Bath Museum: Remembering those who had too few years to live
Written: Jul 06 '00 (Updated Sep 29 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Ensures children won't be forgotten, free
Cons: Little-known, only open when school is open
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| Redlass's Full Review: Michigan |
Review Topic: Sights & Attractions
May 18, 1927 started out as a sunny day in Bath, Michigan. The local consolidated school was filled with restless children taking exams on their final day of school. It was to become a day that is still infamous for the residents of this small community north of Lansing.
Andrew Kehoe, 55, a local farmer and treasurer of the school board, had been an active opponent to the increased taxes that were levied to pay for the school. He was facing foreclosure on his farm from a relative in Lansing. His neighbors described him as intelligent, but pugnacious. He was also determined to have “revenge” for his financial troubles. He did this by placing 1,000 pounds of explosives under the newly built school.
Kehoe returned to his home where he murdered his wife and all of the horses on the farm and blew up his house.
At 9:45 that morning, Kehoe detonated 500 pounds of those explosives, killing 38 children and three teachers. There were an additional 58 people injured. Most of the children killed were between the ages of four and eight.
Superintendent Emery Huyck spotted Kehoe in his truck and ran over to him—whether it was to “confront” him as some reports claim or to enlist his help, we’ll probably never know. Witnesses did see a struggle, which ended when Kehoe turned and fired a rifle into the back of his pickup truck—detonating the additional explosives he had in the back, killing himself, Huyck, and three more children—including an 8-year-old who had escaped the original blast.
The only good fortune of the day was that the other 500 pounds of explosives Kehoe had placed never went off.
Museum Write-Off
This review is part of a write-off hosted by ErgoPropterHoc. Participating are: Arthur.Rubin, caravan70, cornelia, gracef, frazzledspice, jnbmoore, kcfoxy, lecomte1, loveandprayers, moonvine, Prepoia, redlass, tjarnold
As I’m late in submitting this, I’ve already gotten to read several of their entries and I encourage you to go check them out—they’re good.
It took me awhile to decide which museum I would review. I love the Detroit Institute of Art and am fascinated by all of the Chicago museums. I’ve recently made several trips to Washington D.C. and there are no shortage of fascinating museums there.
Then I realized that if I were going to write a review with passion, it needed to be about one closer to home. It needed to be about a museum that was more important to me than my personal education and edification. It needed to be about a museum that I have spent many hours on many days in.
I’m an active member of a local community theater group: Bath Community Theatre Guild. We perform in the James Couzens Memorial Auditorium at Bath Middle School. We also have all our rehearsals there, so I’ve spent anywhere from three to fifteen hours a week for up to eight weeks at a time there. In the lobby of the auditorium, is the Bath Museum. It’s a small museum—merely the size of a single long hallway with several display cases, pieces of furniture, two sculptures, and walls of photos. There isn’t even an admission charge—when the school is open, so is the museum. Likewise, when we perform our plays, our patrons must go through the museum to enter and exit the auditorium.
While the museum commemorates 70 years of accomplishments by Bath students and community members (there are volunteers who regularly change the exhibits in two of the display cases), it is primarily dedicated to the Bath explosion on May 18, 1927. It is an event that remains the worst school violence in the nation’s history and the third worst mass murder within U.S. boundaries.
Pennies Forever
One of the first things that guests notice upon entering the museum is a copper statue in a mutely lit display case. Shortly after the blast, children from around the state of Michigan saved up their pennies to donate to the Bath School District to help with the recovery effort. Those pennies were used to commission Carlton Angell, an art instructor and museum artist at the University of Michigan, to create a copper statue memorializing those who died.
The statue is a sad one. It is one of a little girl holding a cat with the wind, possibly from the explosion blast, blowing back her hair and dress. The child’s grief is found in her eyes and face as the cat hangs limp over her arm. The base of the statue is engraved, “Donated by the Children of Michigan.”
In front of the statue’s display case is a cement cornerstone from the school that was built to replace the old school. The replacement school has since been torn down and new schools have been built for elementary, middle, and high school. The cornerstone contained an article about the statue, written at the time of its commission.
A Tree to Connect
At the far end of the museum is another sculpture, this one of recent construct and a tribute to the lasting effect this tragedy has had on the township’s residents. It is a brass and wire tree with ceramic tiles hanging from it. Each of the ceramic tiles were made by students in an eighth-grade art class in 1999. They have their own unique shapes, designs, and paintings. And each one bears the name of one of the children who were killed in the blast that day. It is quiet testimony to the children of today who would reach out to the victims of their grandparents’ generation.
The Wooden Desk
Near the brass and wire tree is an old-fashioned wooden desk and chair. When the explosions went off, one five-year-old student jumped up and managed to escape from his classroom. He ran home in fear, not realizing until he had gotten to his home a half mile away that he was clutching his desk in his arms. The family later donated the desk to the museum.
Newspapers and photos
The display cases are filled with numerous memorials. There is the white graduation dress that a kindergartner wore the year before she was killed. There are pictures of the victims before the explosions and pictures of the bomber in his home with his wife. There are letters and diaries of the young teachers and older students.
The display cases also contain newspaper accounts and photos from the time. The bombing bumped Lindberg’s landing out as the main story in the Lansing newspapers. Kehoe is referred to as a “monster” with no discernible motive. And the accounts of the more than 100,000 cars that lined the expressways to come to Bath and pay their respects.
Lists of victims
The museum keeps the focus not on the bomber, but on his victims. There are bronze memorial plaques listing all of the victims and other paper listings that give the names and ages of the victims. Reading the names, the visitor quickly becomes aware that there were families who lost all of their children.
Rebuilding
The museum also displays the records and accounts of the rebuilding that the town went through. A new school was built on the same site and donations poured in from around the state to help the township recover. The efforts were led by Sen. James Couzens, for whom the auditorium is now named.
The “new” school was torn down in the mid-seventies and the site of the old school is now a park where the surviving cupola and a state historical marker with the names of all the victims still stands.
Happier Days
It is the Bath Museum, not the Bath Bombing Museum and not all of the exhibits are devoted to the township’s most notable historical event. Two of the display cases at the farthest end are devoted to non-bombing exhibits that are rotated throughout the year. There are mementos of past football teams, band competitions, and other student achievements. Along the wall closest to the auditorium are pictures of every high school class to ever graduate from Bath, dating back to the early part of the century.
But it is usually these exhibits that the visitors come to last, after having already been sobered by the evidence of an act of selfish, mindless violence. Andrew Kehoe protested having to pay taxes by killing 45 people (including himself) and Bath has never stopped mourning his victims.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Redlass
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Member: Bridgette
Location: Lansing, Michigan
Reviews written: 526
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About Me:
I have many loves: family, books, theater, writing, and the many communities I belong to.
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