1927 — May 18, Bath Township Consolidated School dynamite bomb and murders, MI– 46
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 2-24-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 46 Blanchard, from sources below.
–37 elementary school students in initial explosion
— 2 teachers in initial explosion
— 1 Kehoe’s wife murdered by Kehoe
— 4 Kehoe’s car bomb detonated
–1 Kenoe
–1 school superintendent
–1 village postmaster
–1 postmaster’s father-in-law
–1 student Beatrice Gibbs dies of wounds August 22, 1927
–1 2nd grade student Richard Fritz dies of “lingering injuries” about one-year later.
— 46 Daggy, James L. Information About the Bath School Disaster. 2001.
— 46 National Fire Protection Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).
— 44 Ellsworth, Monty J. The Bath School Disaster. 1927.
— 45 Epic Disasters. The Worst School Massacres, Shootings and Killings.
— 45 News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Silently…Bath Buries… Dead.” 5-20-1927, 1.
— 45 Ironwood Times, MI. “Ku Klux Klaque.” 6-17-1927, p. 1.[1]
— 45 Peters, Justin. “‘We Still Look at Ourselves as Survivors’…” Slate.com, 12-18-2012.
— 45 Wikipedia. “Bath School Disaster.”
— 44 IBTimes Staff. “1927 School Bombing…” International Business Times, 12-18-2012.
— 44 Ironwood Daily Globe, MI. “Last of Madman’s Victims are Buried.” 5-23-1927, p. 5.[2]
— 44 Marshall Evening Chronicle, MI. [Names, ages of victims.] 5-20-1927, p. 2.[3]
— 44 News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Dead Fill Homes of Little…” 5-19-1927, p. 1.
— 44 News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Kehoe Sane…School Blast.” 5-26-1926, p. 16.[4]
— 43 Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007, p. 28.
— 43 Marshall Evening Chronicle, MI. “43 Now Dead in Bath Explosion.” 5-19-1927, p. 1.
— 39 Traverse City Record-Eagle, MI. “30 Children Killed By Blast…” 5-18-1927, p. 1.[5]
Narrative Information
May 18: “Bath, Mich., May 18. – (UP) – A maniac today blew up the village school of Bath and killed perhaps as many as 30 children while they sat in the school rooms busy with their studies. He also killed the village postmaster, the principal of the school and another man, and himself,, for authorities were inclined to think that Andrew Kehoe, treasurer of the school board, who was blown to pieces as he sat in his automobile near the school house, was the man responsible.
“Kehoe was said to have been bitter over the question of school taxes and his bitterness may have crazed him, state officers believed. He also faced loss of his farm through foreclosure of a mortgage. Only two hours before the explosion at the school house, according to reports to the State Department of Safety, Kehoe’s farm house and farm buildings had been dynamited.
“Not long after the pupils had gathered around the brick school house and turned to their morning studies, a terrific explosion wrecked the west wing of the building. It was the wing where, among other grades, the kindergarten was in session, with the children happy over their “play school.”
“The townspeople flocked to the school building and found the village firemen, the marshal and volunteers dragging from the ruins, one after another, the bodies of the children, until 34 corpses had been laid side by side, beneath sheets and blankets.
“Other squads were caring for the injured, summoning physicians and nurses and ambulances from Lansing, seven miles away. Many children, some pitifully injured, were cared for and then taken away to Lansing hospitals.
“The town was frantic. There was hardly a home which did not have some child at school….
“Check of the casualties at 3:15 p. m. disclosed 35 dead and 49 injured. Thirty of the dead, had
been identified, four lay unidentified.” (Traverse City Record-Eagle, MI. “30 Children Killed By Blast. Dynamite Wrecks Bath, Mich. School.” 5-18-1927, p. 1.)
May 19: “Bath, Mich., May 19. – (AP) – The death of Mrs. Blanche Hart, 30, a teacher in the intermediate grades i the ill-fated township school, in a Lansing hospital today brought the total number of deaths from the explosion to 44…
“The magnitude of the horror that befell this little village yesterday when a demented farmer blew up the consolidated school, killing nearly two score children and several adults, continued to grow today. Up to noon 37 pupils and seven adults were numbered in the death list. Forth-three others were seriously injured, some perhaps fatally. A group funeral has been planned for Friday.
“Stricken not only be death, but by debt as well, the village of 300 population was in dire straits….” (News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Dead Fill Homes of Little Michigan Town. 44 Dead and Toll is Growing…” 5-19-1927, p. 1.)
