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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Monroe County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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William E. Spencer is the efficient editor of the Monroe County Sun, published at Clarendon, and owing to the admirable manner in which it is conducted it has had a most flattering increase in its circulation. It has been in existence since 1876, and has already become one of the leading newspapers in the State. Mr. Spencer was born in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1865, and is a son of Abraham and Agnes (McMurray) Spencer, who were born in Liverpool, England, and Glasgow, Scotland, respectively. They were married in the mother’s native land, and in 1863 removed to Quebec, Canada, and the following year to the State of Minnesota, where their son, William E., was born. In the year 1871 they removed to Indian Bay, Ark., and in 1881 to Clarendon. Mrs. Spencer died three years previous, having been an earnest member of the Presbyterian Church for many years. Mr. Spencer was a machinist by trade, and a member of the Baptist Church. William E. Spencer is the fourth of their five children, two sons and three daughters, and in his youth received a common-school education in Winchester, Tenn. At the early age of eight years he began learning the printer’s trade in an office of his own, and after reaching a suitable age began clerking in his father’s hardware store, continuing until 1886, when he began editing the Monroe County Sun, which has already become one of the well-established journals of the State, and is published in the interests of the Democrat party, of which Mr. Spencer has always been a member, his first presidential vote being cast for Cleveland. He belongs to the Arkansas Press Association and is a member of the K. of H. and K of P. In November, 1888, he was married at Malta Bend, Mo., by the Rev. W. B. Palmore, to Miss Ella Bonner, who was born in Clarendon, is a member of the Methodist Church, a daughter of W. H. Bonner, who was a prominent farmer and resided in Monroe from 1854 until his death in 1887. He was assessor of the county from 1882 till 1886.

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This family biography is one of 86 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Monroe County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Monroe County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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