Stella Leach McCaslin

Indiana natives, fifty-one-year-old Frances Ann Maddox Leach and her only child, Estella "Stella" Leach McCaslin, were seated in the third-floor balcony.  Estella escaped with slight facial burns; her mother did not.  Stella's account of her experience appears in the newspapers.

Mrs. John W McCaslin Hurt and Her Mother Killed

Among those who were injured in the fire at the Iroquois theatre at Chicago last week was Mrs. John W McCaslin, whose husband was for many years a resident of this city. Her mother, Mrs. F A Leach, formerly a resident of the southern part of Wells County, was killed in trying to escape from the theatre. Mrs. McCaslin was seriously hurt but will recover.

Mr. and Mrs. McCaslin were married at Bluffton in 1893 and went to Chicago where they have since lived. He is an instructor of penmanship in a business college in that city. No trace of the body of Mrs. Leach could be discovered until Sunday when it was found at the Cook County morgue. She is a sister of Dr L E Maddox, of Montpelier, and he searched for her corpse several days before his efforts were rewarded. The condition of her body leads to a belief that she was suffocated of gas. Although she was burned about the face it is not thought that they were serious enough to cause her death. The remains were brought to Montpelier for burial on Tuesday. Her daughter, Mrs. McCaslin, was able to attend the funeral.

Source: The Warren Tribune, Friday, Jan. 8, 1904

Stella divorced John McCaslin for infidelity in 1904 but would marry twice more — to Benjamin B. Melton, with whom she shared a son, and to William Thornburg.

As an accomplished elocution performer, Stella operated the Stella Leach McCaslin Concert Company, performing in churches and recital halls. In addition to Stella, the company included a soprano singer, pianist-violinist, and a whistler.  It appears she stopped traveling with the company about 1911, when her son was born.