Decades before famous 1957 tornado, another Fargo family devastated by twister

FIND YOUR GROOVE

AT THE RED RIVER VALLEY FAIR LIFE B1

SUNDAY, JULY 7, 2019

SUNDAY EDITION

TORNADO TRAGEDY

INFORUM.COM

Nursing homes under scrutiny Report names 6 poorly performing facilities in ND Editor’s note: This is the first installment of two days of coverage focused on nursing homes in the region with health and safety issues.

By Patrick Springer pspringer@forumcomm.com

Photo courtesy of Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo (51.52.4)

After seven children of the James McCarty family died in their Fargo home during a tornado that struck the city early on July 7, the funeral procession, led here by members of the Grand Army of the Republic and Continental Hose Company, traveled on July 8 past the Lincoln School, which can be seen in the background.

Many decades before famous 1957 tornado, another Fargo family devastated by twister FARGO he words “tornado”, “Fargo” and “deadly” immediately conjure images of the 1957 twister that destroyed a north Fargo neighborhood and claimed 12 lives, six of them children in the Munson family alone.

Yet, that is not Fargo’s only tragic twister tale.

Nearly 70 years before that storm ripped through town, another deadly tornado snuffed out the lives of seven children in one family living on the north edge of Fargo.

T

Celebratory summer weekend

Approximately 5,500 residents called Fargo home in 1890 and that July was typical in terms of weather. On Friday, July 4, 1890, the temperature reached a comfortable 73 degrees and people celebrated the national holiday

INSIDE TODAY’S

FORUM

By Christopher Magan St. Paul Pioneer Press ST. PAUL — Undignified living conditions, holes in walls, a resident found wandering outside confused — those are some of the reasons federal regulators are scrutinizing 11 Minnesota nursing homes.

The focus on those facilities recently came to light after leaders of a select U.S. Senate Committee on Aging released what they characterized as a “secret” list of 400 nursing homes across the nation the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS,

DANIELLE

TEIGEN



with firecrackers and festivities like a picnic in Island Park. The rest of the weekend was warm, with some gusty wind but no rain. According to historical weather data, the high on Sunday reached 83, but the day was later reported to have ascended to an “oppressive” heat level.

Rose Anna McCarty was a 43-year-old mother of nine and pregnant with her 10th child. She and her family lived in a twostory house on the corner of Ninth Avenue and Fifth Street North.

They were all still likely reeling from the death of husband and father James McCarty only a

TORNADO: Page A6

said had patterns of health and safety violations and need tighter oversight.

The new federal information is part of an increased focus in Minnesota and across the nation on the treatment of seniors and vulnerable adults. The state Legislature recently approved sweeping new oversight rules in response to lax investigations of abuse complaints by state officials.

“We believe it is the tip of the iceberg,” Kristine

MN HOMES: Page A7

These images were printed with a Roy P. Johnson article on Oct. 29, 1950.

Above top: Jay McCarty was born two months after seven of his family members were killed in a tornado on July 7, 1890. Katie, who was 8, was visiting her oldest sister, Laura, right, who was on a teaching assignment near Clifford, N.D. Above: Cap. James McCarty died only three weeks before the July 7, 1890, tornado killed seven of his children in their family home. Rose McCarty, who was pregnant at the time, survived and delivered a healthy son later in September.

Superintendent moves ahead with Level D plans

By Emma Beyer ebeyer@forumcomm.com

Superintendent Rupak al disorders.

Gandhi is continuing However, what the with plans to create a school would look like is FARGO — Despite out- “Level D” school for area still vague. cry from some parents, students with severe Fargo Public Schools emotional and behavior- LEVEL D: Page A6

Today’s weather 84°  67°

$2.50

(Suggested retail price) Copyright 2019 The Forum

ND HOMES: Page A7

Moorhead home among 11 troubled Minn. facilities

Separate school would serve students with emotional, behavioral disorders

SPORTS: Essentia wins WF school sports medicine contract with $2.5M bid PAGE D1

FARGO — Five North Dakota nursing homes performed poorly in routine inspections and are among 435 facilities in the nation that federal officials have on a watch list that could place them under added scrutiny.

