Harry Guyer Leslie (April 6, 1878December 10, 1937) was an American politician and

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

Republican Party member, speaker of the state house and the 33rd governor of the state. His term as governor was marked by the start of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

Early life

Family and education

Harry G. Leslie was born in

West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette ( ) is a city in Wabash and Tippecanoe Townships, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, approximately northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash ...

, on April 6, 1878, to Daniel and Mary Burkhart Leslie. His father was a local politician and served a chief of police for the town. While he was still a boy, his family moved into the country outside of the town. He attended public schools and worked delivering groceries as a teenager. In 1898 he was elected town clerk, a year after he graduated. He soon enrolled in the recently constructed

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

where he was a member of the

Sigma Pi Sigma Pi () is a collegiate fraternity in North America. As of 2021, it had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 118,000 alumni. The fraternity is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded on February 26, 1897, at Vincennes Uni ...

fraternity and

Acacia fraternity Acacia Fraternity is a social fraternity founded in 1904 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The fraternity has 24 active chapters and 3 associate chapters throughout Canada and the United States. The fraternity was ...

. While at Purdue, Leslie was captain of both the school's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

teams and became one of the school's "immortal" players. As one of the school's star players, his team was on course to win the state championship in 1903. On October 31 he and his teammates took a train from Lafayette to Indianapolis to a match against Indiana University. As the train neared the 18th Street crossing in Indianapolis, it collided with another train, and Leslie's coach was shattered. One member of the team miraculously landed on his feet and was unharmed after being thrown out a window. The other eighteen boys, including Leslie, were pronounced dead at the scene and taken to the morgue. A few hours later at the morgue, as the morticians prepared to embalm his body, they discovered he still had a pulse and immediately rushed him to the hospital. Barely alive, he needed several operations and edged on death for several weeks. His recovery was slow, but he eventually regained his health, although he walked with the aid of a cane for the remainder of his life. He returned to school at the end of 1904 and after another year he graduated. His survival of the "Purdue Wreck" received significant attention across the state and he became a famous folk hero.Gugin, p. 282 In 1904, Leslie founded the Purdue College Republicans. For a number of years in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Purdue chapter held a "Leslie Day" celebration and fundraiser in his honor. Leslie graduated from the Indiana Law School in 1907. He opened a law office in Lafayette the year he graduated and took a position at a local high school coaching football. There he met Martha Morgan, whom he married on August 16, 1910, and by whom he had three sons, Jack, Richard, and Robert. Leslie became involved in local politics and was elected as a Republican

Tippecanoe County Tippecanoe ( ) may refer to several places or things in the United States: * The 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana * A nickname for William Henry Harrison (U.S. President March 1841–April 1841) from his role in the battle ** Tippecanoe and Tyl ...

treasurer in 1912. He purchased a farm in 1914, but disliking the labor, he sold the farm and bought stock in a local bank at which he served as president until 1924.

Political career

Speaker of the House

In 1923 Leslie, aided by his popularity, was elected to represent Tippecanoe and Warren County in the

Indiana House of Representatives The Indiana House of Representatives is the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The House is composed of 100 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. House mem ...

. He became known for his down-to-earth style of speaking, and quickly made many allies in the body. He was reelected twice, and served through 1929. In 1925 he was elected Speaker of the House, and remained in that position until he left the body. His term as Speaker was dominated by the

Indiana Ku Klux Klan The Indiana Klan was the state of Indiana branch of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society in the United States that organized in 1915 to promote ideas of racial superiority and affect public affairs on issues of Prohibition, education, political cor ...

. Their leader was arrested and convicted of rape and murder in 1925, and over the next two years many other Klansman were exposed and forced out of office on a host of charges—including nearly half the members of the General Assembly. The Klan had supported him in his bid for the speakership primarily because they opposed his rival candidate. Leslie fought the Klan block on several issues, including committee assignments, legislation aimed at eliminating Catholic schools, and other issues.Gugin, p. 286 Leslie was pleased with the Grand Dragon's conviction and the collapse in Klan power. He personally believed he was innocent of the charges but thought he deserved prison because of his many unknown crimes. Among the causes Leslie championed was the creation of the

Riley Children's Hospital The Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health is a nationally ranked freestanding 456-bed, pediatric acute care children's hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It is affiliated with the Indiana University School of Me ...

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

.Gugin. p. 284

Governor

Leslie ran for the governor's nomination in the 1928 Republican primary. Among the five candidates, no one took a majority and the nomination went to the state convention. Leslie won on the fifth ballot and defeated the Democratic major of Indianapolis, Frank C. Dailey, and was elected with 51.3% if the vote. He was the state's fifth consecutive Republican governor. One of his first acts as governor was to support legislation to repeal the state's 1915 primary election laws, and return candidate selections to state conventions. The measure was approved in 1929, and much to the disappointment of the Klan. The first part of Leslie's term was a period of economic growth and he hosted several high-profile events, including the

National Governors Association The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American Politics of the United States, political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 U.S. state, states, Territories of the United States, territories ...

, a visit by President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

, and other famous guests. The Great Depression began in 1929, and was complicated by a drought in the state. He instituted some relief measures, but largely did nothing significant believing that the Depression would soon end. In 1932 he called a special session of the General Assembly to lower taxes. Among the relief legislation passed by the General Assembly was Indiana's first old-age pension act, but Leslie vetoed it. As the Depression continued, Leslie decided more needed to be done. He began hiring unemployed workers to work on state road projects. He also advocated that his program be duplicated by the federal government, and his plan was soon implemented as the WPA. Among Leslie's other projects was continuing to grow the state park system.

Later years

Following his governorship Leslie became a founder, and eventually the president, of Standard Life Insurance Company in

. Leslie enjoyed humor and among his close friends were

George Ade George Ade (February 9, 1866 – May 16, 1944) was an American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist, librettist, and playwright who gained national notoriety at the turn of the 20th century with his "Stories of the Streets and of the Town", a ...

and

Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...

. While visiting Ade in Miami, Leslie died unexpectedly from

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina pectoris, angina, myocardial infarction, heart attack), heart failure, ...

on December 10, 1937. His remains were returned to Indianapolis where he lay in state before being moved to Lafayette for a funeral and burial.Gugin, p. 287

References

Notes Bibliography *

External links

Indiana Historical Bureau: Biography and portraitNational Governors Association"The 'Immortal' Boilermaker: Exploring the Forgotten History of Harry Guyer Leslie"Harry Leslie at FindaGrave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leslie, Harry G. 1878 births 1937 deaths Governors of Indiana Indiana Republicans Republican Party governors of Indiana People from West Lafayette, Indiana Purdue University alumni Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law alumni Methodists from Indiana Sigma Pi members Acacia members 20th-century Indiana politicians