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Hugh Smith Thompson

Hugh Smith Thompson (24 January 1836-20 November 1904) was the Democratic Governor of South Carolina from 1 December 1882 to 10 July 1886, succeeding Johnson Hagood and preceding John Calhoun Sheppard.

Biography[]

Hugh Smith Thompson was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1836, and he graduated from the Citadel in 1856 and participated in the firing on the Star of the West in January 1861, firing the first shots of the American Civil War; during the war, he served as an instructor of cadets. He served as principal of the Columbia Male Academy from 1865 to 1880, as South Carolina Superintendent of Education from 1876 to 1882, and as Governor from 1882 to 1886. He served as President Grover Cleveland's Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1886 to 1889 and as a commissioner of the U.S. Civil Service Commission from 1889 to 1892, and he served as president of a life insurance company in New York City until his death in 1904.

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