Last Updated on July 4, 2026
Answer: Sheepherder John Hardy burned down Chapman School on Wilson St. in 1924.
John Hardy claimed he didn’t have any reason for destroying the old Chapman School with a single match. “I just did it,” he admitted. The paper from 1924 lacks today’s political correctness their by-line “School is burned firebug confesses, John Hardy, Sheepherder, Fires Chapman Building–OTHERS ATTEMPTS LISTED: Prisoner, Declared ‘Queer,’ Tells of Setting Match to Structures About City.” The paper reports a week later that he was committed to a mental institution.
My mind don’t work right and when I see a building, I just can’t help setting it afire.
