The Highs and Lows of an Irvington Family on Lowell Avenue

    Editor's Note: This post contains mention of self harm.  

     In the spring of 1895, Daniel and Edith Lesley along with their two children, Royden and Mary, moved into a two-story frame home located at 5716 Lowell Avenue. Their lovely property with a wrap-around front porch was featured in a publication called The Indiana Woman in 1897. Their biggest legacy to the community is the nearby street named for them. 

A very early photo of the Lesley home at 5716 Lowell Avenue (photo courtesy of Ron Flick and Charlotte Ottinger)

     Daniel Lesley was a relentless entrepreneur. He had his hand in several ventures. He was part owner of a coal mine near Edwardsport, Indiana and he helped to develop an electric rail line from Indianapolis to Martinsville. The state of Indiana employed him as an accountant. He also bought and sold real estate. He became one of the most important people in the community when he agreed to serve on the Irvington School Board in 1895. He was first elected secretary of the board and then treasurer. In the wee hours of December 16, 1898, he was likely awakened with the surprising news that the beautiful Second Empire style school located across the street from the Irving Circle Park had burned to the ground. Mr. Lesley and other members had to deal with finding temporary classrooms for the children and then hiring an architect for a new school. 

Daniel Lesley (upper right) posed with his brothers Amos, Jacob, and Reuben for this photograph in the late nineteenth century. (photo courtesy of the Lesley family descendants via Ancestry.com)

      Edith Lesley was a society woman. She involved herself in numerous clubs. For instance, on March 17, 1899, she invited members of the Shakespeare Coterie to her residence for a buffet luncheon. She decorated the dining room in red and green colors. She also employed a local artist named Florine Williams to paint various watercolor sketches representing the principal characters from The Merchant of Venice. After visiting France in the summer of 1899, she formed a local French club. She sang in the church choir at the Downey Avenue Christian Church. As a Butler alum, she hosted the Catherine Merrill Club. She knew all of the powerful women in the neighborhood. And then something happened that still needs clarification. As Mrs. Lesley was getting ready for another social event at the home on April 9, 1900, she got into some kind of altercation with a servant named Ellen Thaldorf. In a lawsuit that made the Indianapolis newspapers, Ms. Thaldorf alleged that Edith Lesley threw hot coffee on her causing extensive burns on her neck. She demanded $500 from the Lesleys for her injuries. What really happened in the kitchen on that spring morning? So far, I have been unable to find out how the judge ruled on the case. 

Edith Lesley as she appeared in the Indiana Woman, August 7, 1897, Page 10

     Mrs. Lesley put the scandal behind her and kept up her relentless club schedule. Scarcely a month went by in the early twentieth century that she wasn't hosting or attending meetings. Ever the businessman, Daniel Lesley placed an ad in the Indianapolis Journal on October 26, 1902, announcing that he had formed a new company called Pine Mountain Mica and Asbestos Company. He listed himself as the president. Five days later, the couple threw a huge masquerade Halloween Party at their home. Soon, Mr. Lesley turned his business interests to the West. He started investing in gold mining in both Arizona and Oregon. The family kept their Lowell Avenue home, but started to spend more time away from Irvington. While they were gone, the couple leased their pretty house to various people including the Marshall family. 

1908: A Year of Shocking Tragedies for the Lesleys 

     On February 2, 1908, Edith Lesley announced via the Indianapolis Star that she and her daughter Mary would be joining her husband and son who were living in Oregon.  Nearly four months after they arrived in the small village of Jacksonville, Edith and Mary received the shocking news on May 26 that Daniel Lesley had died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 59 near the gold mine forty miles from the nearest town. An employee had to bring his body back to the village via horseback. Edith Lesley buried her husband in a cemetery in the nearby village. Then, she had to figure out her next step. Meanwhile, more horrifying news awaited her back in Irvington. 

     First, she learned that on September 10, 1908, a rubbish fire burned out of control and spread to the Lesley family barn. The Irvington Fire Department was able to save the structure. Then, a more horrifying event took place inside the house on Lowell Avenue on December 3, 1908. Her boarder, Harlan P. Marshall, age 42, waited for his kids to go to school and for his wife to go shopping in downtown Indianapolis. He had been struggling with tuberculosis and likely from depression. He cut down a clothes line and hanged himself inside the house. Carrie Marshall found her husband and enlisted a neighbor to try to save him, but it was too late. 

     Mrs. Marshall and her children moved out of the home. Edith then had to face her next issue. Could she move back into that house? The answer arrived the following year when her daughter Mary Lesley married James Melville Abbett. He took out a building permit and remodeled the Lesley home. The young couple along with Edith moved back into the Lowell Avenue house where they remained for two years. They sold the home to the Parker family for $10,000 on April 4, 1911. The Lesley era in Irvington had come to an end. Edith and the Abbetts moved to California. 

