Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-07-25
ALLAN p%1NKERToN.
peath of the Celebrated Detective Atte1
a Long and Painful Illness.

a Long and Painful Illness
CHICAGO, July ALLAN Pinkerton, tho
head and founder OF the great Pinkerton
National Detective Agency, died at his
home. 554 West Adams street, at SOS
o'clock yesterday afternoon. His death
had been momentarily expected for some
hours. His friends had given up all hope OF
his recovery some days before his death.
He was sixty five years Did.
Allan Pinkerton was born in Glasgow IN
1919, the son Of a small tradesman. lie
married young and Immediately after left
for the Western hemisphere, landing i'll
Canada. The young couples early strug-
giles were a series Of hardships, and after
many yicissitudes Pinkerton came to this
city, where he engaged in the cooper trade.
1t was while he was thus engaged that
Mr., Pinkerton showed lis detective quali-
ties and made a name in detective circles.
Very little money was in circulation, and
tile Milwaukee Fire and Marine Insurance
Company issued checks, which passed as
an equivalent They were cheap affairs
and easily counterfeited. The result was
that numerous fraudulent checks were soon
in circulation. Some of these forged checks
came into his hands, and he resolved to
bring the rascals to justice, which he final
ly did.
MIR. Pinkerton was appointed special
agent Of the Treasury Department under
Secretary Guthrie in 1s4S, and was later
made special mail agent. Here his detective
experience came in good play and won him
1-,,.~I, lev = 1S~ ,~vy;on srynr0 n, CtypI
great demand throughout the country that
lie came to Chicago and established the
Pinkerton Detective Agency, which, in
later years, became national in
its work. He established branches at
New York and Philadelphia with great
success, and the men under his Instructions
worked wonders in unearthing criminals
and criminal acts. His early detective work
was marked by his conviction of Augusta
Stuart Byron, the illegitimate son of Mary
Sturt and Lord Byron, and a nephew of AID.
miral Napier Of the English Navy, for train
wrecking and %plundering the United States
mails.
One of the most notable of Mr.. Pinker-
toms early cases was the arrest of Nathan
Maroney, agent of the Adams Express COM
pant at Montgomery, Ala, who stole S40,-
900 from the company and ran away. After
coliIS III u AANAOiINJ "tko OullN&
and nearly all the money recovered from
its hiding-place in a New Jersey farmhouse.
A little time afterward he ran down Andy
and William Roberts and others, recover.
ing $50, 600 which they had stolen from
an express car on the New Haven Rail.
Road. While looking for i%ncendiaries
among the Philadelphia, Wilmington IL
Baltimore Railroad in 1861 he discovered a
plot to assassinate President Lincoln at Bal
timore when he should pass through that
city OH his way to Washington to be inau-
gurated. MI. Pinkerton carried the Presi-
lent through Baltimore in disguise and
landed him safely in Washington. During
the war MIR. Pinkerton was authorized by
Division of the Union Army. He served
at its head under the name Of L. J. Allen
throughout the war.
After the close of The war MI. Pinkerton
resumed his private detective work. He Sc
cured the arrest and conviction of six
thieves who stole 500, 900 of the Adams
Express Company from a train near Balti-
more, recovering all the money. He also
brought to justice robbers Of the Harden
Express Company, at Baltimore; the Car
bondale Bank, at Carbondale, Pa; the
Adams Express Company, on the New Ha-
ven Railroad; Mylart's Bank, at Scranton,
Pa, and the perpetrators of the
Hudson River Railroad robbery, in which
$500, 900 was stolen from the Merchants
Union Express Company. In the same year
QS6S) MI. Pinkerton arrested the four
Reno brothers and Charles Anderson, eX-
press robbers who had terrorized the whole
country around Seymour, Ind, where they
lived. One of their acts was the robbery of
an express car of S97, 600 near Osgood Sta
ton, Ind. On their arrest they were placed
in Jail at New Albany. Masked men over
powered the Sheriff in charge and hanged
the d~esperadoes.
lie leaves a widow, Mrs. John Pinkerton,
whom he married on leaving his home in
| Scotland.