twelve states sent delegates to the convention, and the platform they agreed on was silent on most issues of the day, focusing instead on the evils of alcohol. The Prohibitionists increased their vote total in the election that year, but still received just over 10,000 votes out of more than nine million cast. Thompson made another bid for elected office in 1887, when the Prohibition Party nominated him for Governor of Ohio. He was again unsuccessful, netting less than one percent of the vote and finishing in a distant fifth place behind the winner, Democrat Richard M. Bishop. Thompson's vote total was also surpassed by the Republican candidate, William H. West, and the candidates of two other minor parties, the Workingman Party and the Greenback Party. Thompson ran for Congress several more times. In 1900, he ran in Ohio's 3rd congressional district as the nominee of the Union Reform Party, which was made up of Prohibition Party members who split from the main party. He received just 0.32% of the vote, and Republican Robert M. Nevin won the election. In 1908, he ran for the same seat for the re-united Prohibition Party, but won just 0.4% of the vote, losing the election to Democrat James M. Cox. In 1910, Thompson ran for governor of Ohio. Despite the growing popularity of the idea of prohibition, the Prohibition Party candidate got just 0.77% of the vote as Democrat Judson Harmon carried the state. His final attempt at election came in Indiana's 4th congressional district, just over the Ohio border. With 2.24% of the vote, it was Thompson's best performance, but he still fell far short of victory. Later life After retiring as college president in 1886, Thompson remained active in school, party, and church affairs. He became a director of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society in 1885 and prepared their exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. He wrote several books on church topics, including Our Bishops: A Sketch of the Origin and Growth of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, published in 1889. In 1901, he was elected editor of the United Brethren Review. He died in Dayton, Ohio on July 8, 1920, and was buried at Westerville, Ohio's Otterbein Cemetery. Notes References Sources External links 1837 births 1920 deaths Washington & Jefferson College alumni Otterbein University faculty Heads of universities and colleges in