Bath School Disaster
by Barry Bauer
May 18 marks the 85th remembrance of the Bath School bombing. Distraught farmer and school board member, Andrew Kehoe, intended on blowing the entire building up. The north wing of the school was completely destroyed and without the failure of the timing device the whole school would have gone down as he planned.
He blew himself up afterwards in front of the school probably aware he failed in his mission. He took others including the superintendent with him with that final explosion. His remains were buried in an unmarked grave in the northeast section of Mt. Rest Cemetery in St. Johns.
Police found 500 lbs. of explosives planted in the south wing along with an alarm clock set to go off at 9:45. 45 adults and kids were killed and 58 were injured. The carnage could have been worse.
I was going through some of my late in-laws photos and found this photo. It shows the north wing sometime after the bombing.
There are three policemen in the photo along with nurses (Red Cross?) waiting to help with the injured. On the ground are pots and tea kettles with boiling water as well as bandages. In the background is a rescuer going through the debris.
They started a construction fund with the biggest contributor being U.S. Sen. James J. Couzens of Michigan. He wrote a personal check for $75,000 for the reconstruction of the north end. Bath received many donations from donors throughout the nation including $2,500 from the Clinton County Board of Supervisors.
The demolition of the damaged north end began in 1927 and the new wing dedicated on August 18, 1928. The school was renamed the “James Couzens Agricultural School” in honor of the man who made such a huge donation.
The school was torn down in 1975 and there’s a Bath School Memorial Park with the Cupola from the school as its center piece. Bath is currently discussing plans to redesign the memorial.
All of this reminds me of when I attended the school years later. My family moved to Park Lake during the 1952 Christmas break. In January, 1953 we attended the Bath school until the spring of 1955. I don’t remember being aware of the bombing but I’m sure I was.
I started out in the third grade and have some memories of my time there. Our bus took us to the south end of the building, the one that escaped the bombing, to the east side entrance. Outside the walls during recess is where I learned to play marbles.
They showed serial movies in the gymnasium during lunch breaks and I always borrowed money from the teachers to watch them. I never paid them back. They had the best cafeteria food of any school I ever went to. It was in a separate building just outside the school. There were no burritos, no tacos, no chicken nuggets, just plain old home cooking and their dinner rolls were the best.
And finally, it’s the place I shared a peanut butter sandwich with a school mouse that seemed to be just as hungry as I was.