Rogue's Gallery, The Next Round of the Wanted Poster by Denise M. Colby

The Original Wanted Poster

In the Old West (1700 to early 1800’s) the wanted poster communicated to local lawmen that a criminal was at large. They were issued by sheriffs, state officials, or the military. Possibly with a drawing or description, unless you knew details, it made it difficult to track them down.

These bulletins didn’t go out to the public or were posted publicly. There were a tool used by local law enforcement in all sizes of towns and cities. They shared this information by mail or stagecoach (pony express too), and later by telegraph or wire and would be reproduced locally (especially if it was urgent).

With the invention of the railroad (and with it railway robbers) they too would send out bulletins, or hire agencies such as the Pinkerton Detective Agency (because if they couldn’t keep their passengers safe, who would want to ride a train?).

 

Rogue's Gallery - A New Improved Version

In 1855, Allan Pinkerton saw a need and created the The Rogue’s Gallery. It incorporated an actual photograph of the person along with more specific details. A step up from the original wanted poster.

They images were made with cheap photography mounted on card stock to capture what the criminals looked like, making it easier to identify them. Many of these criminals were bank robbers, railroad bandits, and other more localized criminals. These images were distributed to sheriffs throughout the west in a booklet.

By 1870, the agency had built the largest collection of mugshots in the world. (Although the term mugshot wasn’t used until later). The Rogue’s Gallery included a card on the back of the photograph that had detailed information related to physical descriptions, methods of how the rogue operated, hiding places, and any associates of the criminals. It might list distinguishing marks on the person, aliasas, and much more.

It was the most extensive early database around. By 1895, the Rogue’s gallery had grown to over 1500 photographs.

 

Examples of Rogue's Gallery 

I found this picture online of a printed book that was up for auction. It shows how a book looked, and gave an idea of how it could be distributed.

 

I also found a photograph of a permanent fixture In New York City, where they mounted on large wooden boards all the cards, similar to how one would look through posters at a store to purchase.

The website page where I found it is called The Rogue’s Gallery.

Reference to the Rogue's Gallery

In my book, A Whole New Plan, the local sheriff of Washton has the cards from the Rogue’s Gallery up on the wall and Lydia points out one of the criminals listed there as the person who she is trying to capture. She then shares she’s a part of the Pinkerton Agency. It was a fun way to put in this tidbit of history.

Book 4 in the Best-laid Plans Series releases May 26, 2026

California, 1870. Pastor William Baker built his life on steady faith and safe choices, but the arrival of Lydia Spencer upends everything. Independent and outspoken Lydia is unlike any woman he’s ever known. Lydia is a Pinkerton detective, undercover as a schoolteacher while tracking a dangerous crime boss. She’s determined to protect her friends in Washton even if it means keeping her distance from the kind, steadfast pastor who sees too much. But when Will and Lydia are thrown together in a search for truth they find themselves fighting not only for justice, but for a future neither had planned.

Denise M. Colby writes historical romance sweetened with faith, hope, and love. She finds history fascinating and contemplates often how it was to live in the 1800's. Her debut novel, When Plans Go Awry, is a 2025 Carol Award finalist. Sign up for her newsletter at www.denisemcolby.com or follow Denise on Facebook, Instagram, Bookbub, Pinterest, or GoodReads.

A Real Case File of the Pinkerton Detectives

 

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Happy early Thanksgiving, HHH Readers! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday planned with plenty of good food, family, and friends. Thanks for stopping by in this
busy week to read on the Heroes, Heroines, and History blog. I know I speak for all the bloggers when I saw we are thankful for each of you!

 

If you’ve been following my posts from the last two months, I talked about Allan Pinkerton—the founder of the Pinkerton National Detective agency and the cutting-edge things he did—as well as Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective. This month, I thought I would continue the Pinkerton theme by sharing a fun case file from the Pinkertons so you can see how thorough the agency was in their work. I present to you “The Expressman and the Detective,” as Allan Pinkerton referred to this case.

 

In 1854, a year after the Adams Express Company’s founding, the vice president of this company contacted Allan Pinkerton with a request for him to find the missing $10,000 that was stolen from a locked money pouch while said pouch was being transported between Montgomery, Alabama, and Augusta, Georgia. From the start, Pinkerton believed that the job had to have been done by someone within the company, and he said as much in his written response to the vice president. For a full year, the man didn’t get back to Pinkerton. However, in the summer if 1856, he wrote again with an urgent request. Please meet him in Georgia, as another $40,000 had gone missing from a sealed pouch.

