Beryl McClane was born on May 12, 1896. He married his sweetheart in 1918 after returning from World War I. He began his law enforcement career with the Aberdeen, South Dakota, police department. In 1936, his family moved to Ellendale, North Dakota, where he became the Chief of Police. McClane joined the North Dakota Highway Patrol in 1941, serving for seven years out of the Jamestown office before transferring to Napoleon.
July 30, 1954, started as a normal day. McClane made his usual stop at the coffee shop before heading towards LaMoure, where he was scheduled to assist with a traffic stop and conduct safety checks on vehicles.
The LaMoure sheriff’s office received a call about a disturbance caused by rowdy, heavily intoxicated fishermen who had fled the scene. The sheriff and a patrolman headed west on Highway 13 to catch up with the suspects. Six miles west of LaMoure, they came across a crash scene. It was worse than they could have imagined. The fleeing suspects had collided head-on with McClane’s 1953 Ford patrol car. One suspect was being transported to the hospital, while the other two remained at the scene. McClane was killed instantly. The investigation revealed that the suspects’ westbound car was entirely in the eastbound lane.
Although the situation seemed straightforward, justice moved slowly. On this date, in 1955, Judge Porter set the trial for the driver, Ernest Anderson, in LaMoure County District Court. Before the trial, Anderson reached a plea deal. The charge was reduced from first-degree to second-degree manslaughter, and Anderson pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to one to three years in prison.
Over the ninety-year history of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, only one trooper has fallen in the line of duty. Beryl McClane was laid to rest in Highland Home Cemetery in Jamestown. His grave was initially marked with a small headstone. In 2022, the North Dakota Troopers Association dedicated a new tombstone featuring the North Dakota State Patrol emblem and McClane’s badge number—badge eighteen.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Carole Butcher
Sources:
- North Dakota Highway Patrol. “NDHP Trooper Memorial.” https://www.nd.gov/ndhp/ndhp-about-us/ndhp-trooper-memorial Accessed 2/14/2025.
- Find a Grave. “Beryl McClane.” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151046115/beryl_ellwood-mclane Accessed 2/14/2025.
- Inforum. “Honoring the only North Dakota trooper killed in the line of duty 70 years later.” https://www.inforum.com/news/north-dakota/honoring-the-only-north-dakota-trooper-killed-in-the-line-of-duty-70-years-later Accessed 2/14/2025.
