The Groß American Game   Al Nickel (standing, fourth from right) and his baseball team probably played in Humboldt Park. His son Hilbert described how Al would knock out towering flies for kids there.

Albert Friedrich Nickel: Machinist and Socialist

Al Nickel arrived in Milwaukee as an immigrant toddler just shy of his second birthday. He was the last of the German-born Nickels; his surviving siblings were all born in Milwaukee.

Albert F. Nickel was born in Prussia, according to the 1880 Milwaukee census. The 1900 census finds him at age 21, living with his parents at 607 Potter Avenue — half a block west of St. Lucas Church on Kinnickinnic, and half a block east of the house he would later own on Howell Avenue.

Al’s father was listed on the 1900 census as a homeowner, though the property was mortgaged. Al was no longer an only child then; he had three younger siblings, all U.S.-born: William, 19; Emma, 13; and Hattie, 9. (The census notes that Michael and Wilhelmina [geb. Knoll] had had seven children, only four of whom were living.) Al’s place of birth was now listed as Germany; his occupation was given as “laborer,” just like his father.

There are stories of Al and his younger sister Hattie taking sandwiches to the factory and poking them through the fence to their father Michael when the lunch whistle blew. It was not a happy working life — six-day weeks and 10- or 12-hour days. Factory life led Al toward socialism (as it did most of immigrant Milwaukee, which had socialist mayors until the 1950s), but the working conditions did not change much. He was a machinist and toolmaker. A set of his steel calipers, stamped “A. Nickel,” survived in the basement of 623 North Ridgeland in Oak Park, Illinois, as did one of his handmade hacksaws. (That hacksaw was one of few useful tools supporting model railroads in the years before Al’s grandson James received his first electric jigsaw.)

The 1890 census materials for Milwaukee County were mostly destroyed by fire at the National Archives in Washington. Nearly all of what survived the fire was allowed to sit in standing water, thus finishing off the entire historical record. The 1890 census would have included Michael Sr., Al’s grandfather, and possibly Al’s uncle Albert Friedrich, who is said to have emigrated with Al’s father but was killed in a logging accident.

1880 Census for Milwaukee County [misspellings sic]
                       Marital                                            Father   Mother
              Relation  Status  Gender  Race  Age  Born in   Occupation  Born in  Born in
Michal NICHOL     Self       M    Male     W   29  PRUSSIA      Laborer  PRUSSIA  PRUSSIA
Whilemnia NICHOL  Wife       M  Female     W   28  PRUSSIA  Keeps House  PRUSSIA  PRUSSIA
Albert NICHOL      Son       S    Male     W    2  PRUSSIA               PRUSSIA  PRUSSIA




1900 Census for Milwaukee County: Precinct 2, Ward 7: Milwaukee City
ED 149, Sheet # 6B: enumerated 4 June. Lines 51-56: 607 Potter Ave: Dw 95; Fam 122:

                                               Self/Father/               Immigrated/
                    Born/Age  Marital Status   Mother born  Occupation    Yrs in U.S.
Nichol Michael   Nov 1851/48  married 26 yrs   GER/GER/GER     Laborer  immig 1879/21 *
Wilhelmina       Jul 1852/47  married 26 yrs   GER/GER/GER        None  immig 1879/21 **
Albert F         May 1878/22          single   GER/GER/GER     Laborer  immig 1879/21
William F        Feb 1881/19          single   Wis/GER/GER     Laborer 
Emma W           May 1887/13          single   Wis/GER/GER   At School 
Hattie H         Aug 1890?/9          single   Wis/GER/GER   At School 

 * Has papers. Owns home mortgaged
** 7 children/4 living