 

George Bangs,
Pinkerton Detective

Pinkerton and one of his detectives, George Bangs, met the express company’s VP and learned that he’d had the manager of the Montgomery office, Nathan Maroney, watching the goings-on for any nefarious dealings. The money had been placed in the pouch, sealed, and yet didn’t make it to its destination. The vice president was adamant that it was not an inside job. Whoever had taken the money had used a razor to cut a square hole in the bag—inside the outer pocket, so that it was concealed from public view—and the money was removed through the hole. They’d originally thought it was one of the messengers who carried the money, but they’d interviewed any number of them and found none of them to be worth pursuing for these thefts. 

 

At this point, both Allan Pinkerton and George Bangs began to suspect Maroney, the Montgomery branch manager, of the thefts. At one point, he’d worked for a circus that had gone out of business due to someone embezzling all their funds—but in his dealings with the Adams Express Company, he seemed to have an impeccable reputation and good standing in the Montgomery community.

 

Two years after the $40,000 went missing, Nathan Maroney took a lengthy leave of absence from his job. Those investigating the case followed the man as he traveled in the East among other places. Based on their observations that he was buying expensive clothes for himself and his wife, as well as staying in fine hotels beyond what his Adams company pay should afford him, and also gambling heavily on racehorses, he was arrested. But the arrest was weak, and Maroney’s bond was paid by the Montgomery community, who respected Maroney highly and felt the arrest was out of line.

 

Soon after his release, Pinkerton set out to get unequivocal proof of Maroney’s guilt. He had Maroney rearrested in New York, on conspiracy charges this time. He was placed in the same cell as a forger, who had many appointments with his attorney.

Allan Pinkerton

 

Pinkerton also had people watching Mrs. Maroney, who began spending her time between New York and Pennsylvania after her husband’s second arrest. Interestingly, while she stayed at Pennsylvania’s Merchant’s Hotel, she met and began spending much time with a handsome young man with long black hair who wooed the frightened woman with sweet words and kind attention. She also met and began to confide in Madam Imbert at the hotel. Almost daily, she would see both of her new acquaintances, taking long walks with the gentleman, as well as having long, friendly conversations with Madam Imbert. 

 

When Maroney found out through an anonymous letter about his wife’s handsome suitor, he called her to the jail. She dutifully went to visit him and explained that the long-haired man, named Mr. De Forest, was just a friend. During the visit, Maroney also told her he’d had reason to speak with his cellmate’s attorney about this frustrating incarceration. The attorney assured him that his jail time could end quickly, and he was willing to represent Maroney to the court, but it would be a costly endeavor. Maroney told his wife to collect money and bring it to him at the jail.

 

She left there, not knowing what to do. She returned to The Merchant’s Hotel in Pennsylvania and found Madam Imbert. Mrs. Maroney soon learned that dear Madam Imbert was at the hotel, convalescing after falling into a longstanding melancholy mood, which came on because her husband was serving a ten-year prison sentence, and the courts had ruled that she could not see or speak to him during that time. The common theme of a husband being incarcerated brought Mrs. Maroney to tears, and she shared a tiny bit of her own husband’s troubles.

 

Not long after, Mrs. Maroney took another trip, this time to Montgomery, with Pinkerton Detectives watching her every move. She and her young daughter checked into a hotel and attempted to call on friends of her husband—but the formerly amicable attitude of Montgomery residents had cooled toward Nathan Maroney, and no one would entertain a visit from his wife.

 

Upon her return to Pennsylvania, Mrs. Maroney visited Madam Imbert in her hotel room, visibly upset by something. It was then she confided in her friend what her husband had done—having stolen $50,000 from his former employer. However, before Madam Imbert could comfort the poor woman, she departed to write her husband a letter. 

 

The letter was intercepted by the Pinkertons. In it, they discovered that yes—Nathan Maroney had stolen the $50,000, and Mrs. Maroney had moved it from its original hiding place to a new location. They continued to watch her for any chance she might lead them to the money. But the woman never did.

