When I sat down to write this column last week, I could not have realized Onsted Community Schools would make news again about a fire in its high school.

Thankfully, the incident at Onsted High School last week was minor, and the homecoming court on the stage at the time a hot light combusted a stage curtain posed for a photo in front of one of the responding fire trucks.

What took place nearly 98 years ago was more serious than a small curtain smoldering.

On May 12, 1925, Onsted High School was destroyed by a fire around 7:30 a.m., caused by a faulty chimney. The day started like any other cold day. Janitor Erwin Outman built a fire in the heating plant and began to ready the classrooms for the day.

While checking each classroom for everything it needed that Tuesday morning, he smelled smoke and investigated. Upon opening the door to the attic, he was met with a face full of smoke. He grabbed a fire extinguisher but almost immediately realized his effort was futile. He called the Onsted fire department. At the same time, the superintendent’s wife, Mrs. C.B. Morrall, had seen flames coming from the roof and had also called for help.

Residents gathered quickly at the school and managed to form a human chain, carrying out books, desks and other equipment, before the fire advanced to where the building had to be abandoned. Embers threatened the Baptist church and grange hall across the street, and mutual aid was sought to put out the fire. Both Brooklyn and Adrian fire departments sent trucks to battle the blaze. Both departments arrived in near-record time, but by then, the fire had largely swept the wooden building.

Among the lost items was a 900-volume library of books, officials said. The two-story frame building housed 12 grades of 135 students, 76 of whom were high school students. The building was inadequately insured for $5,600, and it was particularly lamented the loss of the books not only impacted the students, but the village as a whole since there was no other library in Onsted at the time.

What was not lost, however, were the school’s old records, which had been updated the previous summer and stored in a fireproof safe at the Onsted State Bank. The rest of the school year would be held in the Baptist church gymnasium and other places deemed fit for learning.

About two weeks later, officials from the state superintendent board held an informational meeting laying out the idea of a consolidated school district, as was done at Sand Creek. Nearly everyone, including Onsted school board president Charles Kerr, panned the notion. The schoolchildren present echoed the sentiments of the district by offering “school yells” and school spirit music. The district would continue as a nonconsolidated entity.

By August, the former school ruins had been cleared and in its place rose a multiple-level brick building, which still stands today on the southwest corner of Slee Road and Onsted Highway. It is part of the elementary configuration and was upgraded over the years to keep up with the ever-changing needs of the district.

Dan Cherry is a Lenawee County historian.