William Hood (treasurer)

William Hood (July 27, 1832 – February 25, 1917) was an American politician and academic who served as the 1st South Carolina Treasurer from 1865 to 1866.

Career

A native of South Carolina, Hood was a college professor, principal, and newspaper editor. He worked as a professor at Erskine College for over 25 years. During the American Civil War, Hood served in the Confederate States Army and was wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Hood subsequently served as the final treasurer of the upper division of South Carolina. He took charge during a chaotic period at the close of the Civil War. His predecessor, James J. McCants, had shipped the treasury's books to Newberry as the state government fled Columbia ahead of Sherman's advancing army in February 1865, and Hood's own blank ledger books were still at the bindery when the city was burned. Forced to record transactions in McCants' old daybook, Hood managed the office's limited business through the state government's return to Columbia and its reorganization under the provisional government that September.

State Treasurer

When the constitution of 1865 abolished the dual treasury system, Hood was appointed by the South Carolina General Assembly as the first state treasurer of the unified office in December 1865, a position he held as the office transitioned to its post-war structure. No independent ledger or journal records survive from his eleven months as upper division treasurer; his transactions were instead folded into the daybook he inherited, and the balances of both former divisions' accounts for 1865 were ultimately posted together in the new state treasurer's journal on January 1, 1866.

After he served as treasurer, Hood returned to academia. He later became the principal of the Summerlin Institute in Florida, served as editor of the Courier-Informant, and helped to found the Bartow Library Association.

Death

Hood died on February 25, 1917. He is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Bartow, Florida.