The real beginnings of the Uppena story in the United States lie buried with those who created that story. How it was that Henry Bernard Uppena, a mere lad of five years of age, came to the United States in 1828 will probably never be known. Whether he came with his parents from Vreden, Prussia, or with relatives or friends of the family is an equally unanswerable question.
Little more is known of the Coyle family into which Henry B. Uppena married. The Coyles had come to America from Ireland in 1801. During their 15 years in New York, Catherine was born. In 1816, the Coyle family moved to St. Louis, MO, where they lived for a period of 13 years. Being miners, they no doubt came with the other miners to the new mining area of Potosi in 1829.
It was just a few years later (Nov. 10, 1834), while Wisconsin was still officially part of Michigan Territory, that the first sale of public lands took place. At this sale, all land exclusive of mineral land lying in present Grant County came into market. Smelters, miners, farmers, and speculators purchased the tracts they had occupied or selected, usually paying the standard minimum fee of $1.25/acre set by law. Terrence Coyle is supposed to have been the first settler in Potosi who bought a farm. Still preserved are two deeds, dated 1839 and 1845, granting possession of land to Terrence Coyle. Application was no doubt made long before the deeds were issued, as Terrence Coyle is listed as a resident of Iowa County, Michigan Territory (of which Grant County was a part) until Wisconsin was made a territory in 1836.
In the state census of 1850, Terrence Coyle is still listed as a "miner" at the age of 80; and the land he originally purchased was sold to his son, James, and was later sold to Henry Bernard Uppena in 1853. What became of the original Terrence Coyle is unknown. He is not mentioned in the State Census of 1860.
In 1855, Henry B. Uppena filed a Declaration of Intention to become a citizen of the United States of America, and on the first Monday of October in 1857 was granted final admission to citizenship by the Circuit Court of Grant County at Lancaster, WI.
--Written and researched by Fr. James J Uppena, published with initial Family Tree in 1974