Jacob Nicklis family.

The son of a German immigrant, William Nicklis, Sr., Jacob had two brothers and four sisters. Aside from those facts, little is known of Nicklis's early life. He joined the United States Navy at the age of 16. Jacob Nicklis was 21 years of age when he stepped on board the US Steam Battery Monitor at the Washington Navy Yard in November 1862, having reenlisted in the United States Navy a month earlier. According to Nicklis's reenlistment records, he stood 5 feet 7 1/2 inches tall, had grey eyes, light hair, and a ruddy complexion. Jacob Nicklis perished with 15 fellow crewmen, when Monitor sank on December 31, 1862.

Nicklis's father, William Nicklis Sr., was according to newspaper accounts Buffalo's leading custom tailor. He and his eldest son, Jacob's brother, ran a shop on Main Street. The family home was at Washington and Swan streets in the city. Beyond information contained in the letters themselves, nothing is known of the other members of the Jacob Nicklis family represented in these letters: sisters Eva Nicklis and Antoinette (Nicklis) Leonard, and nephew W.C. Leonard.

Grenville M. Weeks (1837-1919), son of Dr. Cyrus Weeks and Maria Child, followed in his father's footsteps and became a surgeon. He spent many years as a surgeon among New York's American Indian tribes and eventually became secretary of the New York Indian Commission. He served on Monitor in 1862 and suffered debilitating injuries to his right hand and shoulder sustained during rescue operations from the doomed ironclad. He married and later divorced Helen Stuart Campbell (1839-1918), who was a noted social reformer and author.