13
DisasterMan
Abraham's son, Ruben (1822-1899), my great-great
grandfather, also born in Virginia, married Margaret Prosser
(1822-1904) whose parents had both been born in Wales in
Great Britain. Ruben and Margaret were married in 1845 and
had eleven children. They were born in 1846, 1848, 1850, 1851
Leroy my grandfather, 1853, 1855, 1858, 1860, 1862, 1864,
and 1867.
Leroy (1851-1940) married Emma Emerson (1858-1923)
and they had two children, my father, Cecil Roy Coile (1877-
1963) and Raymond Hilton Coile. Leroy was a plasterer who
retired when he was 84 and died when he was 89.
My father and mother had two children, my sister Thelma
and me. My father was 86 when he died, and my mother was
89 when she died.
As I mentioned, my great-great grandfather had married
someone whose parents had been born in Wales in Great
Britain. I am glad to report that I am part Welsh. However it
must be a small part of me since I can't really sing and thus I
would never be able to participate in an Eisteddfod in Wales.
My wife, Ellen was evacuated during World War II to Wales in
1940 when she was ten years old and lived there for more than
a year. She learned to read, write, speak, and sing in Welsh. She
had to pass an exam in Welsh as part of her Eleven Plus exam
which determined whether or not she would go to a college
preparatory high school. She is very bright and passed easily
and was sent for four years to the Beale Grammar School, a
boarding school for girls at Marlow-on-Thames near Henley.
Henley is famous for the inter-collegiate races between eight-
oar racing shells.
My father grew up on the family farm eating apples and
the other food that grew on the farm. His fi rst visit to a dentist
was when he was twelve years old. When he died at age 86,
the doctor at the Army hospital at Fort Monroe, Virginia told
my mother that they would like to put his teeth in the Army's
medical museum in Washington, D.C. since he still had all of
them and only two with fi llings. They thought that it would