Otto’s Column

LOCAL HISTORY Pioneer locomotive viewed by crowd in 1948

Editor’s note: Otto Dick, Oregon has researched the people, places and events important in the Oregon area’s history for the Ogle County Historical Society. The following is one of a series of the articles he has written.

BY OTTO DICK

The following information is from the May 27, 1948 Ogle County Republican Newspaper.

“Oregon turned out almost en masse to view the old wood burning engine, now converted to the use of coal, a luggage car and a passenger car, which was the forerunner of the Great Northern Railroad and passed through here Tuesday on its own power with a speed of 25 miles per hour. As the little old gaudily painted and brass trimmed two drive-wheel engine and its two cars pulled into the city it was greeted by a large gathering.

“The entire grade school together with its teachers, went to the depot to view the first train ever to run on the present Great Northern Railroad.

“It took a side track while one of the huge diesel powered Zephyr trains came by on the main track. Alongside the powerful Zephyr it looked small indeed, but when it first hit the rails in 1862 it was some train and a wonder to the passengers.

“The little old seats of the train presented a highly uncomfortable appearance, but in their time were thought to be comfortable. The engine with two drive wheels and a top speed of 25 miles per hour, is small indeed along side the mighty locomotives which sweep the rails today. Zephyr trains passing through Oregon maintain a speed of well over 100 miles per hour which in the days when the “William Crooks” was first put into use were never dreamed of.

“This old engine and the replica cars no doubt saw a lot of hard knocks in its day. Perhaps hostile Indians shot at it with bow and arrows and buffalo herds intercepted its progress, to say nothing of the grief of heaving wood on the flames of the boiler to keep up steam. If the wood was used up in the boiler before they reached a depot the crew made use of the wooden right-of-way fences to keep the train moving. They also applied sand to the rails to improve traction when needed.”

On July 2, 1862 The William Crooks locomotive was the first to operate in Minnesota and the entire

Oregon residents turned out to view the old wood burning locomotive that was converted to coal as it stopped at the Oregon Depot in 1948. Photos supplied by Otto Dick

northwest. William Crooke and several dignitaries were the train’s first passengers.

This was the initial 10 mile track between Minneapolis and St. Paul. This locomotive and cars, built in the East came as far west as possible by track and finally it was loaded onto a Mississippi River Barge to St. Paul.

The William Crooks was headed to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1948 as part of the Wheels A-Rolling Pageant. After being converted to a coal burning locomotive it could reach

speeds of 60 miles per hour.

Its headlight remained lit by kerosene which restricted travel to daylight hours only. The passenger car had its original candle holders from the days when they were lit by candle light and their original wood stove for warmth.

The William Crooks was placed on display at the St. Paul Union Depot in June 1954.

In June 1962 ownership of the locomotive was transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society. In 1975 the engine was moved to the newly established Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota where it remains today.

In the same newspaper I found this article about the William Crooks Locomotive stopping at Oregon in 1948 was a class photo of my sister Betty’s graduating class.

The previous week’s newspaper showed a photo of the Oregon High School’s Prom Court.

Carol Adamson was the Queen and the attendants were Jane Brook-later Jane Etnyre and my sister Betty Dick.