Henry Adams Thompson

Henry Adams Thompson was born 23 March 1837.  He was a native of Pennsylvania but spent much of his life in Ohio.  He became a member of the United brethren Church and taught mathematics at several United brethren colleges in the Midwest, eventually becoming president of Otterbein University (1872-1886).  Much of his time as college president was devoted to improving the financial standing of the school during the economic depression which followed the Panic of 1873.
     Initially a Republican, Thompson joined the Prohibition Party in 1874 and ran for several offices on that ticket.  He was unsuccessful as a candidate for Congress in the 12th District of Ohio in 1874.  He served as chairman of the 1876 Prohibition Party National Convention, in Cleveland.  Four years later, he was nominated to be the Party's vice-presidential candidate, joining the ticket with Neal Dow.  That ticket received more than 10,000 votes.
     In 1887, he was nominated to be the Party's candidate for governor of Ohio; he placed 5th.  Thompson would run for Congress several more times and made his best showing running for the 4th District in Indiana, winning 2.24% of that vote.
     Henry Thompson died in Dayton, Ohio on 8 July 1920 and was buried in the Otterbein Cemetery in Westerville.

--  Data from Wikipedia

nb:  The Indiana Thompson was Samuel, not Henry.

The third vice-presidential candidate of the Prohibition Party, Henry Adams Thompson, was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, March 23, 1837.  His father was a Quaker, his mother a Methodist, and he himself, at the age of 14, joined the United Brethren Church.  His education was obtained in the common schools, which he attended in the winter, working on a farm during the summer months.  He afterward entered Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1858.  Following this, he began to study at the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pennsylvania.  In 1861, he was made professor of mathematics at Western College, Western, Iowa, and, in 1872, be became president of Otterbein University, Westerville, Ohio, holding the latter position for 14 years.  In 1873, his alma mater, Jefferson College, gave him the degree of D.D., and in 1886, Westfield (Illinois) College made him a L.L.D.  His church sent him as delegate to the Methodist Ecumenical Conference held in London, England, in 1881, at which he read a paper.
     Mr. Thompson’s father was originally an anti-slavery Democrat, who, with his seven boys, joined the Republican Party immediately upon is formation.  Henry, the subject of this sketch, left the Republican Party and became a Prohibitionist in 1874, in which year he was named by the Prohibitionists of the Columbus district, Ohio, as their candidate for Congress.  The next year he was the Prohibition candidate for lieutenant governor of Ohio, and in 1887 for governor.  He was chairman of the national Prohibition convention in 1876, and has been chairman of the Ohio State Prohibition Committee for many years.  He has also been president of the National Prohibition Alliance since its organization in 1877.
     In 1883, Mr. Thompson was made the commissioner of science and education in connection with the Ohio Centennial Exposition.  Following that, he served three years as chairman of the Ohio Prohibition [Party] executive committee.  In 1893, at the general conference of the United Brethren Church, which assembled in Dayton, he was elected associate editor of the Sunday-school literature of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, in which work he is now engaged.
     Mr. Thompson has written extensively for the religious and reform press on theological and temperance topics.  He now resides at Dayton, Ohio.  He has three children, a son and two daughters, two of whom (the son and one of the daughters) are practicing medicine.

— Data from An Album of Representative Prohibitionists (1895)

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