Introduction

Biography

William was the son of John Win­chell Spen­cer and Eli­za W. Wil­son, hus­band of Eli­za Boyle Sar­gent, and fa­ther of com­pos­er Cla­ris­sa Spen­cer.

From 1867–85, he served nu­mer­ous Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal (ME) church­es in the Rock Ri­ver Con­fer­ence (north­ern Ill­in­ois).

He was sen­ior pastor of the First ME Church in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, for six weeks in 1885, when he was elect­ed to serve as as­sist­ant cor­res­pond­ing sec­re­ta­ry of the ME Board of Church Ex­tens­ion, Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.