Judge William C. Wyman
The parents of Wm. C. Wyman were natives of County Wexford, Ireland, where the father was born in 1780, and the mother in 1782. Their lives were passed in their native land, although their children drifted away to the land across the waters. Mrs. Wyman, née Mary Furlong, was a close relative of Bishop Furlong, Prelate of the Diocese of Ferns, Ireland. Mr. Wyman, well advanced in years, passed away March 14, 1870, while his wife survived him some seven years, her death occurring September 7, 1877. They both died in their native county, and were survived by but two of their nine children. It will be proper here to relate an incident which was of much interest to the family and partakes somewhat of the tint of romance. The oldest son, John, when eleven years of age, left home and shipped on board a merchant vessel, but the storms and calms of a series of years failed to bring any tidings to the anxious parents. Eighteen years elapsed and his brother William, then a boy of ten, was attending school at the “National School-house," when a stranger in the dress of a sailor one day approached the school children and made special inquiries concerning the Wymans, which at once suggested the thought to William that the stranger was his own brother whom he had never seen, but of whom he had heard much from an ever anxious mother. So, satisfying himself, he hastened to his home, and almost overcame the feelings of his parents by announcing the return of their long absent and unexpected son. The scene of joy which followed can only be imagined. 'l‘he returned sailor was first mate under Capt. George H. Flanders, of the brig Keying, then lying in Liverpool harbor.
William C. Wyman, the boy who carried the glad news of his brother’s return to their mother, was born in County Wexford, Ireland, September 29, 1832, and remained with his parents until his eleventh year, when be shipped with his brother as cabin-boy on the brig Keying, which with a cargo of salt left Liverpool for Newburyport. The destination was safely reached, and William commenced attendance at the “West Male Grammar School,” while his brother shipped again in charge of one of Captain Cushing’s vessels. From that time the brothers never met, as William had himself gone to sea before the return of John from his first voyage. Ill health soon compelled John to abandon the sea, and he located in Norfolk, Virginia, where he married and reared a son and daughter. His health, however, never returned, and in 1857 he died in his adopted State. His family afterward moved to Scottsville, Albemarle County, Va., where the mother and daughter still live, the son having died in 1863. William, on leaving Newburyport, secured a position as cabin-boy on the brig Ark, commanded by Captain Johnston. From Beverly, Mass., the vessel started for Charleston, S. C., and made a boisterous and dangerous voyage. Off Cape Hatteras a storm raged with great violence, and the cabin-boy resolved that if once he reached the land he would give up entirely the "rolling deep." On reaching Charleston he applied himself to a search for work, but stood confronted by slavery, an institution of which he had never dreamed, and which he contemplated with aversion and hatred. That hatred did not die out, and so when the great issue came, although a Democrat, he gave his vote to the author of the "Emancipation Proclamation." Disappointed at Charleston he again turned seaward, and through the kindness of Captain Black, secured a position on the Sarah Penerington, commanded by Captain Penerington, and bound to Liverpool. With this vessel he made two trips across the ocean. While returning the second time a three weeks’ dead calm was encountered off the island of Cuba, where he first heard of the city of Cincinnati, to which some of the passengers were bound. From what he could learn of the town be resolved to seek it, and escape ocean life if possible. On arriving at New Orleans he was confronted again by that giant curse, Slavery; but still he thought of Cincinnati, for which place he set out at once. On his arrival, his first friend was of the despised race, a free negro, who secured him a position in a grocery store. Soon afterward he was apprenticed at the plastering trade, which he followed until 1853 in that city. Coming to Sidney on something of a prospecting tour, he was pleased with the town and so settled here and followed his old trade. He was married in 1856, and has a family of seven children living. In 1875 Mr. Wyman was elected Probate Judge of Shelby County, to which office he was re-elected in 1878. His official career was highly satisfactory to his constituents and very gratifying to his host of friends. During his whole life he has been a Roman Catholic in religion, and a Democrat in politics. Of his brothers and sisters not already mentioned, we may add he has one brother living in Westmoreland County, Pa.; one sister died in Ireland; his brother James came to America in 1856, and died the same year; another brother, Francis, enlisted in the 27th Horse Dragoons of the British Army, and died in the East Indies.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883