May 19: “Bath, Mich., May 19 – (AP) – Governor Fred W. Green today offered to pay the funeral expenses of the children killed in the Bath schoolhouse disaster whose families are hard pressed for money.” (News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Green Offers to Bury Dead.” 5-19-1927, 1.)
May 19: “Bath, Mich., May 19 – (AP) – A heap of death-laden debris and the smouldering ruins of a homely farm house stood today as the symbols of a maniac’s vengeance upon society….
“Andrew Kehoe, unpopular, crafty, middle-aged farmer blasted himself and 43 others, most of them children between the ages of six and 12, to death when explosives he had planted, wrecked the Bath consolidated district school Wednesday morning. Forty-four others were injured, some of whom may die. Only a whim of fate prevented destruction of the entire village.
“Because school taxes were “too high” and he thought the tax burden prevented him from meeting a mortgage on his farm, the demented Kehoe mined the school — the pride of the township — with dynamite and gunpowder. He Installed an elaborate system of electrical wiring and connected it to a time clock. At the appointed hour he drove to the school to watch his plot take its toll. One section of the building was blown to bits; another escaped. One of the wires became short circuited and the electric spark failed before it completed its course. The wing of the school containing the third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades was torn to pieces. Another part in which more than 150 pupils were studying escaped, sustaining only severe eddies of the shock.
“State police removed more than 500 pounds of dynamite and several sacks of gunpowder planted under the spared section — enough to have wiped the village out of existence and to have killed everyone of the 260 pupils in the building.
Destroys Own Home.
“At about the same time the terrific charge shattered the school, gasoline cans connected with spark plugs and electricity turned Kehoe’s farm home, only a short distance away, into a raging furnace. The fire, like the school explosion, was controlled by a time device. On top of his other crimes, the death of his invalid wife may possibly be charged to Kehoe. She was removed from a Lansing hospital a few days ago by him. So far no one has learned where she was taken. She may have died in the flaming farm house.
Blows Self, Three Others, To Death.
“To climax his orgy of killing Kehoe fired a gun into a load of dynamite in his own car and blew himself and three other men who were standing nearby to death….
Kehoe, a surly and disliked character, was treasurer of the township school board. He opposed the establishment of a consolidated school, drawing pupils from surrounding agricultural territory when it was built three years ago. He claimed the structure would make school taxes too burdensome. Kehoe never got over his grudge against the school. As time went by his own heavily mortgaged farm slipped farther and farther from his grasp. Recently the mortgage was foreclosed. That meant that he had to give up the land, and it also furnished the spark that pushed his demented mind from melancholia into violence.
“He apparently laid his plans with utmost care. A graduate of the Michigan State College, he experimented with explosives. He had a dynamite complex. Neighbors said he always was ‘blowing something up’ around his own farm. When he decided to dynamite the school as a farewell gesture of protest, he went about his preparations with the knowledge of an expert. Dynamite was planted between the ceiling of the basement and the first floor, where the downward force of the blast, would rebound to crumple the building. Wires were carefully soldered. The theory is that he entered the school at night to install his fiendish devices.
“Indescribable scenes followed the death dealing explosion. Children were hurled through windows and over crumbling walls to alight in the school yard dead. Rescuers laid the bodies out in long rows on the grass. Only their feet showed. Mostly they were shabby, pathetic feet with soles worn through or shoe sizes too large and apparently handed down from father to son….
“It was commencement week in the Bath school. That fact perhaps saved many lives. A number of honor students were not in the building because their marks were high enough so they were excused from examinations. About 100 higher grade pupils were on leave preparing for their graduation exercises.
“Floyd Huggett, principal of the school, left the building a few moments before the explosion to go to a neighboring church to arrange for the baccalaureate sermon.
“The blast occurred a few minutes after school opened. The blast stopped the school clock at 9:45. Kehoe evidently timing his actions, drove to the school. He sat in his car when the first explosion occurred. When only part of the building crumpled he drove around the block perhaps in hope that he could witness from another street the toppling of the rest of the structure. Convinced at last that only part of the charge was detonated, he returned to the front of the school.
“With children strewn about screaming in pain, with dead bodies lying where they had been erupted from the school, he summoned Emory Huyck, superintendent of schools, Glen O, Smith, Bath postmaster, and Nelson McFarren, Smith’s father-in-law. With them grouped close around him Kehoe seized a shotgun he had on the floor of his car and fired pointblank into a charge of dynamite in the rear seat. The explosion added his own life and those of the other three to the toll.
“Scarcely had the echo of the blast died when the villagers and farmers came rushing to the scene. The single telephone exchange was commandeered to summon doctors and ambulances. State police were summoned. Lansing manufacturers ordered men from their tasks to help in the work of rescue. Automobile factories fitted up trucks as ambulances. Every available doctor was rushed to the scene.
