The Grim Story of the Bath School Disaster - 2008-02-14 20:16:39
<<< Previous - Tag'd by the 123 Meme | Next - Random Linkage - and Manos, Hands of Fate! >>>This is probably the last thing I should be reading if I'm feeling a bit blue, but who knows how I manage to stumble on these topics - in the end I'll just blame Wikipedia. Actually I think I first read of this when they made it a
featured article on their
Main Page. It's actually one of the better written Wiki articles I've read - realizing that when you read it it might be in a different form entirely thanks to the "anyone can edit at any time" thing.
Wikipedia: Bath School disaster
Abbreviated story: In Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, a member of the school board blew up the nearby school, most likely motivated by his irriation over the higher taxes he was having to pay to support it. He killed 45 individuals including himself and injured 58 - most of whom were school children. For me what this story brings home is how quickly we forget - with every school shooting or home grown terrorist we have in the US the media acts like this was a newly invented problem, that it's television, movies or video games that spawn this kind of homicide. Well, none of those can be conveniently blamed for this bombing, and the more you read the more it's completely clear that the bombing had everything to do with the mindset of the man who planted the bomb - and some very obvious mental illness there. The more you read and learn about him the more frighteningly ill he seems - but then we've seen this kind of person over and over when they go on rampages or just kill themselves and their families. While it's satisfying to see that it's not some evil media that can be blamed for this - it's just as chilling to realize that these kind of mental problems can't be foreseen and it's almost impossible to protect the innocent from things like this. Sadly.
On the history side of things the primary resource that the Wikipedia page uses is this fascinating site:
Information about the Bath School Disaster. On that page you'll find the personal story of Monty Ellsworth, who was a neighbor of the bomber and lived near the school. Apparently it was "first published in 1927 by the author," and then placed on the internet by the website's owner (whose name I still can't find, but which might be staring me in the face somewhere on that site). Ellsworth wrote down everything to document what he saw and experienced, as well as biographical information about the children who died. He doesn't pretend to be unbiased and makes it extremely clear where his sympathies and anger are - against the bomber, who was a neighbor he had always been somewhat friendly with. It's one of those documents that historians truly appreciate - a vivid first hand account, written by a witness. I found it extremely moving. Perhaps it's because my mother was a teacher, but in the portion about the death of one of those teachers, Hazel Iva Weatherby, choked me up a bit:
"When she was found in the wreckage, there was a child in each arm."
The book also contained/contains many photos of the building and the people involved - and many photos of children in their Sunday best. It was an time when affordable cameras were just starting to be available to the masses, and so we all can recognize the "let's get a photo of you in your good suit before you outgrow it" look in many of them. But one photo that made me stop and really think was at the very end, after the information about the victims and injured. It's of the cleanup and rebuilding efforts - because everyone that still lived in the area had to pitch in and clean away the wreckage and then construct a new school for their children. Of course there were volunteers from elsewhere and state help - but the caption on this one photo of about ten women going through a pile of boards how very different this reconstruction was:
"The ladies holding a bee of their own, pulling nails from the lumber that has been carried out of the wreckage by the men."
That they were recycling the material had everything to do with the fact that finances were limited to build the school in the first place. The kind of work that often gets farmed out to contractors these days was something that neighbors would pitch in and do to the best of their ability - bricklaying, electrical, plumbing, etc. Community buildings aren't constructed this way anymore - probably a good thing considering possible bad building techniques - but at the same time kind of sad. [To see the photo click
here and scroll up - that's as close a link as I can get to it, I think.]
I have to admit, I am curious about the person who put together all these documents - which include a
transcript of the Coroner's Inquest,
photos of the memorial park as it is today, and even information about
the victims, including their photos and photos of their tombstones. If you've ever done any research on geneology you'll know that this is the kind of thing you really hope you'll find but never do - both images and stories. I can't find an About page but I have to wonder if it's someone who had a relative in this accident or is a long time resident of Bath. I could email and find out the answers - but at the moment it's more interesting to just wonder. So often when you research history in a small town there's a derth of information about local events - and having read newspapers from the time period you really have to fact check everything in the national papers with local information. (Not that the 1920s were all that different from today!) Ellsworth's account is something that you might never come upon in a bookstore or library unless you were very lucky. And I find it nice that this site is very plain and factual, which makes it very much a tribute to the memory of the victims as well as documentation of the incident.
So yes, this was a bit out of keeping with my usual weird links - but I just felt the need to share it - or at very least post my appreciation to the website owner for all the work that's obviously put into this.
Added July 29, 2007
Commenter Sue Gillies noted:
"The website is maintained by its creator, James Daggy of Haslett, MI"
I think, more than just his name, I sort of wanted a place to read about what brought Mr. Daggy to this event, whether he'd just read about it and then became interested or passed the momument - or perhaps even is related to someone who was alive at the time.
I really need to send him an email, huh?
But thank you for giving me a name!
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