Aleck Estill Fire
Cincinnati Enquirer, 20 April 1893, page 4
TOUGH LUCK
Aleck Estill, a colored man living on the Covert Run Pike, about
two miles from Newport, is certainly the victim of unfortunate circumstances.
he and his wife lived in a new two story frame house which they had built with
their joint earnings. By hard work and thrift they had furnished it
throughout with good and substantial furniture. The husband, who peddles
coal in Cincinnati for a livelihood, has been sick for the past few weeks and
for the first time he came over to Cincinnati yesterday morning.
He had to return home as he found that he was too weak to work. Imagine the poor fellow's feelings when instead of his cozy little home, he found nothing but the foundation walls and the cellar partly filled with smoldering ruins and the tall chimney towering above it all, as if it were a monument to the once happy house. Every vestige of the house and the furniture was burned and as the old fellow stood and gazed at the ruins, with the rain beating down on him, he said that some enemy had done the deed.
When questioned he said that he and his wife had left their home about 6 o'clock yesterday morning, he to go to work in Cincinnati and she to a family in Bellevue with whom she was employed. As they were to be gone all day they paid particular attention to quench even the few remaining embers in the cooking stove, which was situated in the far end of the kitchen.
The fire started as stated by William Moreland, who owns the dairy directly opposite the burned building in the dining room. Moreland started at once with the assistance of a few of the neighbors to put it out but were unsuccessful on account of the scarcity of water. Moreland was badly burned about the face and head, as was also Mr. Balzer of Dayton.
The house was practically a new one and mortgaged to the Germania Building Association, which had insured it in the Buchanan Agency for $1000. That the fire was the work of an incendiary is clearly apparent, as there was no fire in the building whatever.
Estill, however, cannot imagine who would be guilty of such a deed. He has a suspicion that it was the work of certain colored people who were jealous of his good fortune. He has an excellent reputation among his neighbors and is known as a hard working and frugal citizen.