 

It was only when Mrs. Maroney asked Madam Imbert to travel to New York with her to meet her husband in prison that the case finally took a turn. Nathan Maroney was duly impressed with his wife’s friend and encouraged her to trust Madam Imbert. Mrs. Maroney did, indeed, trust her with the details of where the stolen money had been moved. It now rested 18 inches beneath a cellar in a local Pennsylvania home. The two women visited the site, dug up the money, and gave it to the attorney who had promised Maroney help in ending his incarceration. Little did Maroney know, that “attorney” was none other than Pinkerton operative George Bangs, who promptly returned the missing $50,000 (minus $485, which had been spent by the thief) to the Adams Express Company. In addition, Maroney also confessed to his cellmate what he had done. His cellmate was Pinkerton operative John White, who had been undercover the whole time, winning Maroney’s trust to gain the details needed for a conviction. Upon his confession and the recovery of the money, Maroney was taken back to Montgomery where he stood trial and was convicted. He was given a ten-year prison sentence for his crimes.

Kate Warne,
Pinkerton Detective

 

The heartbroken Mrs. Maroney took her young daughter and moved to Chicago. Madam Imbert also returned to Chicago, never revealing to the expressman’s wife her true identity…Kate Warne, Pinkerton Detective. Nor did she reveal that Mr. De Forest, the handsome gentleman suitor was also a Pinkerton sent to spy on her. In fact, Kate Warne as Madam Imbert and Mrs. Maroney kept a friendship for a while after their respective moves to Chicago, until they naturally drifted apart.

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

Coming April 1, 2025

 

Love and Order by Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings of Callie, Andie, and Rion have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice. When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kate Warne: Pinkerton

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Last month, I shared with you about Allan Pinkerton and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which he founded. In that article, I promised to share about Kate Warne, the first female detective. So let’s explore this remarkable woman’s life.

 

Kate was born in Erin, New York in 1830, although her exact date of birth is not known. Her early life is a bit of mystery. Her obituary supposedly stated that her parents were honest and industrious people, but also poor. Through other records, it is known that she hoped to become an actress, though that dream never materialized in her performing on stage. By the age of twenty-three, Kate had already been married—and widowed. Soon after that, she moved with her parents and brother to Chicago where she went to work cleaning houses. However, the work didn’t challenge her. She desired a job where she could use her mind. It was in 1856 that this bold woman saw an advertisement in a Chicago newspaper for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Allan Pinkerton was looking for help, and Kate decided to apply.

 

She marched herself into the office, advertisement in hand, and told Pinkerton she was there to apply. At first, the famed detective thought she meant for a secretarial position, though she quickly corrected him by showing him the newspaper ad. She wanted to be a detective.

 

While Pinkerton considered himself to be open-minded, he is on record as having stated, “It is not the custom to employ female detectives!” Kate Warne argued that women have a great eye for detail, were great observers, could get into places men couldn’t, would easily win the trust of the wives or girlfriends of their suspects, and could also cause men to become braggarts with only a little encouragement. In addition, her childhood desire to become an actress was an asset, in that she assured Allan Pinkerton she could play any role asked of her. Her passionate arguments convinced him, and she became his first female detective. 

 

At the time of her hiring, there were nine detectives in the agency’s employ—among them Pinkerton himself, as well as a former police officer, a former watch maker, a former bookseller, a fine English gentleman, an athletic sort, and even an extremely handsome gent they employed specifically to flirt and woo the women from whom they were trying to gain information. Within two days of her hiring, Kate was given her first case, and she and these men teamed up to work their magic for the next eleven years together. (Tune in next month when I’ll share the specifics of one of their intricate cases). 

 

As the country headed into 1861 and the Civil War, Kate Warne was one of the detectives who investigated threats by various secessionists to do damage to the railroads. She was particularly good at infiltrating these southerner’s social gatherings, playing the role of a wealthy Southern woman. She was able to secure specific information that, not only were they attempting to harm the railroads, but they were planning to assassinate newly elected president Abraham Lincoln during his “whistle stop tour” of the nation on his way to the inauguration. The weakest point in the journey was Baltimore, Maryland, where the President-Elect would have to disembark one train, travel approximately a mile via carriage, and board another train to complete the journey. But with knowledge of the plot ahead of time, Kate Warne was able to dress President-Elect Lincoln as her invalid brother, usher him to a different train, and slip past the secessionists undetected. During the entire operation, Warne stayed awake, earning the agency their iconic tagline: “We Never Sleep.”