“Debris 10 feet deep remains in the basement of the shattered portion of the school. It is being sifted as rapidly as possible with workers scarcely daring to hope that other bodies will not be revealed….” (News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “School Blast Toll at Bath is 44 Dead.” 5-19-1927, 1.)
May 20: “Bath, Mich., May 20. – (UP) – The toll of Andrew Kehoe’s demonical dynamiting of Bath consolidated school here Wednesday stood at Forty-four today. The dead were: [Rearranged in alphabetical order for the children. – 37 children, 2 teachers, 4 car-bomb, wife.][6]
Arnold Bauerle, 8
Henry Bergan, 14
Herman Bergan, 11
Amelia Bromund, 11 [Emilie M. Bromundt according to Daggy.]
Robert Bromund, 12 [Robert F. Bromundt according to Daggy.]
Floyd Burnet, 12 [Floyd Edwin Burnett according to Ellsworth.]
Russell Chapman, 11
Cleo Clayton, 8 [Cleo Claton according to Ellsworth.[7]]
Robert Cochran, 8 [Robert Cockran according to Ellsworth.]
Ralph Cashman, 7 [Ralph Albert Cushman according to Ellsworth.]
Earl Ewing, 11
Catherine Foote, 11 [Katherine Onalee Foote according to Ellsworth]
Margery Fritz, 6 [Marjorie Fritz according to Daggy.]
[Richard A Fritz] [8]
Carl Giesenhaver, 9 Carlyle Walter Geisenhaver according to Ellsworth.]
[Beatrice Gibbs. Ellsworth.][9]
George Hall, Jr., 8
Willa Hall, 11
Iola Hart, 12
Percy Hart, 11
Vivian Hart, 9
Robert Hart, 9 [LaVere Robert Harte according to Ellsworth.]
Galen Harte, 13 [Gailand Lyle Harte according to Ellsworth.]
Stanley Harte, 11
Francis Hoeppner, 13 [Francis Otto Hoppener according to Ellsworth.]
Lorne Hunter, 14 [Cecial Lorn Hunter according to Ellsworth.]
Doris Johns, 8
Thelma McDonald, 7
Clarence McFarran, 13 [Clarence W. McFarren according to Daggy.]
Emerson Metcoff, 9 [J. Emerson Medcoff according to Ellsworth.]
Emma Nichols, 12 [Emma Amelia Nickols according to Ellsworth.]
Richard Richardson, 13
Elsie Robb, 11
Pauline Shurtz, 10 [Pauline Mae Shirts according to Ellsworth.]
Elizabeth Witchell, 8
Lucille Witchell, 10
Lemoyne Woodman, 8 [Harold LeMoyne Woodman according to Ellsworth.]
George Zimmerman, 10
Lloyd Zimmerman, 12
Mrs. Blanche Harte, 30, teacher
Hazel Weatherby, 22, teacher
Emory E. Huyck, 30 Superintendent of school [car bomb]
Andrew P. Kehoe, 58, who planned and executed the tragedy. [car bomb]
Mrs. Andrew E. [Nellie] Kehoe, murdered by her husband.
Nelson McFarran, 70 [father in law of Postmaster; car bomb][10]
Glen A Smith, 35, village postmaster [car bomb]
(Marshall Evening Chronicle, MI. [Names, ages of victims.] 5-20-1927, p. 2.)
May 20: “….The final distressing touch was added to one of the most unbelievable crimes in history, when the mutilated body of Kehoe’s invalid wife was discovered yesterday. She had been murdered by her husband before he started out on his scourge of destruction. Her skull was hammered in. Then her body was tossed onto an old cart in an outbuilding, to be cremated later when Kehoe fired the buildings on his farm….” (News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Silently, Sadly, Bath Buries Its Dead – Victims of Blast.” 5-20-1927, pp. 1, 3.)
