THE FAMILY OF FRANCIS COYLE
Contents
A root of the family tree extended south across France to a Spanish island in the Mediterranean. Menorca is the second largest of the Balearic islands which together form a province of Spain. Besides the products of the sea, it grows wine grapes, fruits, vegetables, cattle, wool and flax. It was here that Francis Coyle was born in the year 1812, and under this economy he grew up. Nothing is known of his early life except that he received no formal education, which was not unusual at that time. But he did learn to subsist from the sea and the soil. He joined the crew of a whaling vessel and probably followed the sea until he landed in the port of New Orleans about 1849. Here he had a choice; either to join the gold-rush to California or settle on the Mississippi gulf coast, which he did, 37 years and unmarried.
When Frank Coyle landed on the east side of Biloxi bay he found a small health resort called the Ocean Springs hotel, on the east side of which a dirt road led away towards Fort Bayou where the Lynch sawmill squared up pine logs for export. There were signs of activity. Just three years prior the old LaFountaine tract had been subdivided, and land was selling. In 1853 the village had a post office, named for the sawmill, Lynchburg Springs. But in the next year the name was changed to that of the hotel, Ocean Springs. In this same yare A. Cumseig was employed to make a map of the village, laying out and naming streets. The road along the hotel property became Jackson Ave. the first business street. The first newspaper was published, an 1855 copy of which is preserved at the Oceans Springs public library. This old Ocean Springs Gazette told about the building of the new steamboat pier, the regular schedule of the steamer CREOLE, advertisements of a general store, a physician, two house builders, etc. Two boarding schools were proposed.
Because of his seafaring experience, Frank Coyle found employment on the paddle wheel steamboats operating along the coast. Later he owned a refreshment concession on one of these boats and apparently did well at it. On March 10, 1855 he bought a house and lot from Catherine May Downer and her husband on the southeast corner of Jackson Ave. and Ocean St. The lot had a frontage of 1007 feet, and extended down a slope 200 feet to a marsh inlet. It was a substantial timber house built close to the street, with a hall-way down the middle. Dormer windows on the shingled roof show that the upper floor was livable.
At the time Frank Coyle married Magdalena Ougatte, who was the widow Pons, five years his senior and also a native Ocean Springs Spain. She was the mother of two grown sons, Peter A. and Bartholomew Pons, and the sister of Victor Ougatte of New Orleans who had the good fortune of holding a winning ticket in the Louisiana lottery. Frank Coyle developed his property by planting scuppernong vines, fig and other fruit trees, and tilled the soil for a kitchen garden. There was space for a cow shed and a yard for chickens and geese, and probably a hog pen. On a slop like this there may have been a cool flowing spring, but if not, he got his water from a shallow well.
This was the type of steamboat that operated along the coast in Frank Coyle's time. The New Orleans-Ocean Springs run started at Milneburg on the New Orleans side of Lake Pontchartrain, then through the Rigolets to the Mississippi Sound. These steamboats had been in operation about twenty years when Frank Coyle arrived, and they continued another twenty years.
By a rare stroke of luck for steamboat history, this old issue of the Gazette has a brief editorial on the construction of the steamboat wharf which was located a little west of the foot of Jackson Ave. The editorial along with the suggestion as to the use of the pier-head states:
"The new wharf under the skillful management of Captain Walker and Col. Chivers is protruding out into the Bay, resting on substantial posts that are deeply sunk, and strong enough to support a hundred parks of artillery. The wharf is ten feet in breadth, and when it is complete out to the pier--we will bet one almighty dollar that few places will present a more beautiful view than the outline of this coast. But without getting 'Highfaludant' on the subject, we will descend to ice cream and oysters. Why would not the pier head of the wharf be a good place for stands, stalls, saloons, etc.? That grand 'sine qua non' of Summer, the breeze, will be supplied by the power of nature, gratis."
This 1855 copy of the Gazette was optimistic in reporting the activities of the village when Frank Coyle bought his home.
