Governor Ralph F. Gates
Near Fort Wayne, Indiana
This is Columbia City, hometown of Ralph Fesler Gates, the man who broke a sixteen year Republican drought to become Governor of Indiana.
Gates was born here in eighteen ninety-three and built his life as a small town lawyer and banker. He served as Whitley County attorney and as town attorney for nearby South Whitley. A decorated veteran, he rose to command the Indiana American Legion in nineteen thirty-one. As state Republican chairman he engineered the party's comeback, and in nineteen forty-four he won the governorship, the first Republican elected to the office in Indiana since nineteen twenty-eight, and his very first public office.
From nineteen forty-five to nineteen forty-nine his administration created new state departments, including revenue and veterans affairs, among others. Afterward he came home to Columbia City, practiced law alongside his son and daughter, and stayed active nearly until his death in nineteen seventy-eight.