The nursing homes falling under the regulatory spotlight were highlighted in a recent U.S. Senate report that disclosed for the first time nursing homes around the country that are in jeopardy of being considered “special focus facilities,” a designation requiring added inspections and possible

financial penalties if they fail to correct serious deficiencies.

These are the five nursing homes in North Dakota on the candidate “watch list” for possible federal status as “special focus facilities”: ► Western Horizons Care Center in Hettinger ► Dunseith Community Nursing Home in Dunseith ► Richardton Health Center in Richardton ► Minot Health and Rehabilitation in Minot ► Knife River Care Center in Beulah A sixth North Dakota nursing home, Trinity Homes in Minot, was

Mostly sunny

Details, D6

Getty Images / Special to the Forum

FARMLAND FOR SALE SOLD: Barnes County ND Farmland. 159.91 Acres, Weimer Township, North of Tower City, ND. SOLD: Cass County ND Farmland. 160 Acres of Excellent Land, NE of Tower City, ND. Cornell Township.

SOLD: Traill County ND Farmland, 378 acres NW of Blanchard, ND. Blanchard Township. High quality land with a building site.

SOLD: Cass County, 119 acres of excellent farm land west of Kindred, ND. Davenport Township.

FOR SALE: Barnes County Farmland 59+- acres NE of Fingal, ND. FOR SALE: Nelson County, ND Farmland with GREAT hunting. 160 Acres west of Larimore ND.

Classifieds ................ G Comics....................... Z Crosswords............. B3 Obituaries ............... A4, A8, C3, C6, C7, C8 Opinion ................... C4

www.johnsonauctionandrealty.com 40 years of agricultural experience in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota

Phone: 701-799-5213

Steven Johnson

steve@johnsonauctionandrealty.com R.E. Broker Auctioneer Lic# 976

Local News

A6 Sunday, July 7, 2019

LEVEL D From Page A1

The district is exploring partnerships and potential locations for the Level D setting, Gandhi told The Forum. It’s still uncertain if the new setting would be a standalone building or part of an existing school.

However, the setting would likely be near a traditional school, if not placed inside, Gandhi said.

The superintendent intends this fall to make a presentation to the school board, which must approve the plan.

The setting has become a highly debated topic in the Fargo area as some teachers say behavior issues are at an all-time high, especially because of an increase in students with special needs. Many parents say there’s a lack of training for teachers dealing with students with disabilities, and that schools don’t always follow a student’s Individual Education Program, the legal document that outlines things such as academic goals, accommodations and de-escalation tactics.

There is currently no separate setting for elementary students with more extreme behaviors in the area. Students with disabilities, including autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and emotional disturbance disorders, are generally educated alongside peers without such disabilities.

TORNADO From Page A1

few weeks earlier in June from an illness associated with his heart. He was 47.

The McCarty family had moved to Fargo in 1880 from Iowa, bringing James McCarty’s father with them. Born in New York, James McCarty served in the Army as a sergeant during the Civil War, enlisting in August 1862 and mustering out in June 1865 after the war ended in the rank of captain.

He and Rose, a native of Wisconsin where James McCarty had spent time as a boy, married about three years after the war ended.

He purchased a farm near Argusville and built the two-story home where most of his family would later die. At the time of his death, James McCarty was a deputy sheriff in Fargo and volunteer firefighter for the Continental Hose Company.

As the sun set that Sunday, some thought the sky might break open and rain a bit, which it did after 11 p.m., according to a Fargo Republican article from July 7, 1890.

Within an hour, a bona fide thunderstorm had kicked up, bringing some thunder, lightning and wind, but nothing entirely serious, according to the article. The storm strengthened from there and finally reached its zenith around 2:30 a.m. “when a tempest of wind and rain broken upon the city with a fury that was appalling.”

The storm — dubbed by some a tornado, by others a high wind storm — knocked a Northern Pacific train off its tracks, all three baggage cars and nine sleeping cars. A few passengers suffered minor injuries and were taken to Cass County Hospital, while others were boarded at the Headquarters or Columbia Hotel for the rest of the night.

Plymouth Congregational Church, which had been constructed in 1884, collapsed from the force of the wind. Numerous other buildings throughout downtown and northern Fargo sustained some damage, including several homes, businesses and a train depot.

WDAY Meteorologist John Wheeler said knowledge about tornadoes was lacking in 1890, which explains

The Forum

Task force recommendations

In January 2018, Fargo began a pilot version of the Level D program in the Agassiz School, which also houses Woodrow Wilson High School. But parents soon spoke out against the pilot program, criticizing the lack of support, training and resources.

In May 2018, despite testimony from a dozen parents and community members, who opposed the setting, the Fargo School Board voted 5-4 to approve about $4.3 million to remodel Agassiz School into a Level D setting facility for kindergarten through fifth grade students. The West Fargo School District planned to send students there and contribute funding.

Fargo and West Fargo had plans to add six more classrooms to the pilot program in 2019, serving up to 64 students from both districts. However, West Fargo’s school board voted against funding the facility, saying they did not have enough information to move forward in the partnership.

In July 2018, a video surfaced of a 9-year-old student in the Level D pilot program who was forced into a room at Agassiz and pinned down by a Fargo police officer and a school official. The student’s mother, Victoria Johnson, has said the episode traumatized her son.

Shortly after the video surfaced, Fargo canceled the pilot program. Howthe differing accounts for describing the storm. Even the terms used to describe them varied — cyclone, twister, high wind storm.

He said a tornado was the likely culprit although that can’t be known for certain based on the scant historical information available.

Daryl Ritchison, director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network, checked the historical record book that contains weather observations made at 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. daily starting in 1881 and noted that the observer never mentions the word “tornado” in any reports, only wind. He said the storm destroyed the instrument shelter, which was located in downtown Moorhead in 1890.

Sadness after seeking shelter

How much warning Rose McCarty had to shelter her children cannot be known, but she recounted to a Republican reporter later that many of the children were frightened by the storm and feared the house would blow away.

Rose McCarty and seven of her children (two others were out of town when the storm hit) sought shelter in the coal bin in the shed at the rear of the home.

The bin had been cut into the floor several feet below the kitchen and was full of coal, but seemed like the safest place for the family to endure Mother Nature’s wrath.

Rose McCarty had enough time to lay some carpet over the coal to make everyone more comfortable, and she instructed 19-year-old Rose Isabelle “Belle” and 16-year-old Mary Alice “Mamie” to head in first so she could hand down younger children, according to the article.

Rose headed into the bin last, huddling with her children in the tight quarters.

As the storm swelled outside, the house suddenly shifted violently, pushing the frame several feet away from its foundation, causing the coal to shift as well, smothering all seven children.

Rose McCarty, who hadn’t been able to get entirely into the bin because it was full of her kids, found herself pinned helplessly between the house and the steps leading into the bin.

Forum file photo

Fargo Public Schools Superintendent Rupak Gandhi says he supports creating a school for young students with emotional and behavioral disorders. ever, during the summer, school board members continued to discuss establishing a permanent Level D program at Agassiz.

Fargo then formed a 50-member task force made up of teachers, administrators, legislators, advocates and parents to recommend the best setting for such a program.

In January 2019, the task force reported the top choice for the program would be a regional center that wasn’t attached to a current building, although there wasn’t a clear consensus. The task force emphasized the importance of trained staff and temporary placement in the setting.

Superintendent Gandhi is now weighing the suggestions from the task force, but says he fully supports adding the Level D setting

to Fargo Public Schools.

West Fargo has not indicated whether it plans to join the developments moving forward.

What does Level D mean?

Students with disabilities should generally be educated in a general education class, according to federal law. However, students can be placed in other classroom settings depending on the severity of their needs and behavior.

Federal law mandates that students be educated in the least restrictive environment, or alongside general education peers as much as possible. Students can be placed in special classes or separate schools only if their disability prevents them from learning in general education class-

rooms, even with additional aids.

Classroom placement for students with disabilities ranges from Level A to Level H, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, federal legislation that mandates education rights for students with disabilities.

Students placed in Level A settings spend at least 80% of their time in a traditional classroom. This category includes the majority of special education students.

Level C students are educated in general education classrooms less than 40% of the day and otherwise are educated in classrooms with other students with disabilities.

Level D students are educated in separate schools with other peers with disabilities.

How are students placed in Level D?

Federal law lists 13 disability categories under which students, ages 3 to 21, are eligible for special education services, including emotional and behavioral disorders, physical and cognitive impairments, ADHD, and students on the autism spectrum. Students with disabilities each have an Individual Education Program, or IEP, that outlines things like a student’s strengths, challenges and accommodations.

The IEP also outlines a student’s classroom placement level.

In Fargo, a team of special and regular classroom teachers, counselors

Army of the Republic and Continental Hose Company served as pallbearers and escorted the caskets to Holy Cross Cemetery, where they were “buried side by side in one grave, united in death as in life.”

Three hearses carried the seven coffins, and many children lined the route.

A monument to the McCarty family as well as the individual markers of the father and his seven Danielle Teigen / The Forum children can still be seen Unable to live in the home where her seven children died, today, though nature has Rose McCarty moved but the main portion of the home begun marching across was sold and relocated to Ninth Avenue South in Fargo the individual markers, nearly obscuring them by 1950, where it appears to still be standing. completely.

According to the article, she was forced to listen as one of her youngest children moaned for nearly an hour “before death relieved it of its suffering.”

The others had mercifully died much more quickly.

The storm hit in the middle of the night, so by the time people felt it was safe to leave their homes and investigate the damage, Rose McCarty had begun losing hope that anyone would find her.

Fortunately, she heard a dog barking and began calling out, and a man who’d been searching for his cow found her and her deceased children.

News spread quickly of the tragedy and neighbors descended on the home to tend to the stricken mother. The bruised bodies of her children were carefully laid out in the sitting room of the home, which was relatively unscathed despite the destruction it wreaked on the family; the room eerily became a makeshift funeral parlor, or as the Republican reporter noted “what had a few hours before been a place of domestic tranquility was turned into a morgue.”

Two children were in Hunter, N.D., at the time: 18-year-old Laura, was on a teaching assignment near Clifford, N.D., and Katie, age 8, who was visiting her that week. A telegram informed them of the tragedy, and a Marsh & Loomis livery rig was dispatched to retrieve them and bring them home to comfort their mother and mourn their brothers and sisters.

The children who perished that July night included Rose Isabelle “Belle”, age 19; Mary Alice “Mamie”, age 16; Francis Anna “Anna”, age 14; James Francis “Frankie”, age 11; Justin “Justy”,

age 6, Luella “Lula”, who would have turned 3 years old the next day, and baby Josephine “Josie”, age 21 months.

Aftermath

Because the storm hit in the early hours of July 7, the morning edition of the Daily Argus published at 6:30 a.m. with headlines screaming “A tornado!” with sub-headlines describing the damage as well as the sad news of the McCarty family, sensationalized as “The Entire Family of the Late Captain McCarty wiped off the Earth.”

Two days later, the Daily Argus described the funeral Mass of the seven McCarty children, which took place by 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church with burial services at the home at 2 p.m. Rev. Daniel Vincent Collins, who presided over the children’s funeral, had also offered funeral rites for James McCarty only three weeks earlier.

According to the Argus article, some 600 people attended the funeral of the McCarty children.

“In the house, the scene was a sad one, rendered more so by the terrible circumstances of their death,” the article states.

“Covered with flowers, the fragrant tribute of sorrowing friends, the caskets were (arranged) side by side in the south parlor, from whence so lately had been carried the lifeless form of the father of the seven children, who so soon followed him to earth’s last resting place.”

Eldest daughter, Laura, and younger sister, Katie, received guests through their grief and shock.

Their mother, recovering from her own injuries, was unable to attend.

According to the article, members of the Grand

Moving forward

Rose McCarty survived the ordeal physically and miraculously delivered her 10th child, Jay, months later in September. She’d suffered a broken arm that took months to heal, so she forced herself to learn how to write with her left hand.

But she never emotionally recovered.

In 1950, Forum photographer-turnedhistorian Roy P. Johnson began corresponding with Jay McCarty and others associated with the family for an article he was writing about the tragedy.

Jay McCarty wrote that what he knew of the storm came from his sister, Laura, as well as an aunt who was actually en route to Fargo from Kenosha, Wis., when the storm hit.

Jay McCarty offered what he knew, noting that “the sad part of it was that if they had all stayed upstairs nobody would have been harmed.”

As Rose McCarty struggled to move forward after the tragedy, she was struck with yet another devastating blow: 9-yearold daughter Katie died unexpectedly the next year, just weeks after the one-year anniversary of the deaths of her seven brothers and sisters.

Rose McCarty began painting as a way to distract her from the sadness she had endured, but they were “dark and sombre” landscape paintings, according to a letter from Jay McCarty’s cousin, Mrs. Katie Gumb.

Rose McCarty experienced the Fargo fire of 1893, but died three years later. She was 49. She is buried with her family at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fargo.

Jay McCarty wrote that his sister Laura raised him “as if I were her own

and parents would decide whether a child should attend the Level D school, according to national procedure.

Parents could express their concerns about the Level D placement, but ultimately, parents could be overruled by staff, Gandhi said.

The Level D setting would be a temporary placement for students, according to the district. A student could transition back into the general education setting if instructors believe the child has made progress in the Level D setting. The setting would have a more soothing atmosphere and additional specialized staff, according to the district.

Community backlash

Many parents and community members have spoken out against the Level D setting at school board meetings.

Parents worry such a school would stigmatize students. Others say the school would be a “dumping ground” for students without a clear plan of how to transition them back into their home schools and that the setting would negatively affect students’ learning and development.

Some parents say restraint and seclusion tactics are being used throughout the Fargo district and worry they could be employed more often in the new setting.

Readers can reach education reporter Emma Beyer, a Report For America corps member, at 701-241-5535 or ebeyer@ forumcomm.com.

son and was all that a mother could possibly be.

She bestowed upon me an affection which was beyond belief, and not only was she mother to me, but loving sister and best friend, all combined in one person.”

Laura McCarty married William Edgar Ruthruff in 1894 at the age of 22, and they built a home across the street from Rose McCarty at 613 Fifth Street North. They had a son in 1894 named Edgar Eugene “Gene” who died at just 13 months of age from croup or diphtheria. According to information provided by a Mrs. Angus Fraser dated Sept. 28, 1950, the child died in his mother’s lap.

In 1901, Laura McCarty Ruthruff gave birth to another son named Henry Eugene. Just a year later, her 44-year-old husband William died and her son Henry followed suit in 1904 at age 3. Both are buried at Holy Cross, although Henry’s grave marker has gone missing.

They had another son named William Edgar who survived infancy and went on to have a family, including a son who served in World War II. Laura McCarty, her surviving son, and Jay left Fargo in 1917, according to a Nov. 6, 1950, letter from Gumb, and they lived in Washington for a time.

That’s where Laura died in 1943 with Jay McCarty by her side.

Jay McCarty lived to at least 60 years of age, according to Johnson’s Oct. 29, 1950, Forum article, and operated a monument business in Portland, Ore., for a number of years.

When he died could not be ascertained.

As for the house where all those little children lost their lives so tragically and unexpectedly?

Rose McCarty moved out of the home shortly after the tragedy, and it was divided into sections and moved to various parts of town by other owners.

According to a Nov. 5, 1950, Fargo Forum article by Johnson, the rear portion of the house, which included the shed where the children died, had been removed and the lumber was used for a home near West Fargo.

The main portion of the home had been moved to 1540 Ninth Ave. S. by 1950, and appears to still be standing today.

Readers can reach deputy editor Danielle Teigen at 701-451-5709.

Teigen is the author of “Hidden History of Fargo.”