3115 Clinton Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota
ENCLOSED IS A POSTCARD of a locomotive No. 1, first locomotive
in Minnesota and built by Smith & Jackson, 1861, at Patterson,
New Jersey. It was built for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad,
which was the first railroad in Minnesota, which became the St.
Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad in 1879 and in 1890 a
Crooks, chief engineer of St. Paul and Pacific and a Colonel in the
Ninth Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers in the Civil War.
The Wm. Crooks arrived in St. Paul by steam boat Sept. 9, 1861,
and on June 28th, 1862 the locomotive hauled the historic first
train load of passengers in Minnesota a distance of 10 miles
between St. Anthony and St. Paul. Regular service began July 2,
1862. One of the nations famous locomotives, the Wm. Crooks was
retired from service in 1900, The engine twice traveled under its
own power to the seaboard, in 1927 to the Fair of the Iron Horse in
Baltimore, and to the New York World’s Fair in 1939. In 1948
and 1949 it appeared in ‘Spectacular,’ a pageant at
Chicago’s World Fair. The Wm. Crooks was loaned to the Union
Depot St. Paul Co., by the Great Northern for permanent exhibition.
The locomotive was installed in April 1954.
