Details
PINKERTON, ALLAN, Detective, Union secret agent. Document signed ("Allan Pinkerton"), Dewitt County, [Illinois], 2 September 1856. 1 page, 4to, a trifle browned, small traces of two wax seals in lower margin, otherwise fine.
A VERY RARE PINKERTON DEPOSITION
Pinkerton (1819-1884) emigrated from Scotland and in short order became sheriff of Cook County. In 1850, at the suggestion of the heads of several railroads which had been plagued by crime, he established the first detective agency in the U.S. He became famous for solving a series of train and express robberies. Pinkerton here signs a deposition in a case of theft from a railroad, certifying that "Thomas Iver...Justice of the Peace in [Dewitt] County...who Being Duly Sworn on his oath Says that Peter Keefer and Matthew Keefer...on or about the 9th Day of September Did Feloniously steal and carry a way one Coat to the value of [$9.00], 1 Vest to the value of [$]2.75 and one p[ai]r pants to the value of [$]4.50...the property of the Illinois C[entral] R[ail] R[oad] Co[mpany]..."
While employed in 1861 by the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, Pinkerton uncovered a plot to assassinate newly-elected President Lincoln and helped to reschedule the President's train to Washington. His reputation led to General McClellan's hiring him as a Secret Service agent for the Ohio Department of the Union Army and, in disguise, Pinkerton travelled through much of the Confederacy. After the war, he waged a celebrated campaign against the James gang in the west.
Allan Pinkerton's letters and documents are extremely rare; from 1965 to the present, ABPC only records a single example (sold in 1974); we are aware of only one other document in a private collection.
A VERY RARE PINKERTON DEPOSITION
Pinkerton (1819-1884) emigrated from Scotland and in short order became sheriff of Cook County. In 1850, at the suggestion of the heads of several railroads which had been plagued by crime, he established the first detective agency in the U.S. He became famous for solving a series of train and express robberies. Pinkerton here signs a deposition in a case of theft from a railroad, certifying that "Thomas Iver...Justice of the Peace in [Dewitt] County...who Being Duly Sworn on his oath Says that Peter Keefer and Matthew Keefer...on or about the 9th Day of September Did Feloniously steal and carry a way one Coat to the value of [$9.00], 1 Vest to the value of [$]2.75 and one p[ai]r pants to the value of [$]4.50...the property of the Illinois C[entral] R[ail] R[oad] Co[mpany]..."
While employed in 1861 by the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, Pinkerton uncovered a plot to assassinate newly-elected President Lincoln and helped to reschedule the President's train to Washington. His reputation led to General McClellan's hiring him as a Secret Service agent for the Ohio Department of the Union Army and, in disguise, Pinkerton travelled through much of the Confederacy. After the war, he waged a celebrated campaign against the James gang in the west.
Allan Pinkerton's letters and documents are extremely rare; from 1965 to the present, ABPC only records a single example (sold in 1974); we are aware of only one other document in a private collection.