This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Purviance, Leedy, Griffin,
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/gh.2ADI/3910
Message Board Post:
This book has no cover, and no index, I bought it on Ebay, it just has the insides, but it
is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just thought I would
share.
Typed by Lora Radiches:
Surnames in this biography are: PURVIANCE, Leedy, Griffin,
DAVID EDWARD PURVIANCE became postmaster of the City of Wabash while President Harding
was still alive, and has served consecutively in that position for over seven years. It
represents the culmination of a long and active career in business and in public affairs.
His responsibilities as postmaster are those involved in administering a first class
office, with thirty employees. Besides the city service rural carriers take the mail to
all the outlying rural districts. Mr. Purviance was born on a farm in Huntington County,
Indiana, October 28, 1868. The Purviance family has been in the country north and west of
the Ohio River since pioneer days. His great-grandfather, James Purviance, was one of the
two brothers who settled in Ohio about 1807. The grandfather of Mr. Purviance was Joseph
W. Purviance, who was one of the pioneers of Huntington Township. He was a merchant and
grain dealer and for many years was interested in the First National Bank of Huntington.
During the C!
ivil war he was a major in the One Hundred and Thirtieth Indiana Volunteers. The father of
the Wabash postmaster, James S. Purviance, was a native of Ohio and was two years of age
when the family moved to Huntington County, in 1840. He also had a record of service in
the Civil war, being a soldier four years in Company F of the Forty-seventh Indiana
Infantry. David E. Purviance was the oldest of five children. When he was a child the
family moved to Huntington, where he attended grammar and high school, and at the age of
eighteen was getting ready for a business career, becoming a clerk in a general store at
Andrews. At Andrews he assisted in establishing a weekly paper and was its editor for
seven years. Selling out in 1900, he moved to Lagro, where he bought an interest in a
general merchandise store with S. J. Leedy, and after a short time he acquired the entire
business and continued it under the name of the D. Purviance Company until 1920. Mr.
Purviance has been a res!
ident of Wabash since 1920. He had long been prominent in the Republican Party
organization of the county, serving as county chairman and was active director of
Republican campaigns until he was appointed postmaster. After going to Wabash he was in
the real estate and insurance business. Mr. Purviance was also one of the organizers of
the Citizens State Bank of Lagro. He married, July 30, 1891, Miss Jennie Leedy, of
Andrews, daughter of the late Samuel J. Leedy, a pioneer merchant of that community, and a
granddaughter of Elder Joseph W. Leedy, a Dunkard minister. Mr. and Mrs. Purviance have
one son, Samuel J., who graduated from the Indiana University School of Dentistry and is
now engaged in a successful practice at Fort Wayne. Doctor Purviance married
Mercedes Griffin, of Fort Wayne, and has a son, James J. Mr. Purviance is a member of the
Wabash Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club, the Tri State Postmasters Association, is
affiliated with Tuscan Lodge No. 143 of th!
e Masonic Order of Lagro, the Royal Arch Chapter, Council and Knights Templar Commandery.
He is a member of the Wabash County Historical Society and during the World war was
committeeman for the sale of bonds and war stamps and the raising of funds for the Red
Cross. He is a Presbyterian.