Ramsey County History – Winter 2012: “Louis Hill to Henry Ford: “No Deal!” Henry Ford and the William Crooks”

Louis Hill to Henry Ford: “No Deal!” Henry Ford and the William Crooks
Author: Brian McMahon

Henry Ford was born and raised on a farm and always preached the value of the rural life and character. Ironically, his Model T automobile (first produced in 1908), more than anything, was responsible for the migration of farmers to the city and the transformation of an entire culture. This conflict between Ford’s stated goal of preserving the agriculture world he had known and the result on the ground must have added to Ford’s unresolved inner turmoil. Ford’s attempt in 1929 to purchase the William Crooks, the first locomotive used in Minnesota (1862), from Louis W. Hill, the second son of James J. Hill, for his new museum in Greenfield Village in Michigan was resoundingly rejected by Hill. Today, the William Crooks is on exhibit in the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth rather than in Greenfield Village.
PDF of McMahon article