Pike Township Family Stories
COYNER FAMILY
Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book 1884-1984, page 322
By Mike ApplebyMartin L. Coyner was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky, 15 May 1818, to John Coyner and Nancy Zimmerman Coyner. On 2 July 1840 he married Ingray J. Hollenbeck. From this union were born six children, only two surviving: Alexander Coyner, born 1846, married Emma Elder; and Rhoda Alice Coyner, born 1856, married Noah Slater.
In 1839 Martin went to work for himself in Indiana after clerking in a general store for several years. Due to failing health, he sold his business in 1844 and began farming. In 1852 the family moved to Linn county, Iowa, and in 1866 they moved to 200 acres in Muscatine county. The Coyners were Baptists for 46 years, then converted and attended the Christian church in Nichols. Martin was a Whig in early political life and voted for W. H. Harrison for president. In later life he was an active Republican in Pike township. Martin died in 1891; Ingray died in her home in Nichols in 1905.
Alexander Coyner was born in Indiana I 1846. He moved with his family to Linn county, Iowa, in 1852 and to Muscatine county in 1866. He married Emma Jane Elder, and six children were born to them: Della Mae Coyner, born 1872, married Silas Rummells; Anna Coyner, born 1874, married George Hahn; Harry Coyner, born 1878, married Emma Schomberg; Edward Coyner, born 1884; Clayton Coyner, born 1881, and Mark Coyner, born in 1876. 1880 census recores show Alexander to be a farmer. He died in 1885.
Della Mae Coyner was born in 1872 in Nichols. In 1893 she married Josiah Walker “Silas” Rummells, Jr. She attended college and taught school. She was an active Methodist and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. She was an “ample” woman of German stock, and her great grandson, Mike Appleby, remembers giving her “lots of room” on visits to Nichols. She died in 1955.
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