Yolo County
Biographies
CHARLES COIL
As a pioneer of the state, Charles Coil is remembered and venerated for the efforts which he gave to the upbuilding of the best interests of the community, while at the same time he acquired that competence which the world owes every man. He became one of the most successful and prominent agriculturists of Yolo county, where he developed a fine farm and continued its improvement and cultivation until his death, which occurred January 1, 1892. His demise removed from the community a citizen of worth and ability and one whose place can never be filled, as all too fast the pioneers are passing to the great beyond and leaving only the works of their hands as an evidence of their lives. Mr. Coil was a member of a New York family, his birth having occurred in 1828 in Verona, Oneida county. His father and mother both dying there he was left an orphan at an early age. This fact necessitated his giving up his studies at Auburn, N. Y., and at seventeen years he went to the middle west, in Racine, Wis., engaging in the grain business with S. C. Tuckerman. In 1849 he outfitted with ox-teams and came to California, crossing the plains, and upon his arrival on the 13th of August of the same year he went at once to the mines of Hangtown. Not liking the life, however, he returned to Sacramento and there met Matt Harbin, the owner of the Hardy grant, who furnished Mr. Coil with a horse to ride to the grant in order to take up work there. He enjoyed this life very much but shortly afterward engaged in the butcher business with F. W. Fratt and John McNulty at Sacramento, and undertaking in which he made considerable money, the stock being furnished from the Harbin ranch. In 1852 he returned east by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and the following year brought a band of cattle across the plains. Upon his arrival he leased a part of the Harbin ranch, which has ever since been known as the Coil place, the property becoming his through a settlement with Mr. Harbin. About this time he became a partner with Gabriel Brown in the purchase of the Thomas O. Larkin grant, located upon the present site of Willow, Glenn county, and there the two engaged in the cattle business for several years. In the meantime Mr. Coil had married and built a home on the old Harbin ranch, and had formed a partnership in his work with John McNulty and W. B. Todhunter. The year 1862 proved disastrous to many of the settlers of this section by reason of the floods, and following this was the drought of 1864, when thousands of cattle died on the Colusa plains. Mr. Coil managed to save a part of his stock by taking them into Nevada, mortgaging a part of his land to carry him through. He found himself unable to redeem the Willow ranch, which was sold out, but succeeded in saving his home place, although he spent his last dollar in the effort. He went to D. O. Mills, of San Francisco and asked him for a load. On being asked how much he needed he replied $10,000 and Mr. Mills gave it to him on his note. He immediately purchased teams and engaged in trading between Sacramento and Salt Lake, exchanging merchandise for cattle, which he would drive back to California. To such an extent was he prospered in his efforts that he was soon enabled to take up farming, becoming one of the first to raise grain in Yolo county. Subsequently he purchased more land and at the time of his death owned four thousand acres, the land lying within a mile and a half of Woodland. In spite of adversities and obstacles he won his way back to financial success and became one of the prominent citizens of this section. Fraternally he was associated with the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was a man of Christian character, and had been reared in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically he was a stanch adherent of the principles advocated in the platform of the Republican party and was always true to the party’s best interests.
In Yolo county, near Cacheville, March 8, 1858, Mr. Coil was united in marriage with Ellen W. Pond, a native of Bristol, Vt., and a daughter of Samuel P. Pond, born at Castleton, same state, descendants of an old New England family of worth. Mr. Pond engaged as a farmer until 1849, when he came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and upon his arrival located in the mines. He was joined by his wife three years later, when he located on Cache creek, later disposing of this an purchasing a farm just east of Woodland. This he operated for some years, when he sold out and located in Woodland, where his death occurred at the age of seventy-eight years. His wife, formerly Ann Gregory, a native of Vermont, died at the age of seventy-two years. Mrs. Coil was the only child and in her home in Vermont she received her education in the Townsend Academy. She came to California in 1856 by way of the Isthmus of Panama and two years later became the wife of Charles Coil. Since her husband’s death she has
made her home for the greater part in Berkeley. She is the mother of three children, namely: LeRoy, of Woodland; Herbert E., residing on the old homestead; and Irene, of Berkeley. Mrs. Coil is a member of the Episcopal Church, which she supports liberally. She is a woman of culture and refinement and an addition to the society of the place she makes her home.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
357-358.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden
Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies