Charles William Fraser Spencer was born at York to Edward Spencer and Sallie Clawson Spencer. He was educated at Hampton-Sidney College and Washington and Lee University, where he received an LL.B. in 1898. John W. Davis, then a professor, became a life-long friend.
He began practice with his distinguished father in York, later moved to Rock Hill, where he was elected Mayor and then City Attorney in 1915. He remained City Attorney until his death over fifty years later.
In 1910, he married Ethel Chaplin, who died in 1938. Of their four children, two became lawyers. In 1940, he married Rock Hoyt.
A devout Christian, a master of the English language, and a student of literature and philosophy, he was a lover of music and flowers, an art connoisseur and a wide traveler.
A founder of the Peoples National Bank and Mechanic’s Federal Savings and Loan Association, he represented them, as well as many insurance companies and other clients of every station. For half a century, he was on either side of almost every important case tried in York County.
Kind, courteous, always fair, tolerant of every person, Charles William Fraser Spencer was a tenacious and courageous lawyer.