John Nichols (November 14, 1834 – September 22, 1917) was a U.S. Congressman from the state of North Carolina between 1887 and 1889. Nichols was born to Alsey and Charlotte (Broadwell) Nichols near Eagle Rock in Wake County, North Carolina. He attended the common schools and worked for six years in the printing trade. At age twenty-one, he studied at the Lovejoy Academy in Raleigh for a year, then opened a book and job printing business and published a newspaper.