Winfield Taylor Durbin (4 May 1847-18 December 1928) was the Republican Governor of Indiana from 14 January 1901 to 9 January 1905, succeeding James A. Mount and preceding Frank Hanly.
Biography[]
Winfield Taylor Durbin was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana in 1847, and he was raised in New Philadelphia. He served in the 139th Indiana Infantry Regiment in the Western theater of the American Civil War before working as a bookkeeper at a dry goods store in Indianapolis and settling in Anderson. He became moderately wealthy from the state's gas boom, and he served as colonel of the 161st Indiana Infantry Regiment in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. After the war, he served as Governor of Indiana from 1901 to 1905, cracking down on the White Cap vigilantes and adopting a progressive agenda of anti-trust laws, enactment of fines for vote buyers, the creation of juvenile courts, the conduction of statewide audits, and the discovery of an embezzlement scheme at Indiana University. He returned to Anderson before failing to return to the governorship in 1912, and he died in 1928.