Harlan Marshall sat for this portrait as a young man long before he married and started a family. He worked as a manager for the Remington Typewriter Company in Indianapolis while living at 5716 Lowell Avenue. One can almost see the sadness in his eyes. (Photo courtesy of the Marshall family descendants via Ancestry.com) 

Carrie Marshall outlived her husband by decades. She had to pick up the pieces after his untimely death and raise their two children. (photo courtesy of the Marshall family descendants via Ancestry.com) 

5716 Lowell Avenue, Summer, 2026

Sources:  Daniel Lesley's Business Ventures--Edwardsport Coal--Vincennes Sun-Commercial, June 15, 1899, p. 1;  "The New Electric Road," Indianapolis News, July 19, 1899, p. 7; Asbestos Company--Indianapolis Journal, November 2, 1902, p. 17; Oregon--"Indiana Men Back Oregon Canal Building, Indianapolis News, October 2, 1905, p. 17; Arizona--"Incorporations," Indianapolis Star, November 2, 1907, p. 7; Daniel Lesley on Irvington School Board--Indianapolis News, June 11, 1895, p. 2; Edith Lesley Club Meetings--Indianapolis News, May 30, 1895 p. 10; Indianapolis Journal, September 6, 1896, p. 16; Shakespeare Club--Indianapolis News, March 18, 1899, p. 8; France and French Club--Indianapolis News, July 1, 1899, p. 8 and Indianapolis Journal, August 13, 1899, p. 11; School Issues/Fire--Indianapolis News,  March 25, 1899, p. 3; Lawsuit by Ellen Thaldorf--"Mrs. Lesley Sued," Indianapolis Journal, April 15, 1900, p. 8; Halloween Party--Indianapolis Journal, November 2, 1902; Daniel Lesley death--"D.W. Lesley's Death," Indianapolis News, June 4, 1908, p. 11; Harlan Marshall Suicide--Indianapolis Star, December 10, 1908, p. 5 and The Star Press (Muncie, IN), December 9, 1908, p. 2; Building permit to remodel house--Indianapolis Star, April 6, 1909, p. 4; Sale of the home--"Real Estate Transfers," Indianapolis Star, April 4, 1911, p. 11; Federal Census Records for 1900 and 1910.

Beautiful Irvington School Burned in 1898

      In the wee hours of the morning sometime around 3:30AM on December 16, 1898, the "Owl" train pulled into Irvington. Al Atkinson and another employee on the train noticed a glare in the distance and realized that the Irvington School was completely engulfed in flames. He tried to warn local officials about the fire. Some nearby residents like Robert E. Moore and the Earl family also saw and possibly heard the inferno. A few citizens tried to go into the building to rescue some of the books, but the heat and smoke kept them out. Because the town of Irvington had no proper fire protection, the small crowd had to helplessly watch the destruction of their beautiful school. 

     Built in 1874 in the Second Empire style, the school stood across the street from the Irving Circle Park on the southeast quadrant of University Avenue and South Audubon Road. As the population grew, the school board commissioned an addition to the original structure in 1896. Mary E. Plummer was the first principal of the school. The total cost of the building came in at around $20,000, but unfortunately town officials did not take out enough insurance for such a calamity. 

     A reporter for the Indianapolis News described that the light from the flames that night reflected onto the snowy ground. Eerie photos likely taken from the Earl home at 5631 University Avenue showed the various stages of the fire. The addition completed in 1896 tumbled into the ground while some of the walls of the original structure remained intact. If you look closely at two of the photos you will see the silhouettes of a small crowd. Everything was lost in the blaze including artwork and the school's library. Even some of the nearby trees were singed. Daniel Lesley, the president of the board of education, pledged that children would be back at school in some capacity by January. For the remainder of the new winter and spring term, classes met in various churches, lodges, and businesses throughout the community until a new school could be built. 

     The blaze had been the largest in the history of the town. This fire and others led many citizens to call for Irvington to be annexed by the city of Indianapolis which took place in 1902. Shockingly, the new school built just south of the current building burned in 1903 leading officials to rebuild yet again except at the new location at the intersection of East Washington Street and Ritter Avenue. That school would later be known as the George Washington Julian School, I.P.S. #57. 

The Irvington Public School (1874-1898) was possibly designed by Isaac Taylor with Joel Stover as the contractor. The school sat in a grove of trees across the street from the Irving Circle Park. This photo was likely snapped c1890. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society)

Students from the Irvington Public School gathered for this photograph on April 23, 1891. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society)

The Irvington Public School sat on the southeast quadrant of University Avenue  (then Grand Avenue) and South Audubon Road (then Central Avenue). After the fire it was removed for another school on the site which also burned in 1903. Later the section was developed into several lots for homes. (Map of Irvington, 1889)

Fire Photos

The fire in the Irvington Public School began in the early morning hours of December 16, 1898. The janitor in charge informed the school board that he had turned down the furnace before he left that day. Members of the Earl family likely took this photo from their home across the street just as the flames started to consume the structure. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society)

The second photo, likely taken from 5631 University Avenue on December 16, 1898, shows that the fire had now consumed the rear addition to the building (at the right). If you look closely, you can see silhouetted individuals in the foreground.  (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society)

Adults on the left huddled together and children on the right, watched--most likely in horror and fascination as fire consumed the entire Irvington Public School on December 16, 1898. Irvington had no proper fire protection at the time. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society)

Indianapolis News, December 16, 1898, p. 8

Site of former Irvington School at University Avenue and South Audubon Road on December 13, 2025

Sources:  Lola Blount Conner, "Irvington's Children of the Early 70's Got First Glimpse of McGuffey Readers at Old Mt. Zion District School," Indianapolis Star, November 26, 1933, p. 49; B.R. Sulgrove, History of Indianapolis and Marion County, (Philadelphia, 1884), p.622; Construction--"Personal," May 9, 1873, p.3; Paul Diebold, Greater Irvington II, (Indianapolis, 2020), pp. 163-164; Fire--"Large Fire," Indianapolis News, December 16, 1898, p. 8.