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
