Hunter Nicholson was born in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee on June 9, 1834. He attended the University of North Carolina, graduating in 1855. He then became an associate editor of his father's newspaper and studied law. He served as a cavalry major for the Confederacy during the Civil War and later became a professor of agriculture at the University of Tennessee. He died in Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee on March 5, 1901.