
Harry Guyer Leslie (6 April 1878-10 December 1937) was the Republican Governor of Indiana from 14 January 1929 to 9 January 1933, succeeding Edward L. Jackson and preceding Paul V. McNutt.
Biography[]
Harry Guyer Leslie was born in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1878, and he became town clerk at the age of 20 before becoming an athlete at Purdue and surviving a 1903 train wreck (despite briefly being declared dead, and taking weeks to recover), making him a famous folk hero. He served as Tippecanoe County treasurer in 1912, and he became a bank president before serving in the state house from 1923 to 1929 and as Governor from 1929 to 1933. Previously supported by the Klan, he fought back against the Klan as speaker of the state house, and, as governor, he repealed the state's 1915 primary laws and returned candidate selections to state conventions. His relief measures did little to ameliorate the economic chaos caused by the Great Depression, and he died in 1937.