Charles Aurelius Smith

Charles Aurelius Smith ( born January 22, 1861 Hertford County, North Carolina, † April 1, 1916 in Baltimore, Maryland ) was an American politician and in 1915 for a few days Governor of the State of South Carolina.

Early years

Charles Smith attended until 1882 the Wake Forest University. Then he made both as a businessman, as well as in the banking business career. He became president of several banks in South Carolina and curator of Furman University in Greenville and the Greenville Women's College. Also in the Baptist Church of South Carolina, he worked in a leading position.

Political career

Smith was a member of the Democratic Party, which for decades was the dominant party in South Carolina. In 1910, Smith was elected to the House of Representatives from South Carolina. Since January 1911, he was vice- governor of his state. As the incumbent Governor Coleman Blease Livingston resigned on January 14, 1915 by office only five days before the end of his term, Smith had to bridge the time until the inauguration of the new Governor Richard Irvine Manning. This left his tenure to date, the shortest of any Governor of South Carolina. He then moved to Baltimore, where he died in 1916. Smith was married to Fannie L. Byrd, with whom he had eight children.