The Bath School disaster, also known as the Bath School massacre, was a series of violent attacks perpetrated by Andrew Kehoe on May 18, 1927. The attacks killed 38 elementary schoolchildren and 6 adults, and injured at least 58 other people. Kehoe, the 55-year-old school board treasurer, was angered by increased taxes and his defeat in the April 5, 1926, election for township clerk. Prior to his timed explosives going off at the Bath Consolidated School building, Kehoe had murdered his wife, Nellie Price Kehoe.
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The Bath School disaster, also known as the Bath School massacre, was a series of violent attacks perpetrated by Andrew Kehoe on May 18, 1927, in Bath Township, Michigan, United States. The attacks killed 38 elementary schoolchildren and 6 adults, and injured at least 58 other people. Kehoe, the 55-year-old school board treasurer, was angered by increased taxes and his defeat in the April 5, 1926, election for township clerk. He was thought by locals to have planned his \”murderous revenge\” after that public defeat. Prior to his timed explosives going off at the Bath Consolidated School building, Kehoe had murdered his wife, Nellie Price Kehoe. Arriving at the site of the school explosion, he died when he detonated explosives concealed in his truck. The truck explosion killed Kehoe plus four other people, and also injured bystanders. During the rescue and recovery efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol in the south wing of theSchool. Keoe had apparently intended to destroy the entire school and kill everyone in it. The school’s creation was controversial, but Monty Ellsworth wrote in his book about the disaster that consolidated schools had great advantages over the smaller rural schools they replaced. All landowners within the township area had to pay higher ad valorem property taxes. At the time of the bombing, the unincorporated village had about 300 adult residents.
The township covers 31 square miles and the small uninc incorporated village of Bath is within its borders. In the early 1920s the area was primarily agricultural. After years of debate, Bath Township voters approved the creation of the Bath consolidated school district in 1922, along with an increase in township property taxes to pay for a new school. When the school opened, it had 236 students enrolled in grades 1 to grade 12. After his mother’s death, Andrew Philip Kehoe’s father Philip married a much younger widow, Frances Wilder, and a daughter was born. On September 17, 1911, as his stepmother attempted to light the family’s oil stove, it exploded and set her on fire. Kehoe threw a bucket of water on her, but the fire was oil-based and his action spread the flames more rapidly, which engulfed and immolated her body. The injuries were fatal and she died the next day. Seven years later, they moved to a farm outside Bath. He had a reputation for frugality and was said to be notoriously impatient with any disagreement; he shot and killed a neighbor’s dog that come on his property and annoyed him by barking. He argued for lower taxes, and later later said that he had beaten one of his horses to death when it did not perform to his expectations. He later returned to Michigan and his father’s farm. After graduating, he moved to St. Louis, where he worked as an electrician for several years.
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This page is based on the article Bath School disaster published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 20, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
