William L. Couch was born in North Carolina in 1850. Sixteen years later his family moved to Kansas. In 1880 Couch aligned himself with the Oklahoma Colony effort and took over as leader in 1884. He was the first mayor of Oklahoma City under the provisional government.  He was shot during a dispute over a homestead claim at Oklahoma City, April 14, 1890, and died six days later.

 Portraits of all of Oklahoma City's mayors can now be found as part of Buddy Johnson's Oklahoma Images collection at: http://www.mls.lib.ok.us/mls/oklahoma.html