Protest

The story of Andrew Kehoe and his opposition to taxes, namely school taxes and the disaster that followed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just a heads up. This episode contains topics of violence
towards children and animals that may be disturbing to some.
Please take care while listening. You're listening to American Shadows,
a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild
from Aaron Mankey. It's a story we grew up with

(00:27):
in the history classes of our youth, the Revolutionary War
and the events leading up to it, though some violent
or heavily political aspects were removed until we were older,
such is the case with the Boston Tea Party as
we've come to know it. The American colonies had just
started to recover from the French and Indian War, which
was part of a larger conflict that played out across

(00:49):
the globe. As countries fought for more territory, war costs
money and to offset its debt, the British Parliament taxed
the colonists. In seventeen sixty five, the Stamp Act taxed
all paper goods, from newspapers to legal documents to playing cards.
In seventeen sixty seven, Parliament added the town Send Acts,

(01:10):
which tax consumer goods like paint, glass, lead, and tea,
among other things. Colonists were displeased that the British taxed
them on raw materials that they supplied and shipped to England.
They were less happy that the products were heavily marked
up and sent back. Anger and resentment grew, especially since
colonists felt they had little to no representation in the

(01:32):
Parliament that was claiming to act on their behalf. As
the resentment grew, so did the violence. In seventeen seventy
the Boston Massacre sparked further discord. The last straw was
the Tea Act of seventeen seventy three. The problem had
started when the British repealed the town Send taxes on
other products but kept the tax on tea. You see,

(01:54):
the revenue from one point to million pounds of tea
was to appealing. Tea loving ownials found a solution, though
they boycotted the British East India Company and purchased more affordable,
if smuggled, Dutch tea. This left the British East India
Company holding millions of pounds of tea. All was not
lost for the company, though it was large enough and

(02:16):
had plenty of political connections. In May of seventeen seventy three,
Parliament passed the Tea Act, the East India Company could
sell tea duty free, helping to undercut Dutch tea prices. However,
the lower prices cut into the profit of smugglers like
Sam Adams and John Hancock. Since it wouldn't come across

(02:37):
as patriotic to complain about the loss of income from smuggling,
they instead decried taxation without representation, making tea their rallying point.
In December of seventeen three, three ships carrying tea from
the East India Company arrived in Boston Harbor. To their surprise,
and angry mob met them at the port. Much of

(02:59):
the crowd had been whipped into a frenzy by clandestine
political group that called themselves the Sons of Liberty. The
mob refused to allow the ships to unload, and the
governor refused to allow the ships to return to England.
This impast lasted until December six. That night, members of
the Sons of Liberty, wearing disguises, quietly slipped onto the

(03:20):
ships and tossed the tea overboard. The men left as
quietly as they boarded, and disappeared into the night. We've
come to know this event as the Boston Tea Party.
And though some residents cheered, many reacted with disgusted. George
Washington berated Bostonians for their conduct. Other prominent patriots, including

(03:41):
Benjamin Franklin, argued in favor of compensating the East India
Company for their losses, but ultimately Parliament's punitive reaction to
the Boston Tea Party was one of the sparks that
started the Revolutionary War, making it perhaps one of the
most notable protests in history, and protests have been part
of American life ever since. The reasons have varied, and

(04:04):
while we understand the rationale behind some, others have existed
only in the darkest recesses of an individual's mind. I'm
Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. After the American Revolution,

(04:25):
the French found themselves preoccupied with growing problems back home,
leaving much of the colonized territories in Michigan wide open. Sadly,
the indigenous peoples living there weren't much of a consideration
when colonists moved in. After a few battles and skirmishes,
the settlers took over the prime farming land. Considering New

(04:47):
England's weather, many found the climate more temperate natural resources
were also more abundant. It didn't take long before more
people moved to the area. In eighteen o five, the
Michigan Territory was aided, lowing in more colonists. The population
increased again after the Erie Canal's completion in eighteen twenty five,

(05:08):
and by eighteen thirty seven one Silas Rose, along with
his wife, five children, and all their livestock, relocated from
New York to Michigan. The family promptly carved out a
portion of land they called Bath in honor of their
hometown back in New York. In a few years, Bath
had a few dozen settlers. Most were farmers seeking a