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Prospectus
Speaking of optimism,
we could hardly do justice to the memory of the Gazette
without reprinting its prospectus. This 3/24/1955 copy is preserved at the Ocean Springs Library |
Oldest Hotel
Most likely the Ocean Springs Hotel was the mainstay of the village economy in 1855 even though its advertisement in the Gazette was a rather modest one. Reference to the splendid new establishment suggests that the old hotel had recently been enlarged and modernized. As usual, great curative claims were made for the spring waters.
The name Jennings suggests change in management and the low Winter rates will plague the old hotel for another fifty years. |
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General Store
The Gazette advertisements show at least one general store in the village in 1855 offering a wide variety of merchandise. D. GOOS, DRY GOODS "Keeps constantly on hand a large and well selected assortment of dry goods, groceries, hardware, cutlery, medicines, boots, shoes, clothing, corn, oats, flour, bacon, ropes, blocks, iron, trunks, etc. etc. The above assortment will be sold at New Orleans prices. Ocean Springs, Miss." |
No Drug Store Here
Searching the old paper carefully, we failed to find any reference to a local drug store. Either Dr. Jones compounded his own medicines, or "recipes" were taken by boat to Biloxi where C. Bellman & Co. Apothecaries & Druggist would make them up with all possible precision, neatness and dispatch. The advertisement of C. Bellman & Co. is interesting in its stock, its services and its location. "Recommended to the public their choice assortment of Drugs, Medicines, Lancets, Syringes, Watch Crystals, Perfumes and a chemical preparation called 'C. Bellman Healing Rock' for the cure of all sores, wounds, and scratches on horses and mules."
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Prices
Another service of the Gazette which seems odd to us now is the lusting of current prices of commodities. The column is headed COMMERCIAL "Ocean Springs Retail Prices, corrected weekly by Frederick Moeling." It will be interesting if ot heart breaking to list a few of these. Hamms..............$.10
per lb. |
Cornmeal
Cornmeal was a more basic item of food in the old days that now. As corn pone or hearth cakes, it rounded out a meal of mullet or pork, and as a boiled mush it was the main item of a morning or evening meal. A family with a sack of cornmeal in the kitchen had a feeling of security; they could always get the other half of the dinner out of Biloxi Bay. Mr. R. Southerland seems to have cornered the local market in corn meal in that he offered to the public only on a certain day at a certain time. His advertisement headed "MEAL! MEAL!" reads as follows: "R. Southerland takes this method of informing the good people of Ocean Springs that he will have at the public wharf, every Monday at 12 O'clock, plenty of excellent CORNMEAL, which he will sell on moderate terms. Give him a call and purchase. March 3, 1955." |
UNEXPECTED EVENT
On June 30, 1857 , when she was fifty years old, Magdalena gave birth to a girl child. She was called Eulalie but the name was soon shortened to Laura. There was no church in Ocean Springs at this time and priestly visitations were rare. A Father Grognon who was on vacation at Pass Christian in 1857 reported to Bishop Elder (of Natchez): "I said Mass twice at Ocean Springs. There were seven persons at Holy Communion. I baptized two children..." One of these probably was Laura Coyle.
FIRST CHURCH - SERMONS IN FRENCH
In a letter to Father Holton of Pass Christian, Bishop Elder says: "I have just now written to Fr. Georget (of Biloxi) putting Ocean Springs under his immediate care. I will be thankful to you if you will give them an English sermon whenever you can." This suggests that most native Catholics on Biloxi Bay at that time still used colonial French.
In 1859, two years before the Civil War, Bishop Elder reported: "Fr. Georget has bought the lumber for the church at Ocean Springs. It is to measure 50 ft. X 25 ft., very plain." The church was built on the south side of Porter, west of Dewey where the City Hall now stands. Further correspondence indicated that Fr. Georget continued to serve this church as a visiting priest, and he had only three ways to visit; steamboat, sail boat or rowboat.
CIVIL WAR
The new found happiness of the middle aged Coyles was soon disturbed by the rumors of war. News brought in by the steamer Creole was a warning to the village promoters who gradually folded their projects and silently sailed away. The war came close to Ocean Springs as early as October 1861 when the U.S. Navy occupied Ship Island and made it a staging area for the assault on New Orleans, which was occupied by Federal forces in April 1862. The blockade of the coastwise steamers disrupted the economy of the new coast towns and reduced the people to a primitive existence and deprived them of homely commodities like coffee, gingham, tobacco and shoes.
With the loss of his steamer concession, Frank Coyle now depended on his back yard and his pulling skiff to provide for his family. He knew how to grow vegetables and to preserve them. When the mullet catch was good he salted them down in kegs. Oysters and crabs were always there for the taking. There was plenty of milk, butter and eggs from the faithful cow and the gabbling geese. For desert there were figs, berries, pears and scuppernongs. Frank Coyle must have been a man of courage and stamina because it is reliably remembered that at the age of fifty or more he went to Mobile in his pulling skiff and ran the blockage back with a barrel of flour. Possibly he used a gaff pole sail and leeboard when no Yankee launches were in sight. Mobile did not fall until near the war's end; It was a place where contraband could be had for a price.
YANKEE PATROL ON JACKSON AVENUE
On March 1, 1862 a detachment of Federal Troups from Ship Island landed at the foot of Jackson Ave. to search the local post office which was in John Egan's store near the beach, about a block down from Frank Coyle's house. This visit was reported in the New York Herald on March 25th. After describing the Biloxi visit, the account proceeds:
"We now steered for Ocean Springs, and on landing we found that we were on Egan's wharf, (Ocean Springs Hotel Wharf) which is well built and is several hundred yards in length. On it is a railroad track used for transporting goods from the boats which land there. We seated ourselves on the car and the marines were our steam, or rather motive power. Here we met but one sour faced creole. Of course, we let him go, but he followed us.
"On leaving the cars, we passed through a dilapidated building, and were in Ocean Springs, and were the first landing party of Union men who have been here since the war.
"Our footsteps were directed to the Post Office, where we found Mrs. J. Egan in charge. Mrs. E. Is a good looking lady from the Emerald Isle, of a fiery temper, and with finger nails long enough to do some tall scratching with. Her better half, John, arrived soon after we entered the domains of the Confederate States of America Post Office Department.
"He wore an angry look and a seedy coat; was tall in stature and in his speech; had a contemptuous air and an air of onions; was not a Northerner or a Southerner but was born in Ireland; was a postmaster under Buck (President Buchanan) who "illthrated" him, and now he was one of Mr. Davis' postmasters. He had returned all his stamps, but kept his letter of balance to balance his accounts. Colonel Jones could not see the balance in that light, and after weighing the thing in his mind, came to the conclusion not to be found wanting in the scales of duty, and carried off Egan's balance because it bore these significant characters - P.O.D.U.S. Egan was mad, but Mrs. Egan was madder, and she gave us a bit of Irish advice.
"Ocean Springs is a beautiful place and well adapted for a watering place. It is smaller than Biloxi, which place was built up under the influence of one of the Southern land excitements. Ocean Springs is almost entirely deserted and we did not see over ten persons there.
"The object of our visit eminently successful, and having taken about fifty New Orleans papers, we prepared to return. Bidding Egan & company goodbye, we "took to the cars" for the end of the wharf where we found that the Hardford's launch had made a seizure of quite a number of guns, rifles and muskets, all of them in a dilapidated condition. There were probably brought there for the purpose of complying with an order to the citizens to send their old arms to New Orleans to be repaired. We put them in the boat and started for the New London.
"As I said before, the papers (newspapers) gave us very valuable information and we felt assured it would be worth our time spent to go again, perhaps, to some other locality."
NOTE: This reporter underestimated the number of people remaining in the village. CES
EARLY POST OFFICE
A village passes a mile-stone when it gets a post office. It has then become important enough to be recognized by a federal agency and must be given a name, and this sometimes brings on a hassle. The Ocean Springs Hotel was then a venerable establishment of eighteen years, but on the other hand it depended on Mister Lynch's free-flowing mineral spring for salubrious drinking and immersions. In the battle for the name, it appears that Lynch won the first round, according to official post records, when in 1853 the first post office was named Lynchburg Springs, and Robert Little was appointed postmaster. But the Lynch victory was short-lived. In the very next year the Ocean Springs Hotel succeeded in giving its name to the post office and to the village, which may surprise those who thought it was the other way around. Frederic F. Moeling was the new postmaster in 1854 but it is not known where the post office was. Two years later the postal service became more firmly established under John Egan who retained the office for ten years. John Egan's was the second property from the beach on the East side of Jackson, and on the lower end he kept a small general store in addition to his newly established boarding house. It is save to assume that the early post office had its corner in this little store near the foot of the pier where steamboats landed.
THE PONS BROTHERS
The sons of Magdalena Ougatte, Peter A. And Bartholomew Pons probably lived with their mother and step-father Frank Coyle. They left Spain to escape military conscription but soon found their new country at war. Their names appear on the roster of the Live Oak Rifles which was mustered in at Ocean Springs on Sept. 18, 1861 as Company A of the 3rd. Regiment, Infantry. Nothing is known of their was experience. On July 1, 1864 the records of St. Alphonsus parish show tat Bartholomew Pons married Mary Westbrook. In the October 5, 1872 issue of THE HANDSBORO DEMOCRAT the following advertisement appeared:
PETER A. PONS & CO.
Dealer in Oysters
We ship from their plat at Ocean Springs Miss.
On the line of the New Orleans, Mobile
& Texas RR. All orders promptly filled.
There were oysters in the shell, which will remain alive for several days under proper conditions. Oyster meats or "raw oysters" could not be shipped until the advent of the "ice factories", which happened in Biloxi about 1887. There may have been some artificial ice shipped in by rail from Mobile prior to this date.
Peter A. Pons was the father of Ella who married John E. "Cap" Johnson who was later in the business of shipping raw oysters. About 1897 he offered a better job in his grocery store to his young cousin Frank Schmidt. Peter was also the father of Mrs. Jack Heldon, Mrs. Norman VanCourt, and Mrs James Ryan. Walter Pons who lived in Biloxi was probably the son of bart. Pons.
END OF THE WAR
The people of Ocean Springs knew the war was over when the steamer CREOLE resumed its regular run in February of 1866. Although he was then fifty-three years old, Frank Coyle lost no time getting his concession back into operation. It was probably during this period that he suffered a serious loss. As the story was passed down, he spent $1,000 for fixtures and stock for a new concession, and the boat burned on the first trip out. All he saved was an ornate pewter pitcher which survived for many years and was known by the grandsons as the "$1,000 pitcher".
The steamboat traffic had hardly recovered when there was talk about a railroad between Mobile and New Orleans. Constructed started at Mobile in early 1869 and by the end of the next year the trains were running. Laura Coyle was thirteen and attended school at the old house on Jackson north of Cleveland, where the widow Bellman was taking in a few pupils. Laura remembered that they were allowed to go up to the railroad to see the ceremonial train go through, which marked the opening of the New Orleans, Mobile & Chattanooga Railroad on October 29, 1870.
However the steamboats continued in operation, but it was inevitable that their passenger trade would be lost to the faster rail service, and Frank Coyle would be forced into retirement. The railroad opened a new era for the village of Ocean Springs, and Laura's life was also changing. She was growing up as the only child of aging parents. One day the CREOLE unloaded a piano for her, and later she had a saddle horse. The new trains brought summer visitors form New Orleans, and summer romances. There was one for Laura that carried over to another summer; he was a German lad named Charley Schmidt. He and Laura were married in 1874, which will be a later story, and one that was interrupted by the untimely death of Charles Ernest twelve years later. Laura returned to her old home with five young children.
