Nicholas was the son of Rev. John Carpenter (1772-1855) and Sarah Bush (1773-1855). He married three times and fathered at least fifteen children.

1st marriage: 7 Jun 1829 to Elizabeth "Eliza" Jackson in Lewis Co., West Virginia. They had eight children together:
David M. (1830-1906), Edward Jackson (1831-1880), Caroline (b.1833), John (1836-1858), Albert H. (1838-1893), Elizabeth (1841-1916), Mary E. (1843-1932) and Rachel (b.1849). I found Nicholas, Eliza, and five of their children on the 1840 Census. They were living in Saint Joseph County Indiana, where Nicholas was farming for a living. The five children with them would have been sons David, Edward, John and Albert, and daughter Caroline. After 1840, the couple welcomed two more daughters-Elizabeth in 1841 and Mary in 1843. Sadly, Eliza died six years later in childbirth along with infant daughter Rachel on 22 Feb 1849. With seven young children to care for, Nicholas waited only eight months before remarrying.

2nd marriage: 20 Oct 1849 to Abigail Scoops Brown in Marshall Co., Indiana. It was also a second marriage for Abigail. She had married George Brown on 9 Feb 1847 in Marion Co., Indiana. They do not appear to have had any children together. Nicholas and Abigail had five children together: Johnson/Luther (b. 1850), Catherine (b.1852), Elizabeth (1854-1917), Elizabeth (1854-1917), Byron (1856-1937), and Martha Jane (1859-1946). Nicholas appeared on the 1850 Census with Abigail, zoned in Marshall County. He was still busy farming while Abigail would have had her hands full with a newborn, a husband, and seven step-children in the house ranging in ages from 20-year-old David to 9-year-old Eliza.

By the time the 1860 enumeration took place, Nicholas and Abigail had welcomed five more children-Catharine in 1852, Elizabeth in 1854, Byron in 1856, Martha Jane in 1859 and Ellen Lee, born on 5 Feb 1862. Their blended family which included step-children David, aged 30, Albert, aged 21, and Mary, aged 16, were living in Green (today the Argos area), Marshall County, where their farm was located. David and Albert were employed, David as a baker and Albert as a laborer. I couldn't find marriage records for Edward or Caroline, but John had married Caroline Zumbaugh on 19 Oct 1860 and Elizabeth had married William Wolf on 24 Sep 1857, both marriages taking place in Marshall County.

Sadly, Abigail died three years after that census in 1863 at age 37. Nicholas married for the third time the following year.

3rd marriage: 15 Dec 1864 to Frances "Fanny" Rugg Nicholson in Marshall Co., Indiana. She was thirty years his junior. They had two children together. Fanny had previously married Thomas Nicholson on 1 Jul 1851 in Fulton Co. with whom she had at least six children-Nancy Anna (b.1851), William Henry (b.1855), Mary Alice (b.1857), Melissa Frances (b.1860), Sarah Ellen (b.1861, given away to Robert and Jane Railsbeck of Argos), and Viola (b.28 Sep 1864). Nicholas and Fanny's two children together were sons Niklos Lewis (1867-1936) and Leslie Brook (1870-1972). Nicholas and Fanny and their blended family appeared on the 1870 Census, still living in Green Township. Nicholas' name was transcribed as "Charles" for some reason. With the couple are Nicholas' six children with Abigail--Luther, Catherine, Elizabeth, Byron, Martha Jane and Ellen, two of Fanny's children with Thomas Nicholson-Mary Alice and Viola, and the two sons Fanny and Nicholas had together--2-year-old Niklos and 2-month-old Leslie. For some reason, Fanny's 10-year-old daughter Melissa was living in nearby Union Township with Henry and Caroline Garver. It is unclear where Fanny's other children--William Henry, who would have been 19, and George, who would have been 16--were living.

Nicholas died two years after the 1870 enumeration on 5 Feb 1872 at age 68. His widow Fanny was only 39 years old.

Fanny appeared on the 1880 Census, still living in Green Township. With her were son William Henry, aged 25, daughter Melissa, aged 20, daughter Viola, aged 16, son Nicholas, aged 13, son Leslie, aged 11, and 7-year-old Edith Butcher, her daughter with third husband Alfred Butcher, whom she had married on 12 Jan 1873 in Marshall Co. Fanny gave her marital status as divorced, and she had gone back to her Carpenter surname. Fanny's daughter Ellen, Viola's twin, was living with half-sister Elizabeth and Elizabeth's husband Thomas R. Carlisle in New Castle, Fulton Co., Indiana.

Later that same year, Fanny would marry for a fourth time to Chesley Jones on 15 Oct 1880. Fanny appeared on the 1900 Census, widowed, aged 66, living with son Leslie, his wife Viola, and grandchildren Fanny, aged 5 and Nicholas, aged 2, both named after their grandparents. Leslie had become a farmer like his father. Fanny was still with them when the 1910 enumeration came around. Three more grandchildren had joined the family-Maudy in 1901, Selman in 1905, and Noah Ervin in 1907. Fanny reported that 7 of the 9 children she had borne were still living. Viola had died in 1893 at age 30. It is unclear which of her four husbands was the father of the other of those non-living children but a daughter named Sarah Ellen, born in 1860 and who died in 1894, is linked to Fanny's memorial. If this indeed is Fanny's daughter, based on that birth year, her father would have been Thomas Nicholson. This child may actually be one in the same as Ellen Lee but I don't think so.

Fanny lived another six years before dying two days after Christmas in 1916 at age 83.