George Conyer
George Conyer, the eighth son of David H. and Eliza C. Coyner, was born at Lexington, Richland County, Ohio, on June 5, 1858. His early childhood was spent in Virginia, the native State of his parents. During the Civil War, at the death of his mother, he with the rest of the family, except four brothers who were in the Union army, returned to the home State of his father and mother. They were only permitted to remain there a short time, owing to the father's sympathy with the North, where they were compelled to flee to coming to Columbus, Ohio, where the father enlisted as chaplain of the Eighty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, located at Camp Chase. After the close of the war the father located at Eden, Delaware County, where he engaged in the ministry for a number of years, he being a graduate of Washington and Lee's College of Virginia, and of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Being also a man of high literary attainments, he devoted special attention to the education of his son George, who alter completing his course in the public schools, was placed under the special instruction of private tutors. He then completed his course at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1879.
He was married to Eunice A. Hipple, daughter of G. W. and Ann Hipple, of Eden. Of this marriage three sons were born, only one of whom is now living, he being a resident of Delaware.
The first political preferment that was bestowed upon Judge Coyner was his election to the office of township clerk in Brown Township, in 1880, for five consecutive years thereafter. He was then appointed superintendent of the County Infirmary, which position he filled from 1889 to 1892. For a number of years Judge Coyner had spent his spare time in reading law. and at the expiration of his term as superintendent, he attended the Cincinnati Law College, from which institution he was graduated at the head of his class in 1893, and entered upon the practice of his profession at Delaware. In 1895 he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney and was reelected to the same office in three years. In 1902 he was elected to the office of Common pleas judge in the First Subdivision of the Sixth Judicial District of Ohio, which position he filled for five years. So unswerving was Judge Coyner's devotion to the trust reposed in him that during his entire political career covering a period of 20 years, his record is without a scar or blemish.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908