History of Pinkerton Security

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 9/10/20 | K Weiser

[w1n1]

Abraham Lincoln’s Private Bodyguard
Founded in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton, the Pinkerton Agency quickly became one of the most important crime detection and law enforcement groups in the United States. Born in Scotland on August 25, 1819, Pinkerton worked as a barrel maker before immigrating to the United States in 1842. Settling near Chicago, he went to work at Lill's Brewery as a barrel maker.
However, Pinkerton soon determined that working for himself would be more profitable for his family and they moved to a small town called Dundee, some 40 miles from Chicago.
Making barrels once again, he quickly gained control of the market due to the superior quality and low prices of his product. Always thrifty, Pinkerton thought that he could save some money by not paying someone else for poles to make barrel hoops. Before long, he found a small deserted island in the middle of the Fox River and rowed out to cut down a supply of his own.

However, when he got to the island he found signs that someone had been there, and knowing that counterfeiters had been working in the be their hideout. When he returned, he notified the local sheriff of his suspicions and the two teamed up to stake out the island which soon led to the arrest of the counterfeit band. However, they failed to catch the ringleader. Pinkerton found himself involved in the search for the leader and soon tracked him down, as well.

THIS ACCIDENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN JUSTICE led to Pinkerton’s appointment as a deputy sheriff for Kane County, Ill., and in 1850 he became Chicago’s first police detective. That same year, he, along with Chicago attorney Edward Rucker founded the North-Western Police Agency.
In the meantime, Allan’s brother, Robert, had his formed his own business called "Pinkerton & Co" as early as 1843. Robert’s organization was originally established as a railroad contractor, but somewhere along the line, he began to work as a railroad detective. Read the rest of Pinkerton Security history.

[nwrep]

Pinkerton is now owned (after many name changes) by a Swiss company.

[treetopsandroofs]

Well, except for that whole Ford’s Theater thing...

Did the Pinkerton guys get too engrossed in Our American Cousin?

With a reported one third of the currency in circulation being counterfeit at the time,[13] the Secret Service was created on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit currency. Chief William P. Wood was sworn in by Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch. It was commissioned in Washington, D.C. as the “Secret Service Division” of the Department of the Treasury with the mission of suppressing counterfeiting.

The legislation creating the agency was on Abraham Lincoln’s desk the night he was assassinated.

{Things that make you go hmm}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secret_Service

[Lurker]

My brother lived in Dundee IL until he passed three years ago. Didn’t know Pinkerton had a connection.

L

[DJ MacWoW]

Unfortunately, Securitas in the NE stinks. Don’t know about the rest of the country.

[CondorFlight]

IIRC, Pinkerton’s agency constantly vastly overestimated the size of the Confederate forces, causing McClellan to think he was facing an army of 200,000 southerners.

He was also slow in capturing Booth after the assassination — a capture which was so muddled that doubts remained for years afterward that Booth had really been killed.

[foreverfree]

bump

[Boogieman]

“they moved to a small town called Dundee, some 40 miles from Chicago”

The only thing of note that I knew about Dundee before this is that it was the site of the old “Santa’s Village” theme park. Since that park closed, the whole town could have disappeared for all anybody would notice.

[dainbramaged]

My Dad worked for Pinkerton briefly in 1949 at the Bon Marche coffee shop in Seattle - he was an undercover dishwasher spying on the manager who was suspected of embezzlement.