 

Throughout the Civil War, Kate Warne worked closely with Allan Pinkerton and other agency operatives to ferret out information of Southern troop movements and tactical plans. Again, Kate used her acting ability to play the role of the rich Southern socialite and infiltrate social gatherings. She proved most helpful in spying and gathering intel to help the Union.

 

During this time, Allan Pinkerton also made her the head of his Female Detective Division, giving her the title of Female Superintendent of Detectives. While Kate was the first female detective, she was not the last. But Pinkerton so trusted her, he made her the trainer for every female detective who came along after her—right up until her death in 1868.

 

Kate continued to work with the Pinkertons until she contracted and succumbed to “congestion of the lungs” (or pneumonia). She was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. Years later, upon his passing, Allan Pinkerton was buried next to her, with his wife’s grave on the other side.

 

Very little of Kate Warne’s life is documented, outside of her work with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and even that information suffered a great loss when agency records burned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Despite these facts, Warne’s legacy lived on in the Pinkerton Detective Agency, where she was said to be a source of inspiration, and where female detectives continued to be hired after her passing.

 

It's Your Turn: Were you familiar with this trailblazing woman? What do you find most inspirational about her?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

 

Coming April 1, 2025

 

Love and Order by Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings of Callie, Andie, and Rion have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice. When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

 

 

Allan Pinkerton--A Man on the Cutting Edge

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

It’s been a bit of a dry spell in my publishing journey. My last novel, Love’s Fortress, was published in March of 2022, but I’m excited to say that on April 1, 2025, my fifteenth story, Love and Order, will be coming out. This one is different in a couple of ways from anything else I’ve published. For one, it’s my first true mystery. For another, it’s told in the form of three interconnected romance novellas, sort of in the format of an episode of the TV show, Law & Order. The novel revolves around three orphaned siblings who were separated when they got adopted to different families in different locations from an orphan train. As adults, they each have gone into some form of law enforcement or criminal justice (Pinkertons, bounty hunters, and attorneys—OH MY!) and are reunited as they try to bring a serial killer to justice. Each part of the larger novel focuses on one of the siblings and their part of the case, from investigation all the way through courtroom drama (with some bounty hunter action mixed in), and each novella has its own romance. So, in gearing up for my next new release, I thought we’d visit some of the fun stuff I got to research in writing this tale. Today, we’ll look at Allan Pinkerton and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

 

Allan Pinkerton

 

Scottish-born Allan Pinkerton was born on August 21, 1819, the son of a retired police officer. Unfortunately, his father died by the time Allan was ten, forcing the boy to leave school and train as a cooper (a barrel-maker). As an avid reader, Allan’s education continued through the many books he read on a variety of topics.

 

In 1842, Pinkerton came to America and settled in Dundee Township, Illinois, where he set up his own barrel-making business. He worked to build a snug cabin, sent for his wife who was in Chicago at the time, and happily conducted business in Dundee.

 

Prairie Pirates

 

But Pinkerton was an abolitionist who allowed his home to be used as a stop on the Underground Railroad. It was this fact which caused him to come under the scrutiny of the Banditti of the Prairie—a loose alliance of outlaw gangs which operated in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and beyond. These gangs were best known for an escalating list of crimes such as burglary, livestock theft, stagecoach robbery, highway robbery, counterfeiting, and even murder. They didn’t care for a do-gooder like Pinkerton aiding slaves in their flight to freedom, so they burglarized his home. 

 

Not one to take the burglary lying down, Pinkerton took note of those he saw on his trips into the woods as he searched for timber to make barrel staves. It was here, he began noticing the comings and goings of some from this Banditti group.

 

A wise and patient man, Pinkerton watched and waited, keeping track of who he saw, where, and what they were doing. After some time, he presented the Chicago police with a detailed report on what he’d found, and they were able to take down the gang, which was thick into a counterfeiting scheme. For his trouble, he was asked to become Chicago’s very first police detective in 1849.

 

Hiring The First Female Detective

 

Pinkerton’s stint with the Chicago Police lasted only about a year. In 1850, he and attorney Edward Rucker started what would eventually come to be called the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Early jobs for the agency included supporting other abolitionists in their meetings, as well as investigating robberies of the Illinois Central Railroad. It was this connection that led Pinkerton to meet and befriend the up-and-coming attorney, Abraham Lincoln, who was the contact person on all Illinois Central Railroad cases.