RETIREMENT YEARS
Frank and Magdalena provided a safe haven for the bereaved family and helped the children through adolescence. Here they knew some of the discipline that Frank Coyle learned on the deck of a whaling ship, and took orders in Spanish, which the old folks never gave up. They did regular chores in the garden, fed the geese and picked up eggs, helped at the wine press and gutted mullet for the brine crock. Probably they did some oyster "cooning" when nor'westers pushed the tide way out. They later remembered fig trees big enough to climb in, and fanning grandpa when his breath was short.
The children attended the first school of St. Alphonsus Parish, which opened October 17, 1887. It was a two room white-washed building on the north side of Calhoun just east of the present rectory; one room for the girls under Sister Anthony and the other for the boys under Sister Patrick, 32 pupils in all. The sisters were Marinites of the Holy Cross, which order continued to serve the parish through two more generations of the Schmidt family.
Frank Coyle had converted the north front room of his home into a small store where he sold the simple necessities of village life, one item which was scuppernong wine which he made from grapes grown on local and rural arbors, which were numerous at that time.
The record of deeds at the Jackson County courthouse in Pascagoula showed that Frank Coyle also dealt in real estate. Book 7, page 198 shows that 1872 he owned all or part of lot 9 at the north end of Jerome Ryan tract. On March 7 of that year he sold Pablo Cox a lot there 25x210 ft. for $25. In 1879 he bought a lot from John Shanahan north of the hotel, 95x223 ft. for $200.
In 1881 he bought the no. 1 lot of the Gerome Ryan tract 561 x 197 ft. for #300. In 1881 Frank Coyle bought the commercial lot on the NW corner of Washington & DeSoto from C.E. and Laura Schmidt for $250.
In 1886 when James and Francesca Garrad were buying land for their bayou estate, Frank Coyle sold them 200ft. on the north side of Iberville adjacent to the Ames tract, running 400ft. to the bayou, for $225.
FRANCIS AND MAGDALENE COYLE CONVEY COMMERCIAL PROPERTY
TO THEIR WIDOWED DAUGHTER LAURA SCHMIDT
State of Mississippi
Jackson County
Know all men by these presents that we, Francis Coyle Mrs. Magdalene Coyle, for and in consideration of the price and sum of Four Hundred (400) dollars cash to us in hand paid by Mrs. Laura C. Schmidt have bargained and sold and do hereby grant, bargain, sell, convey and warrant to the said Mrs. Laura C. Schmidt, those certain lots, pieces, or parcels of land situated in Jackson County, State of Mississippi, and more particularly described as part of lot No. 1 in block No. 28 in the town of Ocean Springs, according to a map or plan of said town drawn by N. Culmseig, dated 1854, said property bounded and described as follows: commencing at the North West corner of said lot No. 1 at the corner of Washington and DeSoto avenues, running South along said Washington Ave. fifty feet, and East parallel with DeSoto Ave. and one hundred and ninety three feet. Also a part of said lot No. 2 in block 28 being the west part of lot No. 2 and having a front on DeSoto Ave. one hundred and fifty feet, and the same front (150ft.) On County Road, and a depth or width north and south of eighty five feet, or the full width of said block No. 28, together with all buildings, houses or appurtenances theron or thereto belonging.
Also all of lot No Thirteen in block No. Nineteen in the said town of Ocean Springs, according to said map or plan of said town drawn by N. Culmseig in 1854. The said lot No. 13 is situated on the corner of Washington and DeSoto Avenues and has a front on Washington. Of One Hundred (100) feet, and runs West between parallel lines along DeSoto Ave. three hundred and sixty three (363) feet to a strip of land known as the D. Goos or Brown tract. Together with all and singular, the rights, privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in anwise appertaining. To have and to hold the same with the appurtenances free from and against the claims of our heirs, executives, administrators and assigns, and against the lawful claims of all persons whomsoever.
In testimony of which we have hereto set our hands and seals this 25th day of September A.D. 1888.
Francis Coyle
Mrs. Magdalene Coyle
FRANCISCO AND MAGDALENE SIGN THEIR LAST DEED GIVING THE OLD HOME TO DAUGHTER LAURA AND GRANDDAUGHTERS "EFFIE" AND "LENA".
