Edward Coyle - Researching a Black Sheep, Part II

 Edward’s history of questionable behavior intrigued me, beginning with his desertion from the Army and escalating with his involvement at the Red Onion House in Louisville. So I began searching for more info on this house and its occupants.  But most of my searches for “red onion” either turned up grocery ads, restaurant menus or a few paltry mentions of Lizzie Cornelius’ establishment, which I knew Edward was connected to. However, these searches kept pointing me to Madison, Indiana – a small town across the river in Indiana. So I went searching there.

What I found astounded and confused me. There was a notorious establishment there, known primarily for gambling but also for illegal alcohol sales, fights and general mayhem. But the primary character involved in these stories was – Edward Coyle. And he owned an established known as The Red Onion, located at the corner of Central Avenue and Front Street. In 1898 an incident occurred involving Coyle and the Red Onion that turned the town on its ear for a time. Coyle owned the building where the saloon operated, and under one manager business turned sour and the saloon closed. Coyle offered money to another man to start it up again, and the business once again thrived. This upset the previous manager, and on the evening of April 18, 1898 he and two other man used dynamite to blow the building up. All three were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison.

I spent years chasing this man. He had gambling halls and faro banks scattered across Indiana, including in Jeffersonville where my Coyle family lived. I found numerous newspaper accounts of an Ed, Edward or sometimes Ned Coyle being arrested for gaming, assault, illegal liquor sales and running “disreputable houses”. In Jeffersonville, such a public outcry arose when he opened a faro bank there that the newspapers took up the fight and caused a grand jury to indict him. But when warrants for his arrest were sent to his home town of Madison, the sheriff of the county failed to arrest him; the sheriff was subsequently arrested. 

Men playing faro in Arizona saloon in 1895 - credit

My husband often tells me there is no such thing as coincidence, and in this case I believed it; there had to be a connection between the Ed Coyle at the Red Onion in Louisville and the Ed/Ned/Edward Coyle at the Red Onion in Madison. These two cities aren’t far apart and river travel between the two was frequent.

I also found a great deal of information about an Edward S. Coyle, also in Madison, Indiana, who was a fine, upstanding citizen, and an important businessman in that city. He had no children of his own, but raised his nephews when his sister and brother-in-law both died young of consumption. He owned several businesses in town, including a sand and gravel pit, a lumber yard and other Main Street businesses. He was prominent in local politics and a member of the republican party. I shrugged this man off, believing that his character was so different from my Edward that it was obviously a, um, coincidence.

I was wrong. After years of searching only certain newspapers that were available to me, I finally gained access to another archive and found conclusive evidence (multiple notices of liquor licenses being granted) that the notorious gambler and saloon owner in Madison was the very same Edward S. Coyle, upstanding citizen and important businessman. And Edward S. Coyle was NOT my Edward. Case closed.

I still believe there was some connection between the two Red Onions, even if it was only that the folks in Louisville had visited the notorious establishment across the river and decided to emulate it. I will keep looking for clues, but I may never know.

And still – Edward wasn’t done with me yet.