Coler, William N.

Born: 1827-03-12 Ohio

Died: 1911-08-16 Switzerland

Born near Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, William N. Coler was a soldier, attorney, real estate investor, money lender, newspaper owner and editor, and military officer. Reared on the family farm and schooled in Ohio, he served in the Mexican War in Company B of the Second Regiment of Ohio Volunteers under Colonel G. W. Morgan. After the war, he studied law with Colonel Morgan, but moved to Illinois before completing his studies. He concluded his law education in the Bloomington, Illinois office of Amzi McWilliams, earning admittance to the bar in the fall of 1851. He then moved to Champaign County, Illinois, settling in Urbana and practicing law for a few years before relocating to Champaign, Illinois. He was law partners with Joseph W. Sim, Jr., and, later, with Jairus C. Sheldon as well. In 1852, while living in Urbana, he established the Union newspaper with business partner H. K. Davis. The paper supported Franklin Pierce during the 1852 Federal Election. Coler edited the paper through 1853. In August 1853, he married Cordelia Sim. They eventually had five children together, one of whom died before reaching adulthood. Between 1852 and 1862, he purchased thousands of acres of public land in Champaign County. As part of his real estate work, he also engaged in the loan business. By 1860, he owned $100,000 in real estate and another $86,000 in personal property. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he organized the Twenty-Fifth Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry and served in Company HQ at the rank of colonel. He mustered in August 21, 1861 in St. Louis, Missouri and resigned in Louisville, Kentucky August 31, 1862. He died while vacationing in Interlaken, Switzerland.

Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993, 9 August 1853, Knox County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); For a full list of William N. Coler's land purchases in Champaign County, search “Coler William,” https://www.ilsos.gov/isa/landsrch.jsp; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Urbana, Champaign County, IL, 322; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Milton W. Mathews and Lewis A. McLean, Early History and Pioneers of Champaign County (Urbana, IL: Champaign County Herald, 1886), 69, 90, 146; Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 338; The Brooklyn Citizen (NY), 17 August 1911, 2:1; Gravestone, Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY.