The New Nation (1790-1828)







Detective Allan Pinkerton ("E. J. Allen") of the Secret Service on horseback in Antietam, Maryland in 1862



Detective Allan Pinkerton Was Born in Glasgow, Scotland

August 25, 1819

Mulder, Scully and 007, move over for the detective on horseback. One of America's first undercover agents, a Civil War scout and guardian of President Lincoln, he was Allan Pinkerton, Private Eye. Allan Pinkerton, born in Glasgow, Scotland, on August 25, 1819, founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. But his career as a detective began by chance. After emigrating to the United States in 1842, he established a barrel-making shop in a small town outside of Chicago. Pinkerton was an abolitionist (activist against slavery). His shop functioned as a "station" for escaped slaves traveling the Underground Railroad to freedom in the North. One day while out gathering wood, Pinkerton discovered a gang of counterfeiters making coins in the area.

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