Newton Jasper Coyle (1843-1912) - Veteran and miner

 

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Coyle was born in Estill County, Kentucky, probably in March, 1842.  He was one of several children born to Tilford Coyle and Malvina Alcorn. Although he was mistakenly indexed as Andrew on the 1850 federal census on FamilySearch, it is obvious that the entry was for Newton Jasper.  Coyle’s father died in 1858, and his mother remarried twice thereafter.

On September 4, 1861, young Newton enlisted in the Union Army and was assigned to the 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry.  This unit saw action in Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.  Early in 1864, he fractured his clavicle and was placed on leave.  He was formally discharged at Camp Chase, Ohio, on June 16, 1865.

By February 24, 1864, Newton Coyle was back home in Irvine, where he married 17-year-old Susan Williams.  Their first two children were born in Kentucky. 

The Coyles then moved to Arkansas by 1877 and on to Montgomery County, Kansas, by 1880.  Apparently Coyle could not make a go of farming in Kansas, and the family returned to Benton County, Arkansas, the following year.  Susan bore three more children before her death in 1887.

Perhaps fed up with farming, Newton Coyle seems to have struck out alone for Montana, leaving his by then adult children to care for the younger ones.  On October 13, 1891, he married a widow, Lizzie Perry, in Missoula County.  The marriage didn’t last; by 1900, Newton was divorced and working as a silver miner.

Montana’s winters and hard work in the mines took a toll on Coyle’s health.  In 1904, he checked into the Old Soldiers’ Home in Leavenworth, Kansas.  After applying for an invalid pension, he was moved to a veterans’ hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee.  Records show that he was blind in one eye and had significant hearing loss.  The 1910 census found him back in the Old Soldiers’ Home in Leavenworth.

By 1912, Coyle’s youngest son Joseph was in Phoenix, Arizona, trying to find work on a ranch.   Joseph and Newton were sharing a dwelling on Cave Creek Road when Newton passed away on October 5th of pneumonia.  He was buried in the Knights of Pythias Cemetery.  Records do not indicate whether this was the old K of P Cemetery at 13th Avenue, between Madison and Harrison Streets or the Knights of Pythias section of Forest Lawn north of 23rd Avenue and Van Buren.

Afterward, Joseph returned to his wife and children in Arkansas.  When their next baby was born in 1913, he was named Newton Jasper, for his grandfather.

- by Donna Carr

Edna Hillman (1891-1912) - Maidu Schoolgirl

 

Photo of a Maidu family, 1906 (William Thunen, photographer)

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Edna Hillman was born around 1891 in Greenville, California, to George and Maggie Hillman.  She is known to have had two brothers. 

Government and school records describe Edna as a full-blood Digger Indian.  That was a somewhat pejorative term applied to many tribes that lived in the Great Basin regions of Utah, Nevada and northern California. The area around Greenville was home to the Maidu tribe, so it is likely that she was Maidu. 

The Maidu were hunter-gatherers who typically lived in dugouts and subsisted on acorns, game, seeds and edible roots, hence the name.  During the Gold Rush years, the Maidu were dispossessed of their lands and decimated by diseases to which they had no immunity.

Her parents having died, Edna was enrolled in a boarding school in California in 1897.  She was a Methodist; it is not known whether that was by choice or because the school that took her in happened to be Methodist.

By all accounts, Edna was a good student.  Since she was 19 and an orphan, she herself signed the permissions to attend Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania for five years.  A Carlisle trade school education was the best available to Native Americans of the turn of the century.  Edna’s classes would probably have focused on practical skills such as cooking, sewing and nursing. 

When Edna arrived at Carlisle on October 9, 1910, she was 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighed 133 pounds. However, she entered the school’s hospital in August 1911, where she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. 

Her medical records show what she was fed.  She was sometimes nauseous and often refused the milk and eggnog that was pressed upon her (many Native Americans are lactose-intolerant).

By November 1911, Edna was failing rapidly.  Having no family left in California to care for her, she asked to be sent to a government sanitarium in Phoenix.  She left the school on December 11 but, by the time she reached Phoenix, it was clear that she was too far gone to recover.  She died on January 22, 1912, and was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.

-by Donna Carr

Higinio Bernal (1845-1912) - Farmer

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Higinio was born around 1845 in Ures, Sonora, Mexico.  He was one of several children born to Tiburcio Bernal and his wife.   Higinio had an older sister, Trinidad, born 1843, as well as a younger brother named José Maria, born 1853, also in Sonora.

The Bernals seem to have been farmers throughout their lives.  Both of the Bernal brothers were living in San Bernardino County, California, in 1872, as that is where Higinio married Juana Ruberto Albañez.   According to the 1900 federal census, she was the mother of ten children total, of whom the oldest six may have been born in California. 

Around 1877, Higinio and Juana moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where they had four more children.  These younger children are the ones who appear in the Bernal household on the 1900 census.

A retired farmer, Higinio was living at 800 South 5th Avenue in Phoenix when he passed away on April 22, 1912  He had been paralyzed and bedridden for some time prior.  He was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, Block 19.  There is no grave marker.

His widow Juana died in 1933 and was buried in St. Francis Cemetery.

-Donna Carr