Published in The Garland Daily News in 1980 as part of a series by Betty Roberts

H. B. COYLE FAMILY

The first Henderson B. Coyle came to the Garland area in 1850.  Henderson and his wife, the former Ebeline Parker, left Kentucky in 1848.  They stopped in Arkansas but decided they did not want to settle there.  They kept going west until they reached Rowlett Creek.  They bought several acres and built a log cabin.

Henderson fought in the Civil War.  He left soon after the war began, and his family never saw him again.  They learned he had died in New Orleans in 1864.

Mrs. Coyle was left with four children to raise.  Clem was born in 1849, Marion in 1850, Emily in 1852 and Henderson in 1858.  They lived and worked on the farm.

Mrs. Coyle died in 1911.  She had been a member of the First Christian Church in Rowlett for many years.  The church was built on land she had given.

Emily married Bob Richards.  She died in 1908.  They had three daughters.  Clem moved to Brownwood.  Marion, known as Babe, continued to live on the Coyle farm.  The two never married.

Henderson Coyle married Nancy Matilda Mills December 1 1878.  She was the daughter of Edward and Martha Mills.  The Coyles lived on a farm she had inherited from the Mills estate.

The Coyles had three daughters.  Louvelia was born in 1879, Nora in 1882, and Letha in 1884.  The two older girls went to school at Cornstalk College located on Centerville near Highway 66.  The Coyles boarded the teachers of the school.

In 1890 Henderson moved his family into Garland so the girls would be closer to the Garland school.  The house they lived in on Avenue E is still in the family.

Henderson went to work with M. D. Williams.  The Williams business was a general merchandise store and a funeral service.  It was located on the square.  Henderson worked for Williams for several years.

The Coyles celebrated their Golden Anniversary in December 1928.  In 1932 Mr. Coyle slipped and fell while cleaning his barn.  He broke both bones in his left arm and his left hip.  He was 674 at the time.  He died in February, 1937, at the age of 79.  Mrs. Coyle died in March of 1947.

The Coyles oldest daughter Louvelia, Mrs. T. M. Halsell, had drowned in 1900.  She and her daughter Tommie had been fishing in /Rowlett Creek.  Tommy fell in and Louvelia tried to save her.  They both drowned.  The Halsell’s other daughter Helen Fay married Leon Thurman.

The second daughter Nora, Mrs. Earl Harris, died in 1963.  She had two children, Delores and H. Coyle; both live in Dallas.  The two children of H. Coyle live in Las Vegas.  His daughter has a son.

Letha, Mrs. Lewis Shipley, lived in Rowlett over forty years.  She died in 1973.  She had one daughter, Mrs. Lee Hogue.  She lives in her grandparents’ house.

The original name for the Coyle family was O’Coyle.  The O was dropped after the family moved to the United States.  Even the Coyle name through the first Henderson Coyle has been lost.  There are no descendants named Coyle