William C. Coryell
William C. Coryell was born in West Union, February 18, 1859, the son of Judge James I,. Coryell. He attended the West Union schools until he completed their course and attended the Ohio University at Athens for one year, 1875 and 1876. He also attended the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, 1876-1878, till he was compelled to leave on account of sickness. He studied surveying with his father from 1878 to 1883, read law with F. D. Bayless of the West Union bar, and was admitted to practice October 5, 1886. He served as Deputy Clerk and Deputy Sheriff and also as Clerk in the Probate, Auditor's and Treasurer's office of Adams County at different times and has more familiarity with the administration of all the county offices than any person now living in the county. From 1878 to 1886, he was principally engaged in the county offices, and in that time did a great deal of surveying, and prepared himself for admission to the bar. He has also served as a councilman for the village and followed his father as a member of the School Board.
Mr. Coryell is a modest man, as it behooves all bachelors to be, but he is a well read man, both in law and in the current topics of the time. As a lawyer, his tastes lead him to prefer the duties of a counsellor, and his counsel is always safe. He enjoys the confidence, esteem and respect of all who know him, and in the management of large and important estates and trusts he has shown himself most efficient and trustworthy. No lawyer enjoys a greater measure of the confidence of the people of Adams County than he, and he has demonstrated that such confidence is well deserved. While he does not possess his father's taste as to historical matters, much to the regret of the writer, he is a much abler business man than his father was. and bids by the time he is sixty to stand with the people of Adams County as George D. Cole, of Waverly, did with the people of Pike County at the time of his death, and for information on that subject, consult the sketch of Mr. Cole in this book.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900