State of Mississippi |
Deed Book 12, page 531 |
| Jackson County |
Know all men by these presents that we Francisco Coyle and Mrs. Magdalene Coyle, his wife, for and in consideration of the natural love and affection we have for and do bear towards Mrs. Laura M. Schmidt our daughter, and to our beloved grand daughters Euphemia M. Schmidt and Magdalene M. Schmidt, daughters of the said Laura M. Schmidt, we hereby give, grant, bargain, sell, convey and warrant to the said Laura M. Schmidt during natural life, and to the said Euphemia M. Schmidt and Magdalene M. Schmidt in remainder to them and their heirs and assigns forever, that certain lot, piece or parcel of land situated in section 30, Township 7 south, Range 8 West in Jackson County, State of Mississippi, and more particularly described as a certain lot of ground situated, lying and being in the town of Ocean Springs, Formerly called Lynchburg, fronting on the wester boundary one hundred and seven (107) feet on Jackson Ave., and two hundred feet on the Northern boundary on Ocean Ave., more particularly described and known as lot No. 303 on a plat of the addition to the town of Ocean Springs made by Palmer, being the same lot sold by Elias R. Porter and Harriet Sophia Porter his wife to Catherine May Downer on the 27th of October 1853, and sold by the said Catherine May Downer and James Cook Downer her husband to the first named grantor herin (Francis Coyle) on the 10th. day of March 1855. It is hereby expressly stipulated that the said Laura M. Schmidt shall not during her life encoumber or alienate the above described property. Together with all and singular the rights, privileges and appurtenances, thereunto belonging or in anwise appertaining. To have and to hold the same with the appurtenances as above stated and provided free from and against the claims of ourselves, our heirs, executors, administrators and assigns and against the lawful claims of all persons whomsoever. In testimony of which we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 11th day of June A.D. 1890.
| Witness: Ane Morris | Francisco Coyle |
| Magdalene Coyle |
NOTES ON ABOVE DEED
At the signing of this deed, Laura's age was 33, "Effie" 14 and "Lena" 8. Frank Coyle had less than seven months to live, but Magdalene lived for another 14 years.
The initial "M" in the names recalls the old Spanish custom that all good girls must have the name "Maria".
"Porter" was the name of the woman who started the Ocean Springs hotel about 1835. A grave stone on the hotel property was marked: "Deborah, wife of Thomas C. Porter, 1801-1850.
The witness Ane Morris was a neighbor north of Ocean St. Her family operated a boarding house there for many years.
The house was most probably on the lot when Frank Coyle bought it 35 years before. He saw the village grow from a steamboat stop to a "tank town" on a "trunk line" railroad. A trunk line was a long railroad with many branches, and a tank town was one where steam locomotives had to stop for water. He saw the "main street" move from lower Jackson to upper Washington near the railroad depot, and he was shrewd enough to own property on both streets.
Francis Coyle died on New Years day of 1891 at the age of 78. His gravestone in the Catholic cemetery adjacent to the City cemetery on Fort Bayou bears this inscription:
FRANCIS COYLE
born in
Minorca Spain
died in
Ocean Springs
Jan 1, 1891
Two years after his passing, the town was incorporated and began to prosper as a summer resort. Excursion trains brought visitors to new hotels. Streets were opened, extended and improved with the shells of an expanding oyster industry.
Laura Schmidt and family and mother Magdalena moved to a farm across Fort Bayou almost opposite the cemetery, and the staunch old homestead became a rental house for a few years until it burned about 1895. The lot became part of the adjoining property and now not even a jutting brick remains. The inlet where Frank Coyle landed his barrel of flour has narrowed down to a drainage ditch. Anyone viewing the site today would deem it a most unlikely place to build a home.
Magdalena Coyle lived at the farm and was often visited by the grandsons and granddaughters of her two families. She died on July 20, 1904 at the good age of ninety-seven, which gives the Schmidt descendants a record to strive for. Her tired old body was laid in the Coyle plot with the blessings of the Church.