 

One day in 1856, Allan Pinkerton was surprised to find widow Kate Warne in his Chicago office. She presented his newspaper ad requesting detectives and said she wanted the job. It took some convincing, though he decided to take the chance on her. It ended up being a good gamble for them both. Warne was hired as the first female detective in the United States, and the Pinkertons got an amazing operative who became the head of the Pinkerton’s Female Detective Bureau. (I’ll give you more details of Kate Warne in next month’s post).

 

Predecessor to the United States Secret Service

 

The Presidential Election of 1860 was a tumultuous one. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in November of that year, he became the first Republican candidate to win a presidential election—and the already-divided nation was driven apart even further. States threatened to secede, and people plotted to take out President-Elect Lincoln. It became evident that some of those threats were credible and might happen during Lincoln’s 70-city Whistle Stop Tour, leading up to his inauguration in early 1861.

Allan Pinkerton sent Kate Warne undercover to ferret out the “Baltimore Plot.” It was in Baltimore where President-Elect Lincoln would have to take a carriage from on train station to another to continue his journey, and in that vulnerable transfer, Southern sympathizers and secessionists planned to do him in. Once the details were discovered, Pinkerton and Warne concocted a plan to disguise Lincoln as the invalid brother of Kate, also in disguise, and were able to safely get him away to a separate train and on into Washington D.C. for the inauguration. Because of the Pinkerton Agency’s involvement in protecting the President-elect, it is often viewed as the precursor to the modern-day Secret Service.

 

Forerunner of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Unit

During the Civil War, Allan Pinkerton worked closely with General George B. McClellan, who commanded the Army of the Potomac. Pinkerton worked as a spy, often going undercover into enemy territory to gather intelligence on troop numbers and locations of the Confederate Army. It has been widely debated whether he helped or hurt the Union with his spying. Some have said he so overinflated the numbers of troops the Union would be facing that it caused McClellan to act too cautiously. However, others stated that the numbers and intelligence he delivered was really quite accurate, but that the inflation came from some less trained operatives or from McClellan himself. Regardless, the type of data and his procedures in gathering it are often viewed as a model or precursor for the United States Army’s Counterintelligence Unit.

 

One of the First Criminal Databases

 

Allan Pinkerton was meticulous about keeping records—so much so that he is also
credited with creating one of the earliest criminal databases. Known as “the Rogue’s Gallery,” this database included mugshots and case histories on Pinkerton cases. He and his operatives would include physical descriptions, known birthmarks, scars, and other distinguishing marks; any aliases; known friendships or alliances with other “rogues”; newspaper articles and clippings about the criminals and their exploits; extensive rap sheets of their past crimes; and any areas of expertise for the person in question. Around the time of his death, Pinkerton was working to centralize this database with other similar databases from other detective and law enforcement agencies, similar to the FBI’s criminal database in use today.

 

It's Your Turn: What cutting-edge aspect of Allan Pinkerton’s life or detective agency did you find most surprising? Why?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

 

Available for Pre-Order (Coming April 1, 2025):

 

Love and Order by Jennifer Uhlarik

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings of Callie, Andie, and Rion have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice. When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

 

 

History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency By Donna Schlachter -- with Giveaway

Allan Pinkerton. Courtesy Wikipedia

Allan Pinkerton, who founded the agency in the 1850s, came to the United States from Scotland, settling in Chicago. After meeting an attorney, the two decided to set up the North-Western Police Agency to address increased crime in the area and the nation. Originally, investigations were limited to policing employees for business owners to deter theft and embezzlement, but within five years, Allan Pinkerton created his own agency to specifically investigate railroad crimes.

Abraham Lincoln. Courtesy Wikipedia

One of the company’s earliest assignments was to safely deliver President Abraham Lincoln to Washington DC following an assassination threat. 

 

It was for this case that the first Pink Lady, Kate Warne, was assigned. She successfully delivered the president through a series of disguises and elaborate ruses, including duplicate trains and carriages. In fact, the case was important and difficult enough to require her to stay awake through the entire long journey. Thus began the company’s logo of an open eye and the slogan, “We never sleep.” 

Kate Warne. Courtesy Wikipedia

After the Civil War, the Pinkertons were hired by business owners to keep unions from organizing at their companies. The agency used a variety of operations, including infiltrating unions to gain information; supply guards to employers to keep organizers off the premises and to protect against property damage; bar strikers from properties; and recruiting goon squads to intimidate workers.
 

In 1871, the US government funded the Department of Justice to detect and prosecute anybody violating federal law. However, the fifty thousand dollars appropriated to fund the department wasn’t enough to form an internal investigation unit, so the Pinkerton National Detective Agency received a sub-contract to perform those duties.

Homestead, PA. Courtesy Wikipedia

In the 1870s, a Pinkerton operative, working undercover as James McKenna, infiltrated the Molly Maguires, a 19th-century secret society of Irish-Americans. He was so successful that the labor organization collapsed.

 

 

Frank & Jesse James. Courtesy Wikipedia

The agency was hired to track western outlaws Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and others. A number of notorious criminals were captured with the agency’s assistance. Pinkerton agents were well-armed, so they were often hired to transport money and other high-quality merchandise.  

 

While in the early years, the company enjoyed support from the public, their activities in strikebreaking earned them the reputation as being involved in violent crackdowns on striking workers, most notably, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

 

In 1892, the agency was hired to protect Carnegie Steel, owned by Andrew
Carnegie. During this strike, fights broke out between workers and strikebreakers. Three hundred Pinkerton agents were called in to protect the steel mill and strikebreakers. The governor mobilized state law enforcement and the National Guard. Private and government forces broke the strike, and the workers went back to work. When the air cleared, sixteen men lay dead. A large public outcry against their tactics decried the violence and treatment of strikers.

In fact, the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893 specifically says that no individual employed by that agency could work for or contract for the federal government

In the late nineteenth century, the Pinkertons were hired as guards for various natural resource companies, including coal, iron, and lumber, and acted in various disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

I used Kate Warne as the basis for the heroine in my story, Kate. As a young widow in the 1850s, Kate marched into the Pinkerton office and said she wanted a job. Allan Pinkerton thought she meant a clerical job, but no. Kate wanted to be a detective. And she turned out to be one of his best “men”, paving the way for many more female detectives in the coming years.

Kate Warne was a feisty woman with definite ideas of how she wanted her life to go, and so is Kate. While Kate Warne never remarried, I wanted my Kate to balance family and a professional career, a relatively new concept in the 1870s.

Today, most career paths are open to men or women, but that wasn’t always the case.

Giveaway: Answer this question to be entered into a random drawing for an ebook copy of A Pink Lady Thanksgiving – had you ever thought to enter a career or accept a job that would normally have gone to someone of the opposite gender? 

 

I’ll go first. I once wanted to be a veterinarian in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A teacher told me they didn’t want women officers, and I believed him. I “settled” for a career in accounting.

Please leave your comment along with your email address disguised like this: donna AT livebytheword DOT com

About Donna:
A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 50 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both.

www.DonnaSchlachter.com Stay connected so you learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive a free ebook simply for signing up for our free newsletter!

www.DonnaSchlachter.com/blog



 

Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

James B. Hume and the Wells Fargo Detectives

If you read much Christian historical fiction, you may have come across stories with characters who work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The Pinkertons are a hugely popular element in fiction set in 1800s America—and why wouldn’t they be? The agency formed by Scotsman Allan Pinkerton employed men, women, and minorities as detectives while protecting people, (among them U.S. presidents and other dignitaries) and solving crimes. This agency is an interesting and exciting part of our country’s history, for sure.

That said, the Pinkertons were not the only detectives out there. Far less well-known in fictional stories today is the Wells Fargo detective. If you’ve read much about travel in the Old West—or banking—you’ll know that name. In fact, I’ve written about Wells Fargo in the past. Private citizens, small businesses, and major industries all trusted Wells Fargo with their valuables. For example, between 1858 and 1861, Wells Fargo shipped 15 tons of gold from the Sonora, Califonia office alone. But where there are valuables, there are evil people bent on stealing them, and there were times that those evil men were successful. So how did Wells Fargo protect against thefts—or recover stolen property they’d been entrusted with?

They employed their own detectives, of course. These were men hired as private detectives, not

James B. Hume, Wells Fargo Special Agent

official law enforcement or peace officers. However, the very first and most famous of the Wells Fargo detectives, one Mr. James B. Hume, was afforded many of the perks for law enforcement of that time. Hume was a peace officer with more than a decade of experience in the field when he was hired by Wells Fargo in 1871, and it’s safe to assume many of the others who followed him were, as well.

