Leigh G. Furness, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Leigh G. Furness
HON. LEIGH G. FURNESS. An essentially representative and public-spirited citizen of Porter county is Hon. Leigh G. Furness, a native son of this county who has honored the state as a representative in the state legislature and ranks high in the popular confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.
Mr. Furness was born December 10, 1857, a son of Edwin Leigh Furness, one of the pioneers of Porter county. He received his preliminary education in the district school near his home in Westchester township and later attended the Michigan City high school, subsequently becoming a student in the University of Valparaiso. He initiated life on his own responsibility as a teacher in the public schools of Porter county, but later became employed in grain elevators in St. Louis, Missouri. After a time he returned to Indiana and has since been a resident of Porter county, where he owns one hundred and sixty acres of land and also has charge of his father's farms. He is deeply interested in advanced agriculture and takes an active part in farmers' institutes, where he has become well known as an able advocate of practical but scientific methods of agriculture. He is also engaged as a traveling salesman for the Indiana State Binder Twine Company, at which employment he spends the fall and winter of each year, having as his territory one-half of the state of Indiana. The product is sold direct to the consumer.
In June, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Furness and Miss Mary Barnard, of Delaware, Ohio. Mrs. Furness was born at Wellington, Ohio, and was educated in the Wesleyan University at Delaware. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Furness has been blessed with five children, namely: Jessie, a graduate of the Michigan City high school and later a student at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, who is the wife of George T. Parkhurst; Ruth, a graduate of the Michigan City high school, who is now a teacher in the public schools of that city; Leighla, a graduate of the Menominee high school and of Stout Institute of Domestic Science in Wisconsin, who is an instructor in domestic science in the schools of Columbus, Ohio; Martita, a graduate of the Michigan City high school, who spent one year in Chicago Universitv and now teaches a district school near her home; and Mary, born in July, 1900, a student in the district school.
Politically Mr. Furness is a Republican and an active worker in his party's behalf. He ably represented Porter county in the state legislature from 1897 to 1899 and stands as a stalwart example of the highest and best citizenship of Porter county.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 748-749
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook