BATH, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – For Susan Hagerman, the 1927 Bath school bombing isn’t just a part of her community’s history – it’s a somber part of her family’s fabric.

“It’s very close to my heart.”

Hagerman is the daughter and niece of a half-a-dozen people who survived the deadliest mass murder at a school in U.S. history on May 18, 1927 in Bath, Michigan. The community sits a stone’s throw from Lansing.

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“It’s very close to my heart,” Hagerman told Michigan News Source. “My father and two aunts were in the explosion and injured,” she said. “One of dad’s youngest brothers was at the school but not injured. My dad’s older sister, who was part of the class of 1927, was in church next to school practicing for commencement that day.”

While Hagerman’s family members escaped death that day, 38 students, four staff members, and one bystander did not. The Bath Museum website reports just after the school bell rang on May 18, 1927, Andrew Kehoe, a local farmer and politician upset over high property taxes, drove his vehicle filled with explosives into the two-story schoolhouse. Kehoe, who killed his wife, Nellie at home earlier, also died in the explosion.

It’s understandable that the history – both the community’s and her family’s – remains an emotional one for Hagerman. She recalled how a moment’s change would have made a difference for her dad, Raymond Eschtruth, who died in 2001 at 84. He escaped the explosion with a head injury, cuts and bruises, and a broken leg. He even ran across the road to his aunt’s house not realizing until he got there that he’d broken his leg.

“Even in adult years when anyone asked about it, he would cry,” Hagerman said.

“Sacred ground.”

Those tears are just one of the reasons Hagerman is keeping memory of those who perished alive. She now serves as the President of Bath School Museum Committee, which works to keep the community from forgetting the victims and survivors.

One part of keeping those memories alive is finding a bigger space.

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“We’ve outgrown where we are,” Hagerman said, referring to the Bath Middle School where the museum currently sits. People have to make an appointment to walk through the museum since it is housed in a school.

But museum volunteers are working to keep it close to home. Across the street from the current museum sits the James Couzens Memorial Park, the site of the original school. “The park is sacred ground,” Hagerman said. “The new museum will be next to it.”

Museum committee members are working with Bath school and township officials to make the new facility a reality. They’re looking to raise $5 million for a new facility that “has the necessary space to house all the current exhibits, but also to be a building that is used by the community and other visitors from outside of Bath,” according to the website.

On Monday, a candlelight vigil will take place at the park at 7:00 p.m. to honor the victims from the explosion 99 years ago.

“The memory needs to be kept alive,” Hagerman said.