It doesn't address candy type, but perhaps the name was adapted from a contemporaneous comic strip:
W.L. Wells made the newspaper strip 'Old Opie Dilldock's Stories' in the Chicago Tribune between October 1908 and 1914. The strip was created by F. M. Howarth, who died shortly afterwards. On 24 February 1915, he created 'Old Nicodemus Nimble'. source:
www.lambiek.net.
This card, particularly the background, makes me happy:
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1675021703