Kinsey / Coskrey Update, Page 518

[Coskrey, continued from page 511]

his name really was James Polk Coskrey. “Polk” certainly seemed unlikely since James’s middle initial surely was not a “P.” Dorenthia “DeeDe” (Smith) O’Neal had a different story. She remembered Grandpa Coskrey telling her that he was named for a president whose name he hated because he disliked the man. In fact, he disliked him so intensely that he would not admit to sharing his name!

The problem with DeeDe’s story was that there were so many old stories of Grandpa’s floating around. He was a notorious storyteller. He loved to gather the grandchildren around for tales about outlaws and treasures and adventure. His stories were glorious, and he told them with such conviction that those grandchildren were still convinced they were factual even after they grew to be adults! Grandpa had a knack of putting just enough truth into a story that you just knew it was real.

It was no wonder that descendants and researchers could not agree on Grandpa’s name. There were so many opinions and recollections. And most everyone felt strongly about their memories. Grandpa still had us all guessing long after he died on May 17, 1926. But the truth would surely come out one day.

One day in April 2004, great granddaughter Nettie Elizabeth (Mullins) Wood was browsing census records on the Heritage Quest web site. She found the 1910 Coryell County record for James William Coskrey and his wife Amelia Catherine Kinsey. Lo and behold, at the bottom of the record was listed James Coskrey who was living with them after his wife Nancy Dorenthia had passed away in 1902. But look here – what’s this? Jas. K. P. Coskrey! In a rare moment of frankness, Grandpa gave it away.

Studying about President James Knox Polk revealed that he was elected in 1844, the same year that James Coskrey was born. Another piece of evidence confirming Grandpa’s real name is the fact that his granddaughter, Hallie Coskrey Davis, named one of her sons, “Knox.” I wonder what led James to divulge his despised moniker? Never again ‘though – when the 1920 census record for him was found, he was known as “Jim!”

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married men) on 6 January 1838. This class of land grant was issued to those persons who arrived before 2 March 1836. Peter’s marriage to Sarah (Gilleland) Kuykendall occurred sometime between early 1831 and early 1832. It is possible that he came to Texas as a married man, but evidence of a previous marriage has not been found to date.

Sarah Gilleland, daughter of William and Nancy (Johnson) Gilleland, was born 4 December 1797 in Tennessee, probably Davidson County. Her parents married September 26, 1792 in Prince Edward County, Virginia and migrated to Davidson County, Tennessee before Sarah’s birth. William died there in July of 1800. Nancy remarried in 1802 to Thomas Williams, and they moved, with her children, to Arkansas Territory by 1803. They settled on Williams Creek, a tributary of the Red River.

Sarah Gilleland married first to Robert Hardin Kuykendall at Red Hill, Arkansas Territory in 1814. Their first child was born at Cadron, Conway County, Arkansas Territory in 1816. By 1820, they were living in Old Miller County, Arkansas Territory.

In the late fall of 1821, the Gillelands, Kuykendalls, Moores, Boatwrights and other relations “left Arkansas for Texas to become the first group of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred colonists. They traveled down the

[Kinzey, Continued on Page 519]

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