From childhood, he had a desire to enter the ministry and while living in the family of Dr. Van Ingen in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Although he had already been baptized, he insisted on the rite being repeated by immersion in one of the lakes of Nashotah, Wisconsin by Bishop Jackson Kemper.
[1] He graduated from the seminary in 1860, received deacon's orders and immediately took charge of Christ Episcopal Church, Delavan, Wisconsin.
While in Vancouver he worked extensively with Bishop Benjamin Wistar Morris to build the Episcopal faith in the Northwest.
[6] Nicholson's annual salary of $350 was paid by the national Episcopal Church, and he was to receive also certain endowment interest and the Sunday offerings, after incidental expenses were extracted.
Nicholson helped to start the mission and Sunday School when he learned of interest and need from neighbors in that area.
Among the officers of the convention was the St. Luke's Senior Warden who had worked extensively with Reverend Nicholson, Joseph M. Fletcher, as treasurer Diocesan Board of Missions.
Shortly after Reverend and Mrs. Nicholson arrived in Vancouver they were asked by a number of citizens if they would undertake the work of a school in connection with the church.
An accomplished musician, Mrs. Nicholson was the teacher of vocal and instrumental music in the school and the church choir director.
The Nicholson family moved to Tacoma, and Miss Loomis retired, so the now named St. Luke's Parish School closed in 1893.