William was born on June 3, 1834 at Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, United States. He was named after a grandfather who was a soldier at Valley Forge, crossed the Delaware with the army of Washington, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The boy's father, Edward Spear, a worker in wood, was a native of Pennsylvania; his mother, Ann (Adgate) Spear, was from Norwich, Connecticut In 1819 they moved to Warren, Ohio.
In Warren, Ohio William received in the public schools and at a private academy his early education. In 1858 he was admitted to the bar and soon after went to the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated in 1859.
Learning the trade of a printer, Spear worked as such on the local newspaper in Warren, in Pittsburgh, and in New York City. Returning to Warren, he became deputy clerk of the probate and common pleas courts and began the study of law, his preceptor being Jacob D. Cox, later governor of Ohio and secretary of the interior in the cabinet of President Grant.
Having served as city solicitor of Warren for two terms, he was elected in 1871 prosecuting attorney of Trumbull County and reelected for a second term. In 1878 he was elected a judge of the common pleas court, and while serving his second term in this office was in 1885 elected a member of the Ohio supreme court.
He continued as such until 1912, when, on account of the "Progressive Party" split in the Republican organization, he was defeated for reelection. This continuous tenure of over twenty-seven years as a supreme court judge was the longest in the history of the court. Leaving the bench at the age of seventy-nine, frail of body but keen of mind, he opened an office for the practice of law in Columbus, Ohio. Here within a year he died, survived by his wife and four children.
William Thomas Spear was Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, who took no part in public affairs and wrote nothing of a lasting character save the 288 opinions, some of which are to be found in every volume of the Ohio State Reports from the 44th to the 87th inclusive, and which exceed in number those written by any other judge of the Ohio supreme court.
He did not possess an unusually quick mind.
His capacity for labor, combined with a remarkable fairness of judgment, liberality of view, and kindliness of manner, made him a truly great judge, and one of the ablest and most conscientious of those who have served on the Ohio bench.
Quotes from others about the person
"He is the hardest worker on the bench of any judge I ever knew" was the testimony of one who was for years the supreme court reporter.
On September 28, 1864, he was married to Frances E. York of Lima, New York.