Consolidated Accounts:
Wikipedia: “Bath Township is a small community located ten miles (16 km) northeast of Lansing, Michigan, and contains the unincorporated village of Bath. In the early 1920s, the area was primarily agricultural. In 1922, Bath voters voted to form a district for the purpose of funding and constructing a consolidated school. There were 236 students enrolled when the school opened, ranging from the first to twelfth grades.” (Wikipedia, Bath School Disaster; cites Ellsworth 1927)
“The Bath School disaster is the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7-12 years of age) attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack.” (Wikipedia, Bath School Disaster)
“On the morning of May 18, Kehoe first killed his wife and then set his farm buildings on fire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion devastated the north wing of the school building, killing many of the people inside. Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside the school over the course of many months.” (Wikipedia, Bath School Disaster)
Ellsworth: “We got to the school and as we ran across the lawn we met some people who told us our boy, who was in the second grade, was out and all right. I think there were about ten or a dozen people there at that time. The wall had crumbled each way, letting the edge of the roof drop on the brick and cement. There was a pile of children of about five or six under the roof and some of them had arms sticking out, some had legs, and some just their heads sticking out. They were unrecognizable because they were covered with dust, plaster, and blood. There were not enough of us to move the roof. It looked as if hardly anything held it at the top.” (Ellsworth 1927)
Wikipedia: “As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent, and killing and injuring several others.” (Wikipedia, Bath School Disaster)
Ellsworth: Shortly after this, at the school, the fire chief and several police officers went into the basement. “In a short time they came out with about a bushel of dynamite and told the rescuers and all the other people to get back as there was more dynamite in the building. They went back in the basement and found the clock and battery. They cut the wires and carried out the rest of the dynamite that all together weighed five hundred and four pounds. They then told the people that it was safe to go back to work.”
“I saw one mother…sitting on a bank a short distance from the school with a little dead girl on each side of her and holding a little boy…who died a short time after they got him to the hospital…It is a miracle that many parents didn’t lose their minds before the task of getting their children out of the ruins was completed. It was between five and six o’clock that evening before the last child was taken out.” (Ellsworth 1927)
“There were thirty-eight children killed in the disaster.” (Ellsworth 1927)
Daggy: “On a warm Spring morning in May of 1927 the Treasurer of the Bath, Michigan Consolidated School District blew up half of the school building (intending to have destroyed all of it). Within the hour he had committed suicide (and more murders) in the middle of the village by detonating explosives in his vehicle. In all, 45 people would be dead & many more would be injured in the worst instance of school violence in U.S. history.” (Daggy 2001)
Associated Press, WTOP and The Oakland Press: “Nov 3rd, 2008 | BATH, Mich. — Tombstones have been donated for the last two unmarked graves of children killed 81 years ago in a school bombing at a central Michigan community.
“Forty-five people were killed on May 18, 1927, when the Bath Consolidated School was destroyed by dynamite planted by a school board member who was upset with school taxes and in danger of losing his farm to foreclosure.
“The Lansing State Journal reported that brother and sister Emilie and Robert Bromundt are the only bombing victims whose graves are still unmarked. A grant from a foundation will pay for their grave markers and a ceremony to place them will be held Nov. 11 at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Bath. Bath is located near Lansing in central Michigan, about 75 miles west-northwest of Detroit.” (Associated Press. “Final 2 Victims of 1927 Bombing to Get Tombstones”)
Ellsworth: “The Bath school tax in 1922 was twelve dollars and twenty-six cents on a thousand dollars valuation. Mr. Kehoe began to complain about his taxes being so high. In 1923 the school board had to buy five acres of land for an athletic field and it also had to buy and install a lighting plant of their own, which made the taxes for 1923 eighteen dollars and eighty cents. This enraged Kehoe…[who] insinuated to some of his neighbors that if he was on the school board he would cut down the expenses. At an annual school meeting that was held July 14, 1924, A.P. Kehoe was nominated and elected to fill the expired term of Enos Peacock….. Mr. Kehoe was appointed treasurer of the school by the school board for a period of one year. He was reappointed the following two years as treasurer….
“During the summer vacation in 1926, Kehoe did some repairing and rewiring which have him free access to the schoolhouse. This is probably when he planned and did a lot of his fiendish work….
“He planned on destroying everything. He cut the wire fences on the farm and put dynamite in his tractor so that it blew all to pieces while the tool shed was burning. All the stock that he had at this time was two horses. They were tied in the barn and their feet were wired together so that rescuing them during the fire would be impossible…. Mr. Kehoe carried all the rails and lumber that there were around the buildings into the tool shed…to make sure that everything would be destroyed. He girdled all the small shade trees and sawed the grape vines off nest to the ground….” (Ellsworth 1927)
[State of Michigan. Clinton County, Michigan Coroner’s Jury Report in the Matter of the Inquest as the Cause of Death of Emory E. Huyck. Village of Bath, Clinton County, Michigan, May 23, 1927.]
Sources
Associated Press. “Final 2 Victims of 1927 Bombing to Get Tombstones” The Oakland Press, 6-21-2021. Accessed 2-24-2025 at: https://www.theoaklandpress.com/2008/11/03/final-two-victims-of-1927-school-bombing-to-get-tombstones/
Daggy, James L. Information About the Bath School Disaster. Accessed at: http://daggy.name/tbsd/index.htm
Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007.
