From the Archives: Bath School disaster

On May 18, 1927, an explosion ripped through the north wing of the Bath Consolidated School building.

Andrew P. Kehoe, a local farmer and school board member, who was also the school's caretaker, had placed more than 1,000 pounds of dynamite in the school building over a period of months, setting a timer so it would explode when classes were in session.

Kehoe had been angry about property taxes used to fund a new school. He blamed the tax for his financial hardships and the fact that he had fallen into foreclosure on his farm.

After the explosion, Kehoe drove up and detonated explosives in his truck, killing himself and three adults (the school superintendent, the postmaster and his father-in-law) and a child nearby who had survived the original blast.

Before blowing up the school, Kehoe killed his wife, Nellie, and set off various devices that caused his house and other farm buildings to burn.

The tragedy took 45 lives, 38 of them children, and injured 58 others, according to the Bath School Museum.

Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history