William F. Bancroft, born October 21, 1868, in Monmouth, Illinois, relocated to Yankton, Dakota Territory, with his parents at age two. Educated in Yankton, he pursued a printing career before moving to Wessington Springs in 1893. Two years later, he acquired and became editor of the True Republican, a prominent Republican-aligned newspaper. Appointed postmaster in 1898 under President McKinley, Bancroft also served as city clerk and held various fraternal memberships. He married Maud S. Spears on July 3, 1894, and they had four children: Merrill, Lowell, Darrell, and Melba.
William F. Bancroft, postmaster at Wessington Springs and editor and publisher of the True Republican, was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on the 21st of October, 1868, being a son of Charles L. and Louise P. Bancroft, who removed to the territory of Dakota and located in Yankton when he was a child of but two years. The subject is the youngest of the two children, his sister, Nellie, being the wife of Charles N. Wright, a resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. William F. Bancroft secured his early educational discipline in the public schools of the city of Yankton and supplemented the same by a course of study in Yankton College. After leaving college, he worked at the printing trade in Yankton, going from there to Vermillion, where he remained for two years, devoting his attention principally to working at his trade. In February, 1893, he came to Wessington Springs and two years later purchased the True Republican, of which he has since been the editor and publisher, making the paper an able exponent of local interests and a power in the field of politics in this section of the state, the policy of the paper in a political way being uncompromisingly Republican, which fact indicates the political proclivities of the owner, who has been an active worker in the party cause during the years of his residence in the county. On the 10th of September, 1898, under the administration of President McKinley, Mr. Bancroft was appointed postmaster of Wessington Springs, and is still incumbent of this position. While a resident of Clay County, our subject served as deputy clerk of the courts, and he has held various local offices in connection with the municipal government of his home town, being at present the city clerk. Fraternally, he is identified with Frontier Lodge, No. 87, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with Wessington Springs Lodge, No. 81, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; while he has been specially prominent in the Modern Woodmen of America, being a member of Wessington Springs Camp, No. 2962. He served as state clerk of the order for two years, was delegate to the head camp in 1899, and from February 13, 1901, to May 6, 1903, he was state advisor, being then elected to the important office of state consul, of which he is incumbent at the time of this writing.
On the 3rd of July, 1894, Mr. Bancroft was united in marriage to Miss Maud S. Spears, daughter of J. M. Spears, a well-known resident of Wessington Springs, and of this union have been born four children, all of whom remain at the parental home, namely: Merrill, Lowell, Darrell, and Melba.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.