Newton Jasper Coyle

Newton Jasper Coyle, 1843-1912
Veteran and miner
 
Buried in the Knights of Pythias Cemetery,
exact location unknown.
 Memorial marker in the PMMP memorial garden.

(Image generated with Bing AI)
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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.
 
© 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 18 February 2026.

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