So what could a Wells Fargo detective do while in pursuit of a robber? First, they could move far more freely than a local police officer or sheriff, who was confined to a specific town or county. Hume and others moved easily across borders into neighboring communities, even crossing into other territories or states while in pursuit of their quarry. With that ability to move around, they were more like today’s FBI than a localized law enforcement officer.

In addition to this extra mobility, the Wells Fargo agents were graciously afforded arrest powers, as long as they kept those arrests limited to only those men and women related to robberies of Wells Fargo shipments. However, just because they could arrest those they pursued didn’t mean they always did. In fact, Wells Fargo detectives worked very closely with the local police and sheriffs, inviting them along when they would go to investigate crime scenes or interrogate witnesses. They were often deputized by the local agency, and when possible, they let the local authorities handle the official arrests, just to keep things on the up-and-up.

When a customer entrusted their valuables to Wells Fargo for shipment, a waybill was written, detailing the contents. Those waybills were sent along with the shipment. If, in the course of transit, that shipment was robbed—and the bandit left the waybills behind (which they often did, since they didn’t realize they were there or understand what they were), the reporting detectives could then copy the waybills to know exactly what they were seeking to recover. The detective nearest the scene of the crime would report to W. F., & Co. about the theft, then enlist local law enforcement’s help, interview any witnesses, and begin pursuit.

James Hume's mugbook

But Hume and his compatriots in the agency were not out only to get convictions at all costs. They were just as dogged in proving falsely accused men innocent when they felt the wrong man had been apprehended. To aid in that goal, they used cutting-edge techniques. For instance, Jim Hume kept a “mugbook”—a leather-bound journal that included hand-drawn or photographic pictures of suspected robbers, where he detailed copious notes on aliases and other information for each of the people included. And, Hume was said to have removed the bullet from a dead horse, which he compared with a bullet from a different case, employing crude ballistics techniques to compare the markings and link the two back to the same perpetrator.

In his thirty-one year term as a Wells Fargo Special Agent, Hume investigated hundreds of cases, and in the process, used some of the techniques we use in police forensics work today—then in their infancy. Unlike a local sheriff who had to give equal attention to all the daily business brought before him, Hume or other Wells Fargo detectives could devote all of their focus to one case at a time, pursuing it until it was solved. In one such case, his most well-known, Hume pursued Black Bart for eight years before his capture. Bart was a gentlemanly robber who absconded with the strongbox contents of at least twenty-five Wells Fargo stagecoaches between 1875 and 1883, totaling about $18,000 (or $1-2 million in today’s dollars). This thief remained one step ahead of Hume until, in his last stage robbery, he was shot in the hand and, in his subsequent flight from the scene, dropped a bloody handkerchief that contained a launderer’s identification mark. Enlisting the help of a fellow detective, Hume and his friend went door-to-door to nearly one hundred laundries in San Francisco until they found the one who claimed that mark. The particular series of letters and numbers, F.X.O.7, was linked to the account of one C. E. Boles. Armed with that information, Hume and his fellow detective rounded up Boles, interrogated him, elicited a confession, and were able to garner a conviction. Black Bart served four years of his six-year sentence in San Quentin, and was released early for good behavior.

James B. Hume never retired from Wells Fargo. He continued to work cases, often going out on the trail in pursuit of robbers until an illness in 1897 caused him to slow down some. After that point, he continued to oversee cases closer to home in California until his death in 1904.

It’s your turn: Were you aware that Wells, Fargo, & Co. employed their own detectives? If so, did you realize they had the types of authority detailed above?

If you’ve never read a story with a Wells Fargo detective, I invite you to read my July 1 release, Courting Calamity, which includes my story, Lady and the Tramps, and features Wells Fargo Special Agent as the hero.

COURTING CALAMITY 

Heroes Needed for Four Damsels in Distress

Despite determination to be strong and independent, four women of bygone days are in need of a hero. On the journey to California, the deed to Mattie’s hopes and dreams is stolen. Elizabeth has been saddled with too many responsibilities at the family mercantile. Unexpectedly married, Sofia is ill-prepared for a husband and the society she is thrust into. When her sister is accosted, Aileen will do almost anything to support her. Accepting help isn’t easy when these women don’t want to show weakness, but it is more appealing when it comes with a handsome face.

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.