William Caryl Ely

William Caryl Ely (February 25, 1856 – December 14, 1921) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Early life and education W. Caryl Ely was born on February 25, 1856, in Middlefield, Otsego County, New York, the son of Assemblyman William H. Ely. Ely's grandfathers were New York State Senator Sumner Ely (1787–1857) and New York State Assemblyman Leonard Caryl; many of his lineal ancestors were soldiers in the American Revolution.

Ely attended schools in Otsego County, and later entered Cornell University in the Class of 1878. In 1883, he was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly (Otsego Co., 1st D.) serving in the 106th New York State Legislature, 107th New York State Legislature in 1884, and finally the 108th New York State Legislature in 1885. He was the Chairman of the Committee on the Petitions of Aliens in 1883, and Minority Leader in 1885.

Legal career After serving in the New York State Assembly, he moved to Niagara Falls, and in 1888, he formed a co-partnership with his former legal assistant, Frank A. Dudley, under the firm name of "Ely & Dudley." In 1893, Morris Cohn Jr. was admitted to partnership which then became "Ely, Dudley & Cohn." The firm was dissolved in 1899, upon Ely's election to the Presidency of the Buffalo Railway and allied companies. and dissolved in 1991), and was a Director and Counsel of many banking and manufacturing corporations, including: the Niagara Silver Company and Wm A. Rogers, Ltd.

He was actively connected with almost all the large enterprises contributing to the building up of the cities Buffalo and Niagara Falls. He was heavily involved with the construction of approximately of irrigating canals in the Columbia River Valley, in the State of Washington. Ely was very interested in irrigation as an economic and social question and served as the vice-president for the State of New York of the National Irrigation Congress of the United States. who in 1909 married Elbridge Gerry Spaulding (1881–1974), the grandson of Elbridge G. Spaulding (the former Treasurer of New York, Mayor of Buffalo, and member of the U.S. House of Representatives). and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.