Judge George Coyner
Judge George Coyner, the eighth son of David H. and Eliza C. Coyner, was born at Lexington, Richland County, Ohio, on the fifth day of June, 1858. His early childhood was spent in Virginia, which was the native state of his parents. During the Civil war, after the death of his mother, he with the rest of his family, except four of his brothers who were in the Union Army, returned to Virginia. Owing to his father's sympathy with the Union and the Union Army, the family was compelled to flee to the North. They came to Columbus. Ohio, where the father enlisted in the Union army and became chaplain of the Eighty-eighth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After the close of the war, Mr. Coyner removed to Eden, Delaware County, Ohio, where he became the minister of the Presbyterian Church of that place. Rev. Coyner was a graduate of Washington and Lee University, Virginia, and of Princeton Theological Seminary. He was a man of fine literary attainments and paid particular attention to the education of his family.
George, the subject of this sketch, received his early education from his father's instruction and in the public schools of the village of Eden, and from private teachers. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in the year 1879. He then returned to his home in Brown Township where he was elected township clerk in the spring of the year 1880, which position he held for five consecutive terms. He was then appointed superintendent of the Deleware County Infirmary, which position he held from 1882 to 1892. During the time he was superintendent of the Infirmary, he began the study of law, and after his retirement from said office, he entered the Law School of Cincinnati, from which institution he graduated in the spring of 1893. He was soon afterward admitted to the Bar and located in Delaware, Ohio, where he began the practice.
In the summer of 1895, he was nominated by the Republican party for prosecuting attorney for Delaware County, and was elected in the autumn of the same year. He was renominated to succeed himself in 1898, and was re-elected, having served two full terms. He continued in the practice and in the year 1902 he was nominated by the Republican party for the office of Common Pleas Judge in the First Subdivision of the Sixth Judicial District of Ohio, to which position he was duly elected in the autumn of the same year, and which he held until February, 1907. After his retirement from his official position, he removed to Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, where he is now successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen profession.
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