Friday, October 3, 2008

Mathew Coyle, c. 1838-1867

Of the many pioneers in the Groveland-Big Oak Flat community, Mathew Coyle is one of my favorites. He was not a particularly early settler. He never lived on The Hill[1]. He died early, before his 30th birthday. He is not even buried on The Hill. But his widow, children and grandchildren lived in Groveland and made lasting contributions to the community. More important, Mathew Coyle is an excellent case study in problems created by source errors.

The key piece of evidence in Mathew Coyle’s story comes from his brother Hugh, a miner and tombstone carver of Columbia, Tuolumne County. Hugh’s maker mark is proudly carried on Mathew’s tombstone at St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in Columbia. It proclaims:

Mathew Coyle
Native of West Meuth (sic), Ireland
died January 22, 1865 (sic)
H Coyle

Hugh Coyle carved many tombstones. Mary-Ellen Jones, former archivist at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, California told some of Hugh Coyle’s story in a presentation made to the Contra Costa Genealogical Society in October, 1996.[2] Her remarks were published in the “Diablo Descendants Newsletter,” November 1996, Vol. 11, No. 11, pp. 89, 91. Ms. Jones described Hugh Coyle as “highly skilled but erratic”. His stone of choice, she said, was marble from the local Columbia quarries. In 1865 he opened his own yard in Columbia, using his own designs. When mining in Columbia petered out and the population moved elsewhere, Hugh Coyle moved with them. In 1875, Ms. Jones continued, Hugh Coyle moved to Sonora and founded the Sonora Marble Works. “He was a strange worker, producing some very good works, and some with jagged edges.”

Family tradition says that Mathew Coyle came to America from Ireland and settled on Staten Island, Richmond Co., New York; that he married Margaret Lenan[3], and that he was part of the last train leaving New York for The West before the outbreak of the Civil War. Mary-Ellen Jones says that Hugh Coyle arrived in Columbia in 1861. Since the Civil War broke out April 12-13, 1861, it is likely that the Coyle brothers Mathew and Hugh traveled overland to California together.

Tuolumne County land records[4] show that Mathew Coyle staked a claim on Moccasin Creek including 880 feet of creek frontage. His claim was immediately south of John Hughes’ claim. We know from other records and witnesses[5] that the John Hughes home was near the present-day junction of Hwy 120 and Hwy 49 in Moccasin and included the land where in the 1950’s the State of California Fish Hatchery was built. The hatchery is immediately north of Hetch Hetchy’s Moccasin Reservoir. This suggests that the Mathew Coyle claim is now under the Moccasin Reservoir.

We know, again from family tradition, that Margaret (Lenan) Coyle followed Mathew to California after the birth of their 2nd child, Mary Ann[6], in October 1861. They likely arrived in 1862. Sons Walter, Charles and Thomas were born in 1863, 1864 and 1865. All three sons appear in the St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Parish Baptismal Register, showing they were born “at Moccasin Creek”. [7]

Enter the conflict. Based on that tombstone inscription in Columbia, Mathew Coyle died in January, 1865. Thomas was born 7 months after his father’s presumed death. Who, then, was the father of Catherine Agnes Coyle, born in December, 1866? One family researcher accepted the tombstone date and suggested that the youngest of the Coyle children, Catherine Agnes, was illegitimate. She was, after all, born in December 1866, nearly 2 years after Mathew’s reported death. Other family members insisted that Kitty was Mathew’s child, despite what brother Hugh carved on Mathew’s tombstone.

The obituary file at the Tuolumne Co. Genealogical Society in Sonora, California contains an entry for Mathew Coyle. It is a death announcement, not a full obituary: “Matthew Coyle of Moccasin Creek, formerly of Staton (sic) Island, died on Tuesday the 22nd.” The clipping does not show a publication date.

The deposition of Mathew Coyle supporting his possessory interest claim on those 160 acres on Moccasin Creek is dated March, 1865 – nearly two months after his alleged death. In June, 1865 Mathew and several partners sold a mining claim near Stevens’ Bar on the Tuolumne River to George Culbertson of Moccasin. Could these land transfers have been made posthumously?
On August 27, 1866 Mathew Coyle became a citizen of the United States of America. Witnesses were John Hughes and Hugh Coyle. Mathew registered to vote on the same day. He said he was 28 years old.

Eventually, we remembered to look at a perpetual calendar. Therein lay our answer. January 22 fell on a Tuesday in 1867. Hugh Coyle got it wrong – on his own brother’s tombstone. Kitty was a legitimate child of Mathew, Margaret did not “fall into sin” between widowhood and remarriage. Those family members who insisted – without offering additional documentary proof – that the 1865 date was wrong are justified.

We all learned a good lesson: accept nothing at face value. Keep looking for additional information that supports or challenges your assumptions. Look sideways at siblings and neighbors. Keep an open mind. The ‘other guy’ just may be more right that you are!

[1] Locals refer to anything above Priest Grade as “on the hill”.
[2] .[2] Her remarks were published in the “Diablo Descendants Newsletter,” November 1996, Vol. 11, No. 11, pp. 89, 91 and reprinted with Ms. Jones’ permission at Peggy and Pat Perazo’s website, “Stone Quarries and Beyond”, http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/ca_stone_carvers/maryellen_jones_tombstone_stonecarver_art_1996.html
[3] Spelling variations of Margaret’s surname include Lennan and McLennon.
[4] Tuolumne Co. Pre-emptive Claims, Book 1, Vol. 8, pg. 378
[5] Linda (Cummings) Leyden is Postmaster at the Moccasin Post Office. Her father, grandfather, and other family members have worked on the City of San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy Project based at Moccasin since work began in 1915. Linda says that when she was a child her family lived in City housing on the site of the old Hughes house on Hwy 49 just south of its junction with Hwy 120. She was told about the location of the Hughes home by Hughes family members who remembered the property and were still living in Moccasin in the 1960’s.
[6] The Coyle family says that Mathew and Margaret’s eldest child, another daughter, died in New York before 1862. Tuolumne Co. marriage records and Coyle family tradition report that Mary Ann Coyle married John James Sheehan, son of Timothy and Hannah Sheehan, in November 1881 at Big Oak Flat. They were hotel keepers in Groveland until his death in August, 1895. Mary Ann remarried
[7] St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, Baptismal Records, extracted by Kate Pruente for the Tuolumne County Genealogical Society. Digital copy held in the Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum History Resource Center.

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