Biography of Dr. Lida Leasure, pages 384/385/386.  History 
of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 
Indianapolis, 1914.



The life of the scholarly or professional man or woman 
seldom exhibits any of those striking incidents that seize 
upon public feeling and attract attention. Their characters 
are generally made up of the aggregate qualities and 
qualifications they may possess, as these may be elicited 
by the exercise of the duties of their vocations or the 
particular professions to which they belong.  But when such 
a person have so impressed their individualities upon their 
fellows as to gain their confidence and through that 
confidence rise to important public trust, they become 
conspicuous figures in the body politic of the community.  
The subject of this sketch is one of the scholarly women of 
her county, who, not content to hide her talents amid 
life’s sequestered ways, has, by the force of will and a 
laudable ambition, forged to the front in an exacting and 
responsible calling and earned an honorable reputation as 
the head of one of the most important branches of public 
service.  She is a well-educated, symmetrically developed 
women and, her work as an educator having brought her 
prominently to the notice of the public, the result has 
been a demand for her services where a high standard of 
professional excellence is required. She is fully abreast 
the times in advanced educational methods and her general 
knowledge is broad and comprehensive. Because of her 
earnest life, high attainments, well rounded character and 
large influence, she is eminently entitled to 
representation in a work of the character of the one in 
hand.  Dr. Lida Leasure is a daughter of the old Hoosier 
state, having been born at Spring Hill, near Greensburg, 
Indiana, and is a daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Hood) 
Powers. She was reared on a farm and her elementary 
education was received in the common schools of her 
neighborhood, which was supplemented by attendance at a 
local academy. At the age of about twenty years she became 
a student in Terre Haute Normal School, where she was 
graduated, after which she engaged in teaching. Her first 
pedagogical work was as a teacher in the high school at 
Marshall, Illinois, after which she taught in the Model 
School at Terre Haute and in the Indianapolis high school. 
In 1878 she came to Auburn, where for several years she 
taught in the high school, and served as superintendent of 
the city schools, where she earned a splendid reputation 
for both educational and executive ability.  In 1880 she 
taught in the high school at Princeton, Indiana, and on 
December 30th, that year, she was married to John H. 
Leasure, of Auburn, after which she resigned her position 
at Princeton and returned to Auburn to reside.  However, 
her love for educational work again attracted her to school 
room and in 1882 and for two or three years thereafter she 
was a teacher in the Auburn high school. About this time 
she was determined to take up the practice of medicine an 
to this end she matriculated in the medical department of 
the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where she 
graduated in 1888, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
For a while Dr. Leasure practiced her profession at Auburn, 
but in 1892 she moved to Angola and, with the exception of 
a year at Logansport, Indiana, she was engaged in the 
active practice at Angola until 1903, when,  having found 
her professional duties to exacting and her husband’s 
business requiring his constant presence at Auburn, they 
returned to the latter place, where they have since 
resided. Here, having relinquished her medical practice, 
Dr. Leasure again entered the educational work and for two 
years was principal of the Riley school, and taught a year 
in the high school, resigning the latter position.  In 
June, 1911, without solicitation on her part, she was 
elected to the position of county superintendent of 
schools, she having given her consent to the election in 
response to the request of a number of county’s influential 
trustees.  She was elected for a four-year term, but by 
legislative enactment her term has been extended to 1917. 
To Dr. Leasure belongs the distinction of being the first 
woman to be elected to a public office in Indiana and also 
of being the only woman superintendent in the state.  
Though a very busy woman, and the duties of her office 
responsible and exacting, she loves the work  and is 
discharging her official duties in a manner that has won 
the approval and commendation of all classes.  Personally, 
Dr. Leasure is a woman of many gracious qualities of head 
and heart which have endeared her to all who know her.  
Aside from her professional work, she takes an intelligent 
interest in the social, moral and civic life of the 
community, supporting every movement for the advancement of 
the welfare of the community.  She is an honorary member of 
the Ladies’ Literary Club and is a member of the Woman’s 
Christian Temperance Union, while her religious membership 
is with the Presbyterian church, of which she is an earnest 
member.  By her union with John H. Leasure, who is referred 
to specifically elsewhere in this work, Mrs. Leasure has 
become the mother of the following children: Flossie, the 
wife of Harry M. Richwire, of Auburn, and the mother of a 
daughter, Helen Marguerite; and J. Kent, who is a student 
in the medical department of the State University at 
Bloomington, Indiana.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com