Portland Maine Press Herald

Aug. 16, 1956

The Party Line: In Which We Finish Uncoiling The Line Of The Local Coyles

By Franklin P. Lincoln


Just to make everything as confusing as possible for later generations poking around in the Coyle genealogy, Capt. John Brown Coyle's oldest son named one of his sons John Brown Coyle. That makes three of 'em, to wit:

Capt. John Crown Coyle, one of the pioneers on American steamboating and the original Coyle, as far as the Portland Coyles are concerned; a native of Norwich, Conn. but a resident of Portland from the age of 27 or 28 until his death in 1884 at 79.

John Brown Coyle Jr., the son who succeeded him as head of three steamship companies out of which the Eastern Steamship Lines later grew; born in Portland in 1841 and died here in 1898.

Capt. John Brown Coyle, USCG, grandson of the original captain and son of George H. Coyle.

GEORGE COYLE was the original John B's oldest son. He was born in Portland in 1831. He became a marine engineer on his father's steamship and a boilermaker. For many years he and wife Flora McDonald Coyle, resided at 117 Newbury St. He died there in September 1894. It is still a fine-looking brick house, long since converted to a tenement. It is now owned by Sebastian Ricci.

They named the son born to them Jan. 16, 1862, John Brown Coyle II. He made his career the sea and so did his son after him.

The grandson, John Brown Coyle was appointed to the Revenue Cutter Service in May 1888. That service became the Coast Guard in 1915. By that time, Coyle had been a lieutenant in the Revenue Cutter engineers since 1901. He was appointed a captain of engineers in the Coast Guard in 1916 and held that rank when he retired in 1923. His last billet was with the Division Engineers for New York City. He died in Hollywood, Calif., in 1932.

To him and his wife were born a daughter, Gladys Deering Coyle Haggerty, who lived in Wichita Falls, Tex., and the son, Henry Coyle, who followed his father into Coast Guard service.

Henry was born in 1889 and died in Norfolk, Va., in 1952 after also having been retired a Coast Guard captain six years before.

Henry was born in 1889, was graduated from Portland High School and made the Coast Guard his career. He frequently made the local newspapers through the years as visited relatives here wrote them about his adventures at sea and at the time the liner Athenia was torpedoed right after the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

At that time, Henry Coyle was commanding the Bibb, one of two Coast Guard cutters dispatched to meet the City of Flint and bring home American survivors of the Athenia.

He died in Norfolk, Va., in 1952 after also having been retired a Coast Guard captain six months before.

George H. Coyle also had another son, David. He took Horace Greeley's advice and went West as a young man of 19 or 20. He settled in California.

STILL ANOTHER SON of George H. Coyle was George Norris Coyle, his eldest. He became an engineer on the Eastern Steamship boats under his father. After the line folded, he went to work for the Portland Gas Light Company and when he died in November, 1930, was in charge of its mains and services. He was 74 when he died.

His widow, Anna Birwanger Coyle, still resides in their home at 101 Washburn Ave., here.

George Norris Coyle's son, Earl H. Coyle, was graduated from Portland High School in 1904 and from Bowdoin College in 1908. He made the Army his career and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1913. Among the duties in the course of his career was that of tutor to the children of the late Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, commander of the American troops...

...the other, Blanche Marie, is Mrs. Fred C. Newhall, wife of an East Saugus, Mass. jeweler.

ALL OF WHICH adds up to the fact that there are none of the descendants of the original Capt. John Brown Coyle bearing the family name in these parts anymore. There is a great-granddaughter, Mrs. Lincoln L. Turner, of Gorham, however. She's the only direct descendant in these immediate parts. Her line goes like this:

Her grandfather was George H. Coyle, that eldest son of Capt. John B. the original, George H.'s daughter Mary Josephine, married Harry Levy of Portland. Their daughter is Mrs. Marjorie Coyle Lincoln, the Gorham great-granddaughter.

She and her husband moved back to Maine about 15 years ago from Melrose, Mass. to go into the variety store business for themselves in Gorham.

Another great-granddaughter, Mrs. Turner's sister, resides in Falmouth, Mass. She was Beatrice Coyle Levy and was married to Everett H. Scannell.

Both Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Scannell have sons. They, of course, are great-great-grandsons of Capt. John B. the original.

Of him, great-granddaughter Marjorie Coyle Turner says: "I have a picture of him on my wall taken much later than the one you used in the paper. He has the dearest little cotton-batting tuft of beard under his chin."