Colonel Jesse Crook ("Nick") Nicholls (August 29, 1874 Fosters, Alabama - July 26, 1961 Ithaca, NY), peony and iris breeder
[From "The American Iris Society Iris Encyclopedia"
Hybridizer Nicholls JC:] "Graduate of West Point, Past instructor in Ordinance, West Point, head of Military Dept., Cornell University (retired 1927) ...has produced many splendid Peonies and written numerous articles on horticultural and scientific subjects"
[From "Westpoint Memorials:
Jesse C. Nicholls 1899[From "The Peonies", by Myron Bigger, 1962, p.38:] "Col. Jesse C. Nicholls was graduated from the University of Alabama before attending West Point. For many years he was in charge of military instruction at Cornell. He died in 1961. He was one of the most remarkable of the peony breeders and his varieties which began to come out about 1935 have consistently held a high place. Of the thirty-two varieties he named and introduced, we can mention here Mrs. Livingston Farrand, named for the wife of the President of Cornell, Mary E. Nicholls, Florence Nicholls, Florence Ellis, Harry F. Little, Nancy Nicholls, George W. Peyton, A. B. C. Nicholls, J. C. Nicholls, George J. Nicholls, Kate Barry, and Mrs. Wilder Bancroft."