Ruffin H. Thomson (1841-1888) was the son of physician William H. (1801-81) and Hannah Lavinia Thomson. Originally from Hinds County, MS, Ruffin attended the University of Mississippi for a year but was suspended for possessing and repeatedly discharging a pistol on campus and from the windows of the dormitories. Entering the University of North Carolina in 1859, he joined the Dialectic Society, leaving in 1861 to serve in the Confederate army. He received his degree in 1911 "as of 1863." After studying medicine in New Orleans, he returned to Hinds County to begin his practice. He married Fanny Potter in 1873. In 1888 he went to Fort Simcoe in Washington Territory as a clerk to the Yakama Indian Agency and died shortly after arriving. His father William H. Thomson had received his diploma from the University in 1824 and also had been a member of the Dialectic Society (Ruffin Thomson Papers, survey book, SHC).