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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County
Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908

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The Biography of William J. SPENCER 

[Surnames: BRERETON, HANNA, JACOBSON, LAWLER, SPENCER, WASSON] 

SPENCER, WILLIAM J.

    
A well known resident of Canton, Fulton, Co., and Vice President and General Manager of the Monmouth Coal Company, was born in DuPage Co., IL on March 6, 1859, and there received his mental training. He is a son of William H. and Mary (LAWLER) Spencer, natives of Ireland, where the father was born Jan. 25, 1828, and the mother in 1820. 
    
William H. Spencer was engaged in railroad work for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Co., and had previously done similar work for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railway Co., in Iowa and Missouri. He died in St. David, Fulton Co., in 1893, his wife passed away there in 1885. 
    
The subject of this sketch came to Canton in 1883, and has always been identified with the coal industry. The Monmouth Coal Co. was organized in 1901, with J. R. HANNA, of Monmouth, as President; W. J. SPENCER, of Canton as Vice President and General Manager; W. D. BRERETON of Monmouth, Secretary and Treasurer; and Charles P. JACOBSON, of Brereton, Superintendent. 
    
On May 10, 1893, Mr. Spencer married Minnie Della WASSON, who was born in Sept. 1864, and died Jan. 11, 1894. No children were born of this union. In politics, Mr. Spencer is a Republican, and fraternally is affiliated with the A.F. & A.M.