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ROSSWELL T. SPENCER is one of the most enterprising and successful journalists of this county, and is publisher and proprietor of the following papers: the Williamsville Gazette, State Center, and the Mechanicsburg Times, which are ably edited and are devoted to the interests of the people among whom they circulate.

Mr. Spencer is a native of this State, born in Bluffdale, August 7, 1850. His parents, Marshall S. and Sarah A. (Simmons) Spencer, were natives respectively of Vermont and Ohio. They came to Illinois in 1818, and were among the earliest settlers of Greene County. There Mr. Spencer was engaged in farming many years, and bore an honorable part in the development of that portion of the State, and at his death in 1883, one of its most respected pioneers passed away. The mother of our subject is still living at a venerable age, and makes her home at Ann Arbor, Mich.

He of whom we write is the eldest of ten children. The first twenty years of his life were passed in the home of his nativity, and most of the time was spent in obtaining an education. He attended the public schools, and was a student at Tamaroa High School where he pursued a fine course of study. He engaged for a time in the drug business at McLean, and in 1875 began his career as a teacher. He taught some five years in his native State, and then entered upon a broader field in which he has still continued to be an educator in a certain sense, as he then became an editor. He first established the Kenney Gazette at Kenney, DeWitt County, and in connection with that founded the Waynesville Record, which he published for two years, and they are still in existence as prosperous journals.

In 1884 our subject began the publication of the Williamsville Gazette in this county, and is still editing it. In 1885 he purchased the State Center at Illiopolis, and in 1886 established the Mechanicsburg Times, and is still publishing the three papers. They are neat and attractive journals giving the news of the day in a concise and readable form, and are thoroughly independent. They have a wide circulation among the best class of people and are considered model family newspapers.

The marriage of Mr. Spencer with Miss Anna E. Wells, a native of Ohio, was solemnized in 1869. They have established here a charming home and all who cross its threshold are sure of a warm welcome. Of the six children born of this union, two are living: May L., wife of James A. Gassaway, and Carl E., a lad of six years.

Mr. Spencer is a man of much popularity and of social prominence in his community. He is a member of Illiopolis Masonic Lodge, No. 521, and also belongs to the Illiopolis Camp of Modern Woodmen. He is an adherent of the Republican party. He is a valued member of the Illinois Press Association, in which he is deeply interested.