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Hannah Carroll Coyle
Pioneer Family of the Month
Emigrants of 1847 |
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Reuben Stringer Coyle was born in Bullitt County, Kentucky, in 1821. Family lore describes him as a "Man of Enterprise" with "movin' on" in his blood. The Coyles moved to Peoria County, Illinois, when Reuben was a young man, and there he met and courted Hannah Carroll. They were married May 16, 1843, and had two children -- two year old Thomas Jefferson Coyle and four month old John Henry Coyle -- when they emigrated to the Oregon Country in 1847. Accompanying the family were Hannah's brother and father and one of Reuben's brothers. Among the belongings which Reuben and Hannah packed away for the journey was a newly minted $10 gold coin. The coin was Reuben's measure of last resort, to be used only in the event of the family being reduced to utter poverty and desperation. It survived the journey to Oregon and was passed down through four generations of the Coyle family spanning 130 years, always with the understanding that it was not to be spent unless all else failed. Its last family recipient, Oda Coyle Hudson, was a widow with no children, and thus the coin was entrusted to the Oregon Historical Society in 1977.After arriving in Oregon, the Coyles claimed 640 acres of land in Linn County southeast of Albany and began farming. Reuben later platted and developed the town of Sodaville, named for nearby mineral springs, after Claim 4847 was perfected under the Donation Land Act of 1850. Modern residents believe that a handful of ancient fruit trees located within the bounds of the original family claim were saplings planted by Reuben himself in the 1840s. While the Carrolls headed south to cash in on the California gold rush in early 1849, Reuben apparently remained in Oregon with Hannah and the children. The Carrolls didn't strike it rich, but they didn't go bust, either, before returning to the Willamette Valley when the '49ers began pouring into California that fall.  Reuben went into politics in the 1850s, serving as a Linn County commissioner in 1854, '55, '56, and 1858. With statehood imminent, he spent 1857 at Oregon's constitutional convention. The convention delivered the proposed state constitution on September 18, 1857, for approval by referendum. It passed, though with some further amendments added by popular vote, and Oregon was granted statehood on February 14, 1859.Along with one of his sons, Reuben finally headed south to California following rumors of gold strikes in the 1860s. He is known to have returned home at least once following some modest success in the gold fields, but the family eventually lost track of him. He is believed to have died in January, 1888, but it is not known where he was buried. Hannah died on March 30, 1870, at the age of 45. Until the 1980s, six generations later, there were still descendants of Reuben and Hannah Coyle to be found living on part of the old family claim.
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