Ellsworth, Monty J. The Bath School Disaster. Published by the author, 1927. Accessible at: http://daggy.name/tbsd/tbsd-x.htm
Epic Disasters. The Worst School Massacres, Shootings and Killings. Accessed 1/4/2009 at: http://www.epicdisasters.com/index.php/site/comments/the_worst_school_massacres_shootings_and_killings/
IBTimes Staff. “1927 School Bombing Resurfaces in Wake of Sandy Hook Shooting Aftermath.” International Business Times, 12-18-2012. Accessed 3-22-2013 at: http://www.ibtimes.com/1927-school-bombing-resurfaces-wake-sandy-hook-shooting-aftermath-947336#
Ironwood Daily Globe, MI. “Last of Madman’s Victims are Buried.” 5-23-1927, p. 5. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=10881999&sterm=bath+school+kehoe
Ironwood Times, MI. “Citizens of Bath Suffer Effects of School Blast.” 6-17-1927, p. 1. Accessed 2-24-2025 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/daily-globe-jun-17-1927-p-1/
Marshall Evening Chronicle, MI. “43 Now Dead in Bath Explosion.” 5-19-1927, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=104622495&sterm
Marshall Evening Chronicle, MI. [Names, ages of victims.] 5-20-1927, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=102702865&sterm
National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003). (Email attachment to B. W. Blanchard from Jacob Ratliff, NFPA Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian, 7-8-2013.)
News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Dead Fill Homes of Little Michigan Town. 44 Dead and Toll is Growing…” 5-19-1927, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=83563804&sterm=bath+school+explosion
News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Green Offers to Bury Dead.” 5-19-1927, p. 1. Accessed 2-24-2025 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/benton-harbor-news-palladium-may-19-1927-p-1/
News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Kehoe Sane When He Plotted School Blast.” 5-26-1926, p. 16. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=73563180&sterm
News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “School Blast Toll at Bath is 44 Dead.” 5-19-1927, p. 1. Accessed 2-24-2025 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/benton-harbor-news-palladium-may-19-1927-p-1/
News-Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI. “Silently, Sadly, Bath Buries Its Dead – Victims of Blast.” 5-20-1927, pp.1 and 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=83563812&sterm=
Peters, Justin. “‘We Still Look at Ourselves as Survivors’: More Than Eighty Years Later, Remembering the Deadliest School Massacre in American History.” Slate.com, 12-18-2012. Accessed 3-22-2013 at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2012/12/18/bath_school_bombing_remembering_the_deadliest_school_massacre_in_american.html
State of Michigan. Clinton County, Michigan Coroner’s Jury Report in the Matter of the Inquest as the Cause of Death of Emory E. Huyck. Village of Bath, Clinton County, Michigan, May 23, 1927. Accessed at: http://daggy.name/tbsd/cinquest.htm
Traverse City Record-Eagle, MI. “30 Children Killed By Blast.” 5-18-1927, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=64575717&sterm=bath+school+explosion
Wikipedia. “Bath School Disaster.” 1-5-2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
[1] There is no indication that there was another death from injuries, thus an increase from 44 to 45 – thus incorrect.
[2] Forty-three victims plus Kehoe car-bomb suicide.
[3] Thirty-seven children, two teachers, three car-bomb victims, Kehoe, and Kehoe’s murdered wife.
[4] Thirty-seven children, two teachers, three car-bomb victims, Kehoe, and Kehoe’s murdered wife.
[5] This is an early first-day report noting 35 dead at the school, and four, including Kehoe, due to his car-bomb.
[6] Inserted into this list, in brackets, are the names of two additional children who later died of injuries.
[7] Ellsworth writes that Cleo was killed in schoolyard by car-bomb shrapnel after he got out of the bombed school.
[8] According to J. L. Daggy, Richard Fritz was the last child to die from bomb injuries. The 2nd grader died eight dies short of his 9th birthday in Bath on May 10, 1928. Marjorie Fritz was his sister. Daggy cites March 2010 conversation with the surviving sister’s (Norma Jean) son (Danny) to the effect “that he [Richard] had died as a result of the lingering injuries that he had sustained in the blast, 358 days after the incident.”
[9] According to J. L. Daggy, Beatrice P. Gibbs, a 4th grade student, 10 years old, died on Aug 22 of her injuries in Lansing, MI.
[10] Clarence Wendell McFarren, one of the children killed in the school bomb explosion, was his grand-nephew.