History of The Ohio State University 1820-1910, pub. 1920
William Oxley Thompson, fifth president of the University, was born in Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio, November 5, 1855. His grandfather, David Thompson, came to America from the north of Ireland in 1814, bringing with him his wife and seven children. An eighth, David Glenn Thompson, father of William Oxley, was born in Pennsylvania in 1814 while the family were on the way to Guernsey County, Ohio, where they settled a few miles distant from the village of New Concord. David Glenn Thompson learned the shoemakers' trade and, with a partner, began the shoe business in Cambridge. This enterprise failed in the financial panic of 1857, after which he worked regularly at his trade for the remainder of his active life, except during a short service in the United States Army in the civil War. In 1854 he married Agnes Miranda Oxley, born in Monroe County, Ohio, in 1834, the daughter of Joel Murray Oxley, a wool carder by trade, of Irish-English stock. To these two ten Children were born, of whom William Oxley was the eldest. Soon after his birth the family removed from Cambridge to New Concord.
William Oxley Thompson graduated from Muskingum College in 1878, graduated from Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, PA and was licensed to preach as Presbyterian minister in April 1881. He preached in churches in Iowa and Colorado. He became president of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1891 and in Jun 1899 became president of Ohio State University. Not sure when his tenure finished, but was still president in 1920. There is a large stature of him in front of the OSU library. Being a minister and president, he would conduct graduation for students and then have weddings for those who wanted to get married. Their families would be there for both occasions.