Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
Frederick Sampson Purnell
PURNELL, FREDERICK SAMPSON (1882–1939), inducted 1932
Raised on a farm near Veedersburg, Indiana, Fred S. Purnell studied law at Indiana University, graduating in 1904 and establishing a practice in Attica. He served in the US House of Representatives from 1917 to 1933 and is best known for sponsoring the Purnell Act of 1925. This legislation expanded the scope of land-grant colleges and experiment stations and permitted patents on newly developed plants, protecting the intellectual property rights of horticulturalists. It also authorized “economic and sociological investigations of the rural home and rural life” and provided some funding for home economics research. The Purnell Act had a result of encouraging more women to attend college.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 163