Warren T. McCray worked in banking and grain dealing and later bred Hereford cattle at his Orchard Lake Stock Farm in Newton County. He served on state charitable and agricultural boards before entering state politics in 1915 as a Republican gubernatorial candidate. In 1920, at the close of the Progressive Era, he was elected governor of Indiana. Though fiscally conservative and a proponent of limited state government, he supported progressive reforms such as improving roads and education. He also opposed the Ku Klux Klan and advocated for women’s rights, appointing several women to prominent positions. He was forced to resign in 1924 after a mail fraud conviction, but was pardoned in 1930.