(05:29):
way to make a living and pass down land from
generation to generation. In eighteen forty three, Bath became a township,
and the citizens held their first election on April eighteenth
of that year. By the mid eighteen hundreds, the town
had a sawmill, a brick factory, shops, and a post office.
Rail service soon followed, allowing their goods to be sold

(05:50):
to other towns. They even had a one room schoolhouse
where children of all ages learned side by side. Most
children stayed long enough for a grammar school education. Roughly
eight years. At the time, most kids who wanted to
attend high school had to pass an entrance exam. Since
high schools weren't common in rural areas, children pursuing further

(06:12):
education often went to stay with a relative who lived
in town. As Bath grew over the coming decades, neither
the kids nor the community benefited from these small schoolhouses.
Across the nation, larger schools provided education for children in
grades one through twelve. By the nineteen teens, every morning,
motor buses drove through districts of other cities to pick

(06:33):
up kids and drop them off at school. Each school
had teachers for each of the grades and subjects. By
approximately twelve thousand of these new modern schools had been
built across the country. While some people were happy about
furthering their children's educations, others took offense. Many stated that
they had turned out just fine with the old way

(06:55):
of teaching. Others wanted to know who would pay for
the new schools of uses and extra teachers. Of course,
like in all cities across America, money for schools meant
higher taxes. Bath residents argued bitterly for years as some
parents wanted more for their children than what they had
been given. Others thought the cost was too high. Eventually,

(07:19):
Bath voted to create a new school. To save money,
they opted to renovate an existing one. The local brick
factory provided materials. Construction on the school began in the
fall of and when they finished, residents boasted that the
school was one of the most modern in mid Michigan.
A sense of pride replaced anger for most residents who

(07:40):
had been against the school, all except Andrew Keyhoe, who
had moved to Bath from to Come See. His parents
had once had high expectations for him. As a child,
Keyhoe had shown talent with mechanical devices. His aptitude for
mechanics had helped modernize the family farm back into Come
See life. Chain deb eighteen, when his mother died and

(08:02):
his father remarried a woman twenty five years younger. Keyhoe
didn't care for his father's new wife, and he left
home for a while before returning. By then he had
a half sister, Irene, whom he also did not like.
To show his displeasure, he killed Irene's cat. Then, in
nineteen eleven, the gas stove mysteriously caught fire while his

(08:24):
stepmother was making dinner. Keyhoe watched her burn for a
while before fetching a pail of water. She did not
survive small towns. Being small towns where everyone knows everyone
else's business, it had been no secret that Keyhoe hated
his stepmother and half sister, and like most small towns,

(08:44):
rumors began to swirl that he had rigged to the
stove to catch fire. On May fi, just eight months
after his stepmother's death, Keyhoe married one Ellen Agnes Price.

(09:07):
Had met Ellen, known simply as Nellie to family and friends,
while attending Michigan State College. The couple settled on his
family farm. Like other residents, Nellie was an avid churchgoer. Keyhoe, however,
was not oh Once when the town planned to erect
a new church, Keiho threatened the parish priest with violence
for requesting a four hundred dollar donation. When his father died,

(09:31):
Keihoe purchased farm land in Bath from Nellie's aunt. He
paid half in cash and took a mortgage for the remainder.
The population in Bath was just over three hundred, so
newcomers were exciting, and many residents recalled Nellie from her
childhood trips to her aunt and uncle's farm. They were
none the wiser when it came to Keyhoe's past. Some

(09:52):
regarded him as a kind gentleman who said hello to
the children and tipped his hat to the ladies. Others
thought he was trick Obsessed with the newest farm technologies
like gas powered tractors, Keyho didn't dress like most farmers.
He took to the day wearing a suit, vest and
shiny dress shoes. Visitors to the farm noted that his

(10:14):
tools were kept clean and orderly, not even a rake
out of place, But talk of his quirky ways and
gentlemanly manners soon stopped as he returned to his old
ways of being short tempered and suspicious of everyone. He
shot the neighbor's dog for barking, and when a horse
he purchased didn't live up to his expectations, he beat

(10:36):
it to death. And of course, there were the odd
explosions on the property. While dynamite wasn't unheard of on
farms to break up land, and most considered it useful
only in the most experienced hands, even so, the couple
remained popular among the townsfolk. Keyho enjoyed spending time at
the local farm bureaus, where he showed off his talent

(10:59):
with modern technical marvels. He also joined the school board,
though the couple had no children themselves. Neighbors considered Keyhoe's
interest in extension of his commitment to the community. He
was well educated, so his involvement with education seemed natural.
No one realized his motives were anything but generous. Keyhoe

(11:19):
was frugal, to say the least. While he freely spent
money on himself in the farm's latest technology, Keyhoe felt
he shouldn't have to pay for anything that didn't benefit
him directly. Nothing set off his temper like taxes, especially
taxes for school. In his mind, since he had no children,

(11:39):
he shouldn't have to pay towards their education. But when
the board held a vote on November twelfth, of only
twenty out of seventy six opposed a plan to fund
the new school's athletic field by raising property taxes. Additional
taxes were needed to hire teachers and staff. When the
doors opened in the fall of nWo Keiho watched the

(12:01):
community rally behind the school with complete contempt. A man
by the name of Emery Haike, a veteran and one
of the school's teachers also took on the position of superintendent.
Hike worked hard to make the bussing system successful and
focused on earning the school's accreditation. In nineteen twenty five.
He succeeded, making the bad consolidated school one of the

(12:24):
best schools in Michigan. Keiho seethed, so when the board
treasurer was up for reelection, Keiho ran against him and won.
He was sworn in a week later. Keiho took on
additional roles as well, working as a janitor and handyman.
For the next few years, he fought with the school
board in the town over his property's value, trying to

(12:46):
reduce it to lower his taxes. Keiho argued that the
taxes had risen to the point where Pe could no
longer pay his mortgage. His wife, Sant, who held the
mortgage on the farm, threatened foreclosure. He shouted at her
that if he couldn't of their no one would a
word regarding Keyhoe's obstructionist behavior and policies caused him to

(13:06):
lose the election for town clerk in and adding to
his stress, Nellie had tuberculosis, which was often fatal, especially
in rural areas like Bath. The townsfolk quietly observed the
Keyhos temper had reached a fever pitch by the end
of the school year. Neighbor Monty Ellsworth noticed a two

(13:28):
ft long box full of rifle shells and Keyhoe's truck.
Though Ellsworth didn't tell anyone the amount of weapons and
ammunition his neighbor had stockpiled made of nervous If Ellsworth
had known what else his neighbor had stoppiled, it might
have sent off alarm bells loud enough for the entire town.

(13:54):
Lightning and thunder rumbled across Bath on the morning of
May eighte The farming town was happy about the much
needed rain. The resulting power outage was another matter. The
storm took out the school generator, preventing the school bell
from ringing. The residents carried on as usual everywhere in Bath,

(14:16):
students prepared for the last day of school. A nine
year old Robert Hart had spent the morning feeding chickens
before realizing he was running late. He shouted goodbye to
his mom as he ran off to school. Third grader
Arnold Boyerla tried convincing his parents to let him stay
home and go shopping with them in Lansing. Unfortunately, he
had missed enough school already and they sent him on

(14:37):
his way. Twelve year old Lola Hart lamented to her
mother that she had a test that day that would
surely kill her. In response, her mother assured her everything
would be fine. To brighten the day, Lola stopped to
pick lilacs to take with her to class. Seven year
old Ralph Cushman walked to school with his older sister, Josephine.

(14:57):
He talked excitedly about the long summer ahead and all
the games of baseball he intended to play once at
the school. Josephine smiled and promised her little brother she
would seem at lunch, before disappearing into the sea of
students heading to their classes. Principal Floyd Huggett stood on
the school steps at eight thirty, ringing a bell signifying

(15:18):
that class was about to begin. After the last students
stepped inside, Huggett walked next door to the church to
check on the details for the commencement celebrations planned for
the following night. Keyho drove into the parking lot and
headed inside. One of the faculty asked him to check
on the boiler. It frequently gave them trouble, and though
that asked him several times to take a look, it

(15:40):
had never been fixed. Many thought it was odd, given
Keyhoe's ability to fix almost everything. One teacher, Miss gudakanst
allowed her class to start a little late that day.
By eight thirty five, over two hundred and fifty students
were in attendance. A group of senior boys stepped outside
to celebrate their last stay with an impromptu baseball game,

(16:02):
and the day had started out bleary but seemed to
be shaping up nicely, and several minutes after arriving, Keyhoe
left the school and drove away. The first explosion tore
apart the north wing of the school at walls collapsed
onto the children, Floors and ceilings shook, windows burst, and
brick and plaster shot through the air like missiles. The

(16:25):
boys playing baseball outside were grown to the ground. Survivors
and nearby residents scrambled to help. They plowed at the
debris to find anyone buried underneath. Parents screamed and sobbed
as they clung to lifeless forms on the lawn. A
few men passing the Keyhoe farm noticed smoke. They stopped
to help and found the bar and ablaze. Realizing it

(16:47):
was too late to save any of the animals, they
headed to the house, but promptly left and they found
a stack of dynamite with a timer. They only narrowly
escaped the blast threw them against their cars. A neighbors
stood stunned as Keyho jumped into his truck and yelled
at them to get to the school before speeding away.
The fire marshal and other first responders at the school

(17:10):
noticed the smell of explosives. Rescue efforts were underway to
get the wounded to the nearby hospital. Adults took uninjured
children to a nearby home to prevent them from seeing
so much death and destruction. Ke Ho roared into the
parking lot and stopped next to Superintendent Hike's car. He
jumped out, rifle in hand. Hike walked over to him,

(17:31):
either mistaking his intentions to help or possibly to stop Keyhoe.
Once he saw the rifle, Keiho turned and fired into
his own truck, where had stashed a considerable amount of
dynamite and boxes of nuts, bolts and nails. The shot
ignited the dynamite and a ball of gas and flames
incinerated the men. The nails and other loose items became

(17:54):
lethal shrapnel, hitting bystanders. One of the children who had
survived the initial old blast died after sharpnel lodged into
his spine. Josephine Cushman stood in the parking lot, confused
in shock. People ran, screamed, or were lying on the ground.
She caught a glimpse of her parents and ran to them.

(18:15):
Sobbing blood streamed from her leg. Until then, she had
no idea she had been hit by shrapnel. Her parents
asked where her brother was. Josephine shook her head. She
had no idea. Rescuers found him still sitting at his
desk next to Ralph sat, another classmate. Neither boy had
had time to escape. They were among the forty five

(18:38):
killed in the mask Here fifty eight others were injured.
The rescue efforts and clean up went on late into
the night. Nothing like this had occurred at a school before.
But for the residence of Bath, one thing was clear.
The explosion hadn't been a case of a faulty boiler.
One man angry over taxes had meticulously planned the most

(19:02):
heinous act. They could imagine there were other victims not
at the school. Investigators found Nellie's charred body in a
cart at the back of the farm. Keyhoe had also
hobbled all the horses in the barn to prevent them

(19:24):
from escaping on a fence. He had left a hand
painted sign Criminals are made, not born. While the town
didn't have all the answers as to why key Hoo
had decided on such depth and destruction, they knew this much.
He blamed everyone else for his actions. It was a

(19:45):
miracle more hadn't died. Investigators found the keyho had been
rigging the entire building for months. A short circuit and
one of the wires had prevented another five hundred pounds
of dynamite in the south wing from exploding. In the aftermath,
doctor nurses and help from neighboring towns poured in. Businesses
sent food and provisions. The American Red Cross arrived to

(20:07):
assist and took in donations, And then there were onlookers.
The neighbor Monte Ellsworth, owned a gas station just outside
of town. He told reporters that a double row of
cars passed through Bath nearly fifty thousand vehicles drove down
the stretch of road through the town to pay their
respects or bear witness. The traffic was so thick that

(20:29):
it took four hours to drive three miles, yet Ellsworth
never heard a single car horn. He noted that the
cars resembled one long funeral procession of sympathy. Money came
in from across the country. Lancing architect donated new plans
for rebuilding the school. Michigan Senator James Cousins donated dollars.

(20:53):
The town rebuilt slowly. A year later, the school was
finished a new and classes returned from local storerooms to
the schoolhouse. Newspapers wrote the Keyhoe had been a deranged
and demented madman. No matter how anyone tried, they could
not understand such an act. Killing children and staff over

(21:16):
taxes made sense to no one. One thing was certain, though,
Andrew Keyhoe unwittingly united a country in the name of
those he sought so bitterly to destroy. There's more to
this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to
hear all about it. It was May of ninety three,

(21:43):
and the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama had stalled.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr. And others worried about the
lack of supporters. King had traveled to Birmingham to rally
support and stand toe to toe against die hard segregationists.
Protest sit ins and boycotts were met with increasing violence,

(22:03):
all for the crime of taking part in exposing the
cruelty and unjust nature of the Jim Crow mentality. King
and other activists knew they needed a new strategy. One
of them, James Bevel, made a controversial suggestion utilize America's
younger generations. The suggestion was met with a lot of pushback.

(22:24):
King and the others had seen the violence against the
adult protesters, but the idea spread throughout Birmingham's communities. Young
adults and teenagers had seen the violence softened firsthand against
their own parents. Their parents were only trying to ensure
that they have a better, more equitable future, and needed help.
Older teenagers had already participated in the protests, often marching

(22:47):
with their parents, but younger children had always stayed home.
King warned the parents that the police would arrest kids
and that jail wasn't a place for them, But children
throughout the city were determined to make a difference. The
idea angered some community leaders. They asked how anyone could
suggest pitting young kids against bull Connor, Birmingham's public safety commissioner,

(23:12):
known for his cruel methods of injuring black protesters. Still, children,
parents and other community leaders pushed the grassroots movement forward.
They attended meetings and told the kids what to expect.
Each child was taught to act non violently. The group
began to refer to the day they would first protest,

(23:32):
May second of nineteen sixty three as D Day. When
the day arrived, thousands of children gathered at the sixteenth
Street Baptist Church. After a quick briefing, they left, some
carrying signs to march throughout the city. Children ranging from
just seven years old to eighteen marched peacefully, making their
way to the Mayor's office, where they hoped to talk

(23:55):
about segregation. Some sang freedom songs and some marched quietly.
All had skipped school. When they reached their destination, they
did not receive a warm greeting. They expected to be
spat on, pushed, and called names no matter what happened.
They had been instructed to not fight back. But no

(24:16):
matter what they had been told, no one expected what
would happen next The police were already there waiting to
arrest them. They were grabbed off the street, kicked and pushed,
tossed into wagons and school buses that took them to jail.
The children persisted protesting for days. That's when law enforcement
turned water hoses on them. Hitting them was forced strong

(24:38):
enough to knock them off their feet and send them
sprawling to the hard pavement. The police unleashed canine units
to attack the children. Officers beat protesters for clubs. Bull
Connor reportedly laughed when he saw black children running in fear,
but the sight of children being brutally attacked moved adult
witnesses to respond with violent of their own against the police.

(25:02):
They threw rocks, bottles, and bricks. Reporters converged on the scene.
Those with video cameras were hosed down and arrested. As
the days went on, the brutality spurred outrage across the nation.
Over two thousand children were arrested. When the jails and
attention centers overflowed, Connor created a makeshift jail at the

(25:22):
fair grounds. The children kept coming and kept protesting. Without
more police to fight them, more and more places to
put them. The kids finally won, O'Connor retaliated. On May
theo Wright and Birmingham's school superintendent composed a letter to
schools demanding that every student who had participated in the

(25:43):
protest be immediately expelled or suspended. The Board of Education
members who Connor had endorsed all upheld the decision. Though
Connor had attempted to quiet the press, they also persisted
showing videos of the attacks on television networks across the country.
Business his owners also began calling for an end to
the violence. President John F. Kennedy sent the Assistant Attorney

(26:06):
General to Birmingham to take part in the community negotiations,
and eventually lunch counters, public restrooms, and businesses were desegregated
in Birmingham. The children who had protested did make a
difference for their communities, their parents, and their own futures.

(26:33):
American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was
written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced
by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mackey,
Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show,
visit grim and mild dot com. From more podcasts from

(26:53):
iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.