Saturday March 17, 1928. A group of robbers came to
town in the afternoon, supplied with stolen property from
local hardware stores and driving a stolen car. Not long after
they arrived in Amherst, the call rang out that the school
building was on fire. Although the entire town was involved in
fighting the fire, the building was a total loss and the school
district sustained a financial loss of between twenty and
twenty four thousand dollars. All the school records were
lost. The National Bank of Amherst was robbed immediately
after the school building was on fire, the robbers headed west
but were caught several days later in Denver. The three men
involved served time in the State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
Since there were still several months left of the school year.
the high school classes resumed in three rooms above
Belschner store and the grade school classes were held in
the churches. A bond was passed less than one month later to
build a new school which was dedicated in December 1928.
Information from the Amherst Centennial Book
