William B. McConnell (November 15, 1849 – August 4, 1931)[1] [2] was a justice of the Dakota Territorial Supreme Court from 1886 to 1889.[3]
Born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, McConnell received an undergraduate degree from Waynesburg College and then read law under Judge Morris, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.[2]
He moved to the Dakota Territory, and in 1885 President Grover Cleveland nominated McConnell to a seat on the Supreme Court of the Dakota Territory vacated by the expiration of the commission of Sanford A. Hudson,[2] [4] with the United States Senate confirming the appointment on January 20, 1896.[5] McConnell remained in that office until the Dakota Territory was admitted to the union as two new states of the United States, in 1889.[1] [2] McConnell was then elected as the first judge of the Third Judicial District of North Dakota, serving in that capacity from 1889 to 1896.[1] [2] By the early 1900s, McConnell moved to Fremont, Ohio, where he remained a "prominent citizen... for more than 30 years".[1]
McConnell had a wife, Emma, with whom he had a daughter.[1] McConnell died in Sandusky County, Ohio, at the age of 81.[1] [2]