William N. Coler
William Nichols Coler was an attorney, newspaper editor, and prominent Democrat in the county for two decades. On March 12, 1827, he was born to Isaac Coler and Amelia Nichols in Knox County, Ohio. He came to Urbana in 1852, the year after his admission to the bar, and became the second lawyer to set up his practice here. His active law practice mainly dealt with real estate transactions. He entered 1,500 acres of land in the spring of 1852 and married Miss Cordelia Sim the following year.
He and fellow Ohioan Henry K. Davis issued the first issue of the Urbana Union with Henry K. Davis in support of Franklin Pierce's presidential candidacy. Davis' presidential support ironically led to the firm's dissolution two months later when Davis went to Washington to accept office under Pierce's new administration. Coler continued to run the Union alone through its thirty-sixth issue from its temporary location in the courthouse, at which point he retired from editorial life. His next attempt at business led him to become one of the founding members of the Grand Prairie Bank. The bank was the first of its kind in the county but failed due to the start of the Civil War.
During the Civil War, Coler was commissioned by President Lincoln to organize a regiment in Champaign County and adjoining territory. By early July 1861, he had completed the organization of the Twenty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry after recruiting from Champaign and adjoining counties. Coler had served in the Mexican War as a youth of 19 in Company B of the Second Ohio Regiment of Volunteers under Col. G.W. Morgan (who would later become famous in the Confederate cavalry service) for a full three years of enlistment. He continued in command until the fall of 1862, when he returned to Champaign, having earned the title of colonel. William Coler moved with his son Bird to New York City in 1872 and established a successful bond-brokerage business.
