8/4/2013:
On the afternoon of August 4, 1920, the telephone rang in the Bismarck home of Mrs. Frank McCormick. The caller had terrible news: Mrs. McCormick's young son Emmett had been hit by a train and killed.
This wasn't the first call that day regarding Emmett's demise. Mrs. McCormick thanked the caller, and then went to check on Emmett. He had been playing in the yard the whole day, and was still safe and secure. It was just gossip that had spread quickly … a story somehow becoming the untimely death of young Emmett.
No evidence of anyone being hit by a train was found that day. Nobody knows how the story came to be, but gossip sure made it spread quickly.
Dakota Datebook written by Derek Dahlsad
Sources:
"Kind Neighbors Tell Mother Her Son Had Been Killed By Train," Bismarck Tribune, 8/5/1920