William R. Conaroe was born around 1835 in Indiana. He enlisted in the Union army on August 13, 1862, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company F of the 63rd Indiana Infantry. The regiment took part in the Atlanta campaign, and he was discharged for disability on August 7, 1864. He returned to Indiana after the war, and he married Adeline S. Thorpe on March 2, 1865. He died in the mid-1860s.