FIRE DESTROYS KENNEDY HOME ON SLATE HILL

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This file was contributed for use in the OHGenWeb Ross County by: Ralph Cokonougher

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Believed to have originated from a defective flue, fire completely destroyed the five-room house of Mr. and Mrs. Hile Kennedy, near Slate Hill, and burned a large part of the contents, yesterday. W. N. Kennedy of Salinas, Calif., visiting with his son after being on the west coast for 16 years, suffered a loss of $500 in travelers' checks, $200 in postal saving certificates, and his return ticket. The elder Kennedy had taken $100 in cash with him when he left the house shortly before the fire. The structure - the ancestral home of Mrs. Kennedy's family and said to be more than 100 years old - was completely razed. The loss was not covered by insurance, according to reports. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Hile Kennedy was at home at the time. When Miss Blanche Hoffman, a sister of Mrs. Kennedy, and N. D. Hoffman, 77, her father, discovered the blaze, the upper part of the house was in flames. They were able to remove a radio, a suit of clothing, some bedding, and a few pieces of furniture. Neighbors aided in saving sheds and barns near the burning structure. Hile Kennedy was in Greenfield; Mrs. Kennedy in Chillicothe where she is employed as a teacher in the WPA nursery school. Their daughter, Margaret, was at school in South Salem. The family will stay for the present at the home of Mr. Hoffman's brother-in-law, on the Jacob Taylor farm.