May 18 marks the 99th anniversary of the deadliest school massacres in American history.
The Bath School Disaster claimed the lives of dozens of children, and people in the small Clinton County community are still reckoning with the tragedy today.
They’re working to preserve the memories of those they lost to make sure they’re never forgotten.
In the months before May 18, 1927, a disgruntled and embittered Bath school board member began planting hundreds of pounds of explosives in the Bath Consolidated School building.
When they went off that May morning, 44 people died in the explosion and the ensuing collapse of half the building. More than 50 were injured. Most of the victims were children.
In the weeks after, the community mourned but moved quickly to put the tragedy behind them.
Within a year and a half, a new school building went up, and for decades, the survivors rarely talked about what happened that day.
"People frequently asked me, 'What was it like growing up with a survivor?' And I just say it was the same as anybody, because we knew what happened, but nobody ever talked about it ," Bath resident Susan Hagerman said.
Hagerman’s father and three of his siblings were all in the building when it exploded.
"My dad and the sisters were buried. His younger brother was in the part that did not get damaged," she said.
Michelle Allen says her experience growing up with her father, another survivor, was similar.
"The subject didn't come up. It was known, and that was about it, " she said.
But Hagerman says that began to change around the 1980s, when some survivors started sharing what they remembered.
"They started opening up, because they realized it needs to be talked about. It needs to get out there," Hagerman said.
Allen recalls being struck by something her father shared about the time of the explosion.
"Daddy said he heard nothing and saw nothing, absolute dead silence. Since then, I've heard that others experienced that too, but I never heard that before, and I didn't know daddy had gone through that ," Allen said.
Another catalyst for change came at around the same time, according to Hagerman.
"The elementary school principal, Jim Hickson, looked out in the trash one day and saw some things out there and went out and investigated," Hagerman said. "Somebody had cleaned out a storage closet and thrown all these things out there, and they were artifacts," .
Hickson started the Bath School Museum Committee along with a group of survivors to preserve these artifacts and what people had kept hidden for years.
What they collected ended up being displayed in the lobby of Bath Middle School’s auditorium.
That include a photo of former Bath superintendent Emory Huyck who was killed in the bombing.
"The kids all loved him. His wife was a music teacher. The kids loved her."
Further down the wall is a statue of a little girl holding a cat. The sculpture was funded with donations that came in from across the state following the bombing. It stood in the building that replaced the one that was lost.
"It's been told that students would walk in in the morning and put their hand on her, and they would know it would be okay that day," Hagerman said.
She shares a story about a small wooden chair sitting on a cabinet.
"The day of the explosion, some kindergarten student was so traumatized they picked up their chair and ran home with it," Hagerman said.
Beyond that, there’s dozens of news clippings and pictures amid other school memorabilia. But these artifacts are only available for viewing by appointment or during public events. Hagerman says the original school’s cupola, which survived the explosion and has been on display outside for years, also needs protection.
"The cupola that sits in the park is over 100 years old, and it needs to get inside, get out of the elements ," she said.
So, over the past few years, the committee has set its sights on building a freestanding museum in the park where the school once stood.
Now, a third generation is getting involved, including Hagerman’s son Chris.
"I want to make sure that the story continues, and I want to get folks my age involved and keep the story alive," Chris Hagerman said.
The group has been fundraising to hit a $5 million goal and revealed designs for the museum in 2024. A documentary has been produced as a part of the campaign, and recently, the committee received grant funding to digitize some of its collections.
Although the committee has only raised a fraction of what they need to begin construction, Hagerman hopes to make progress with a memorial garden that potentially could be ready in time for the 100th anniversary next year.
"We thought we'd start with small bits and pieces and try to build and then show people that, hey, this is something that can really happen," he said.
But even without the museum, community members will continue commemorating the tragedy.
They’ll gather for an annual candlelit vigil on the night of the May 18 to read each name of the victims and keep the memories of those they lost alive.
