Seven-Year-Old Dies In Barn Fire

Information in the News Chronicle article was very sketchy so there will be a number of blanks in this incident account. On Saturday evening November 2, 1935 at an unknown time Shippensburg firemen were sent to the Jacob Rife farm occupied by the Leedy family, near Keefer’s Store for a barn fire. There was no report on what caused the barn fire or what was lost in it but the building was destroyed. In the excitement of the blaze the Leedy’s seven-year old daughter who was deaf and mute ran into the barn and hid. The young girl perished in the fire, neighbors and firemen searched for days before locating the remains of the child. Damages were estimated at $4,000. The article did not state which fire company or if both responded to the incident.