Kingsbury Home on Layman Avenue

James L. Kingsbury and his wife Minnie likely moved into 348 North Layman Avenue in the late nineteenth century.  Mr. Kingsbury's father lived around the corner at 71 North Ritter Avenue.  The elder Kingsbury published a newspaper in Crawfordsville and eventually moved operations to Indianapolis in the 1870s.  Upon James G Kingsbury's passing in 1913, his son, James L. Kingsbury  took control of the Indiana Farmer.  James L. Kingsbury would later serve two terms in the Indiana House of Representatives as Irvington's legislator in the 1920s. A loyal Republican, James L. Kingsbury also served as the Warren Township Assessor in his elder years.

Minnie and James L. raised their two sons, John Kaylor and Layman Dwight Kingsbury, in the beautiful two-story Gothic Revival home in northern Irvington. The Kingsburys possessed a large tract of land and had lovely orchard. They remained in the home until their deaths in the 1940s and 1950s.  Their oldest son, John, became a physician and would make history as the doctor who took the death bed confession of Madge Oberholtzer, a woman who was brutally raped and attacked by the powerful Ku Klux Klan leader, D.C. Stephenson, in 1925.  Her words helped to bring down the KKK in Indiana and in America.

Kingsbury Family Portrait:  James L. Kingsbury can be seen standing next to a tree in the center of the photo. Standing in front of him, you can see John Kaylor Kingsbury. Nearby, stood Layman Dwight Kingsbury. Presumably Minnie Kingsbury is one of the ladies in the photo, but which one? The older lady standing at the far right might be Mrs. Kaylor, the mother of Minnie Kaylor Kingsbury.  (c1905)

Kingsbury home and orchard (c1900)

 
To see a contemporary photo of 348 North Layman Avenue, click on the link below. The historic images are courtesy of the Larry Muncie Collection Irvington Historical Society.

Irving Circle--1915

Irma Vollrath and a friend stopped briefly from playing to pose for this photo taken in the Irving Circle Park around 1915.  Behind the girls, you can see the following homes along South Audubon Road:  237-39, 245-47, 251, and in the distance the double that sits on the southeast corner of University and Audubon Road.

Dr. Walter Kelly built 237-39 in 1915.  His home is barely visible in the photo, but you can see the porch and dark stained cedar shingles.  Next to it, you can see the American Four Square double at 245-47 South Audubon Road.  The Kaylor family lived on one side and the Campbells on the other.  The beautiful Arts and Crafts era home at 251 housed the Betram Day family from 1908 till about 1915.  Demarchus Brown, the State Librarian, and his wife Jesse Christian Brown lived in the home from 1915 and into the 1920s.  Mr. Brown was the brother of Hilton U. Brown, while Mrs. Brown came from the Christian family, for whom Christian Park is named.  She became renown around the state for her travels.  Mrs. Brown loved to visit exotic locations and then come back and give a report of her findings to clubs and women's groups around the state.  When she died, small town newspapers across the state carried her obituary.

The historic image is courtesy of Dr. Victor Vollrath while the newer photo shows 245-47 and 251 South Audubon Road on May 18, 2012.