[1][2] He served as a colonel and commander of the 6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War.

[2] As built, the engine had a straight boiler (not tapered from a larger diameter at the firebox end to a smaller diameter at the smokebox end), had the balloon stack typical of wood burning engines, and three domes—the center of which was for sanding the rails to improve traction when needed.

The engine received a diamond stack for burning coal, its boiler replaced with a tapered design, and was reduced to a two dome configuration.

The William Crooks was in passenger service until September 30, 1897,[6][8] after which it was retired, and by the turn of the century was sitting decommissioned in a corner of the Great Northern yard in St.

[2][8] Smith, who worked a regular schedule for the Great Northern Railway, would be reassigned to duty with the William Crooks for special events such as this and, later, the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition.

[1][6] The railroad gave the engine a balloon stack similar in appearance to its original, but internally designed to be suitable for coal as well as wood.

[4] Its cylinders, rods and bearings were all rebuilt at the Great Northern's Dale Street Shops in St. Paul in 1947-48 by machinist George A. Halvorsen as his last job before retirement.

The St. Paul Union Depot closed to passenger traffic in 1971; however, the engine was not removed until 1975, when it was moved to the newly established Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota, where it remains.

[6] For the celebration of the 150th anniversary of rail service in Minnesota, the locomotive's whistle was blown for the first time since 1948, when it appeared at the Chicago Railroad Fair.

In 1973 the train was reissued, as a Heritage play-set, The Pioneer Express, retailed through Sears & Roebuck, with the locomotive pulling the tender, an open lumber car and caboose.