| On Sunday October 11th, 2009, bombing survivor Willis Ivan Cressman died in Dewitt at age 97. Visitation was on Thursday evening, October 15, at the Gorsline-Runciman Dewitt Chapel. The funeral service was held on Friday, October 16th, at 10:00 am at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lansing (500 W. Saginaw St.). Interment was in the Dewitt Cemetery. |
Listed below are links to pages in this and other websites that deal with the events & aftermath of that day's tragedy.
- The Victims
- Brief individual biographies, their burial location & available photographs.
- Those who survived the event
- A list on individuals: survivors, siblings, adult family members, rescuers, townsfolk & others.
- The Coroner's Inquest
- The transcript of the May 23-25, 1927 Clinton County Coroner's Inquest. 768Kb
- Books About the Bombing
- "The Bath School Disaster"
A contemporary account of the bombing and the events leading up to it, written by Bath resident Monty Ellsworth. It is available in four forms:- Lynx version (no formatting) 127Kb
- Text Only (2 frames; formatted; no pictures) 200Kb
- Full Book (2 frames; formatted; text & pictures as they appeared in the book) 2.6Mb
- Modem Friendly (4 frames; formatted; text & pictures available on demand)
- The Bath School Disaster Memorial Park
- Images from the park at the site of the former school building.
- Survivors that are Still Alive Today
- A list on individuals, survivors or siblings of survivors, that are still living.
- 1896 Maps of Clinton County & Bath Township
Clinton
County
map
Bath
Township
map- "The Bath School Disaster"
- Individuals
- Ronald Bauerle — victim family descendant
website: freepages.history.rootsweb.com/.../disaster.htm
message board: resources.rootsweb.com/...
- Arnie Bernstein — author
A non-fiction account of the Bath School Disaster by author Arnie
Bernstein is now available. The title is Bath Massacre: America's First
School Bombing. Pricing: $18.95 (paper binding); $50.00 (cloth binding).- Arnie's website: www.arniebernstein.com
- He has a YouTube video to promote the book — it may be viewed by [ CLICKING HERE ]
- Betty Spencer — author
In early 2008 Mt. Pleasant author Betty Spencer published her book Life Is Fragile: One Girl's Story of the Bath School Disaster. It is a fictionalized account of what life would have been like for a pre-teen farm girl living outside of the Village of Bath and attending the township's Consolidated School. The book may be ordered online at Amazon.com
- Gene Wilkins — Township historian
E-mail: bathtwphistory@aol.com
- Library Resources
- Dewitt Public Library, Local History Collection - available books
... The Bath School Disaster (1927; Monty Ellsworth)
... Mayday: The History of a Village Holocaust (1980; Grant Parker)
website: www.dewittlibrary.com/LHC/LHC-Clinton.htm
- area cemetery records
website: www.dewittlibrary.com/cemetery/Cemetery.htm
- Michigan State University, Special Collections - available books
... The Bath School Disaster (1927; Monty Ellsworth)
... Mayday: The History of a Village Holocaust (1980; Grant Parker)
... My Scrapbook on the Bath School Bombing (2002; Gene Wilkins)
website: www.lib.msu.edu/coll/main/spec_col/about/index.htm
- Newspapers
- "Ojai Valley News" (S. California newspaper)
online obituary of George Carpenter
- Other Internet Resources
- Wikipedia: online article
- Story Corps: Interview with Willis Cressman & niece Johanna Cushman-Balzer
- NPR: Morning Edition feature (April 17, 2009)
- Businesses & Organizations
- Sources of books about the bombing
... The Bath School Disaster (1927; Monty Ellsworth)
... Mayday: The History of a Village Holocaust (1980; Grant Parker)- The Bath Township Offices
- The Bath School Museum
The cost is $10 for each copy + shipping to your locale
...other out-of-print books on the Bath School Disaster- Curious Book Store - East Lansing
website: www.curiousbooks.com
- Local Churches
- Schools & Local Government
- Bath Community Schools
website: www.bath.k12.mi.us
- Bath Charter Township
website: www.bathtownship.us
- Ronald Bauerle — victim family descendant
This site is a featured link of MeL —
the Michigan eLibrary,
an ongoing project of the Library of Michigan.
& the Michigan Library Consortium.
We are referenced in the "Librarian Recommended Websites > Best of the Web
> History > General History Resources" section
This website is a personal endeavor. The content herein is solely the responsibility of the site creator.
Research assistance for this website provided by Gene Wilkins, Ronald Bauerle, James Hixson, David Votta, Arnie Bernstein, the United States Social Security Death Master Index, Monty Ellsworth's Bath School Disaster, Harold Burnett's History of Bath Charter Township, Grant Parker's Mayday and the staffs of: The Michigan State University Library, the Capital Area District Library, the Library of Michigan, the Dewitt Public Library, the Chesaning City Library, the Bath Township Clerk's office, the Meridian Township Clerk's office, the Perry Township Clerk's office, the Carson City Clerk's office, the Clinton County Clerk's office, the City of Lansing Mount Hope Cemetery, Emanuel Lutheran Church - Lansing, the Estes-Leadley Lansing Funeral Chapel, the Gorsline-Runciman Williamston Chapel, Mount Hope Monument Company, the Lansing State Journal & the Bath Schools Historical Museum.
Most of all we would like to thank all of the families of Bath who over the years have shared their stories and photographs with the many individuals that have gone before us in documenting the events surrounding the bombings in Bath, Michigan on the 18th of May, 1927.
Digitized document conversion/formatting also ©Copyright 2001-2009 James L. Daggy, All rights are reserved.
Book cover art & designs are ©Copyright 1978, 1980, 2002, 2007, 2008 & 2009 by their respective publishers.
Questions or Comments may be directed to
comments@bathschooldisaster.info