Governor Harry Guyer Leslie

HARRY GUYER LESLIE, Indiana’s thirty-third governor, was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, on August 6, 1878. While attending Purdue University, Leslie also played football and suffered severe injuries in a 1903 train wreck that killed sixteen of his teammates. After his recovery, he graduated in 1905 from Purdue, and then earned his law degree from Indiana University two years later. Leslie entered politics in 1913, serving as treasurer of Tippecanoe County, an office he held until 1917. He served as a member to the Indiana House of Representatives from 1923 to 1927, serving as speaker in 1925 and 1927. Leslie won the 1928 Republican gubernatorial nomination and was sworn into the governorship on January 14, 1929. During his tenure, he dealt with problems resulting from the Great Depression. He encountered labor and drought problems, as well as increasing unemployment. A special legislative term was convened in an effort to trim down property taxes and cut governmental expenditures. After his term ended on January 9, 1933, Leslie helped organize the Standard Life Insurance Company, later serving as the firm’s president. Governor Harry G. Leslie died on December 10, 1937, and was buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.