McNary Beecher Frump (1853-1919)

From the Legislative and State Manual of Indiana, 1907.

   An obscure resident of Clay County, Indiana, McNary Beecher Frump served one term in the Indiana State House of Representatives during the early 20th century and was a farmer and schoolteacher. Born in Clay County on May 6, 1853, McNary B. Frump was the son of John (1822-1919) and Betsey Jane Matthews Frump (1826-1901). The Frump family consisted of eleven children, of which our subject was the third born. His early years were spent on the family farm in Washington Township and he received his education in schools local to his home county of Clay.

   Mentioned by the Legislative and State Manual of Indiana as being "a diligent student" during his school years, McNary Frump embarked upon a career as a school teacher while still a young man, and continued in this profession for a number of years. One can almost wonder if schoolchildren back in the late 1870s ever gave the humorously named "Mr. Frump" a difficult time while he was trying to teach!

   McNary Frump married in Clay County on December 28, 1880, to Ms. Artie M. Orman (1856-1926), and the couple later became the parents of seven children over eighteen years. The Frump children are listed as follows in order of their birth: Gladys (died aged two months in 1881), Clifford (died at birth in 1882), Kenneth Xychus (1883-1962), Iris C. (1885-1979), Deloris Alma Frump Hoffa (1887-1973), Oldys (1889-1984) and Aurel B. Frump Schopmeyer (1898-1966).

  In the late 19th century McNary Frump gave up school teaching and began a prosperous career as a farmer in Washington Township. Described as a "progressive and successful agriculturalist" by the State Manual of Indiana, Frump is also acknowledged as having "extensive land holdings" and was a two-term president of the Clay County Farmers Institute in the late 1890s. Before his election to the Indiana legislature, the only elective office Frump had occupied was that of Washington Township assessor, the dates he served being unknown at this time.

   Frump won election as a Democrat to the Indiana State House of Representatives in November 1906 from his home county of Clay, defeating Republican candidate William H. Guirl by a vote of 3,629 to 3,054. An electoral result from that contest is shown below.

   Taking his seat in January 1907, McNary B. Frump served one term in the legislature and during his brief service held a seat on the committees on Trust Funds, Fees and Salaries, Legislative Apportionment, and Mines and Mining. Frump is also recorded by the 1907 Indiana General Assembly Journal as introducing House Bill No. 257, which was an "act to require drivers of motor vehicles to hold a state license and providing penalties in connection therewith". This same journal notes that the bill was given to the committee on roads and was later "indefinitely postponed."

   After leaving the legislature in 1909 Frump continued to improve his farm and shortly before his death was named as a trustee for Washington Township in 1918. He died in Washington Township on July 18, 1919, at age 66 and was laid to rest at the Swalley Cemetery in Bowling Green, Indiana. He was survived by his wife Artie and five of his children. The portrait of M. Beecher Frump (as some sources list him) was located via the Legislative and State Manual of Indiana, published in 1907.