Pinkerton, Allan

Allan (1819-1884), a celebrated American detective. A native of Scotland. Pinkerton came to this country a penniless boy. His first efforts at earning money were sawing wood at fifty cents a day. His first efforts in the detective line were in the secret service of Chicago. He was the first detective of that city. In 1850 he set up independently and made a specialty of bank and express robberies. Pinkerton accompanied President Lincoln to Baltimore on the way to his first inauguration. He was attached to the secret service of the Army of West Virginia. He joined McClellan's command on the peninsula in the same capacity, and became finally known as Major Pinkerton. Toward the close of the war he established Pinkerton's National Detective Agency at Chicago, with offices at New York and Philadelphia. Pinkerton was a man of great energy, with a dignified demeanor, and notwithstanding that he was familiar with all the arts and wiles and iniquities of criminals, he was considered the soul of honor and distinctly repudiated the adage, "Set a rogue to catch a rogue." He wrote a volume of reminiscences, Thirty Years a Detective. He is credited with breaking up the "Molly Maguires" of the Pennsylvania coal region. See Molly Maguires; Bertillon