‘Artifact Spotlight’ to focus on Hallock inventor Jones

By Anna Jauhola
Frederick McKinley Jones continues to inspire people, so much that Prairie Public visited the Kittson County Historical Museum on Wednesday, Aug. 20.
Fred “Casey” Jones was a black inventor who lived in Hallock from 1912 through the 1930s. He is responsible for many present-day comforts, specifically the ThermoKing chiller for mass transportation of refrigerated goods.
Museum Director Cindy Adams was interviewed by a crew from Prairie Public.
“It’s great he’s being recognized and that people are carrying forward that recognition,” Adams said.
She gave a brief background of how Jones arrived in Kittson County, which was totally by accident. He left on the wrong train from Chicago and visited with a man about the James J. Hill Farm at Northcote. Jones decided to keep going north, and found a community where his mechanical genius was recognized.
“People always thought of Casey any time they needed mechanical help,” Adams said.
He was famous locally for building radios, an X-ray machine for the hospital, a ticket dispenser and machine for talking pictures, and different vehicles.
The machine for talking pictures caught the eye of Joseph Numero, who owned a cinema company at the time in Minneapolis. That’s when Jones moved to Minneapolis and eventually worked on refrigeration, which led to the ThermoKing device still seen today on semi-truck trailers and on some train cars.
As the Prairie Public crew set up for the interview, Adams visited with Producer Mary Balstead, who revealed her grandmother is originally from Hallock – Millicent Erickson. Naturally, Adams went directly to the computer and physical archives in search of details.
Balstead was pleasantly surprised when Adams printed out a family history, based on her great-aunt’s name, and also by the 1954 yearbook from Hallock Adams presented, which was her grandmother’s senior year.
After this side jaunt into Balstead’s personal history, Adams showed the crew the materials she pulled from archives and exhibits. Papers and books, magazine articles, personal correspondence, a radio Jones built and a bronze bust were spread on tables in the new addition. The museum has a permanent, modest display toward the rear of the museum near the machinery building – a fitting place, considering Jones’s mechanical aptitude.
When Balstead asked Adams about the impact Jones had on other black inventors, she thought for a moment.
“He really opened a path for other black inventors,” she said. “I think he made them see that anyone can do anything you put your mind to.”
The piece on Jones will appear on Prairie Public’s “Artifact Spotlight” later this fall.

A RADIO FREDERICK MCKINLEY JONES BUILT is pictured in the foreground, while Kittson County Museum Director Cindy Adams visits with the crew from Prairie Public on Wednesday, Aug. 20. (Enterprise photo by Anna Jauhola)

MUSEUM DIRECTOR CINDY ADAMS, right, shows a family history to Prairie Public Producer Mary Balstead, whose grandmother grew up in Hallock.
(Enterprise photo by Anna Jauhola)