E. Nicholas, age 37, wife of John Nichols, 45. In addition to John G. (1870 as “Gilman”) and Frances R. (“Rebecca” 1870), there is Mary E. Phelps, 12, George H. Phelps, 10, Edward A. Phelps, 8, and Charles F. Phelps, 5.
John Nichols was Mary E.’s second husband: the 1850 Charlestown census shows Mary E. Phelps, 28, wife of Charles H. Phelps, 28, cabinetmaker, with children Charles G., 3, and Mary A., 1. Residing next door are Levi Fry, 52 (actually born about 1802), shoemaker, and his wife, Lydia Fry, 53, both born in ME.
By 1880, Levi Frye, Mary E.’s father and Lydia Frye’s husband, had died. None of Mary E. Nichols’ children appear to be residing either with her or near her in 1880. This leaves the identity of Emma J. Nichols’ parents yet to be determined.
However, the entry for Levi and Lydia Frye on the 1850 census does cement the relationship of Mary E. Nichols, first married to Charles H. Phelps, and then to John Nichols, with our Emma J. Nichols, age 4, identified as “adopted daughter” of Mary E. Nichols on the 1880 census.
There appears to be a connection between the Nichols and Merrifield/Merryfield families via Effingham / Effingham Falls, Carroll Co., NH.
Charles Henry Merrifield (born April 18, 1843, in Porter ME) married Martha A. McDonald (born June 23, 1855, in Porter, ME), on January 7, 1873, in Effingham Falls, NH.
While searching for Emma J. Nichols, it was discovered that an Emma F. Nichols (born October 13, 1849, in Ossipee, NH), on April 7, 1867, married Samuel Quarles Dearborn (born January, 26, 1835, in Effingham, NH), and was buried in the Dearborn Cemetery in Effingham, NH.
Also, prior to locating Mary E. (Frye)(Phelps) Nichols in Charlestown, MA, a search in Effingham, NH, found a Mary E. Nichols born 1839, residing in 1850 and 1860 with parents Manassah (Mancesah/Manacah) and Mary Nichols, and sisters Alvira J. and Lydia A. In 1850 the only Nichols family members in Effingham, besides this family, would appear to be “Mancesah”/”Manacah”’s parents, William and Betsey Nichols. The 1860 census shows, in addition to this family group, Jacob W. and Nancy Nichols, with five children, and Joseph B. and Abby A. Nichols and one daughter. However, the 1870 census for Effingham, NH, only shows “Manassa” Nichols, Nancy Nichols, and Alvira J. and Lillian Nichols, and , in 1880, only Manassah, 70, and his daughter Elvira (Alvira J.), 36.
Although the similarity in names–Mary E. Nichols and the Nichols’ family from NH–are shared in common, no direct link can be drawn between these individuals and Emma J. Nichols, “adopted daughter” to Mary E. (Frye)(Phelps) Nichols in Charlestown, MA.
The Effingham, NH, connection between the Merryfield and Nichols families is unavoidable, however. Emma J. Nichols, on June 8, 1892, just happens to have married Everett F. Merrifield, the son of Charles Henry Merrifield, who just happened to married Martha A. McDonald in 1873 in Effingham Falls, the home to at least three generations of the Nichols family. During her later years, Martha A. (McDonald) Merrifield resided with her unmarried daughter, Ida May Merrifield, in Fryeburg, ME, geographically opposing across the NH-ME state line from Effingham.
Also, following the birth of Everett F. Merrifield in Brownfield, ME, in 1874, and after the 1880 Census, when they were still in Porter, ME, his parents moved the family to Boston, where his brother Charlie was born in 1882.
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