2 Quotes & Sayings By Allan Pinkerton
Allan Pinkerton was born in 1819 in North Carolina. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1835, where he graduated six weeks before his class. After graduation, he served in the Black Hawk War (1831–32) and then the Seminole Wars (1835–42). He resigned his commission, however, to become a private detective
He founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1850 with $100,000 of his own money. The agency became famous for employing agents who specialized in investigating crimes (domestic or foreign) for corporations and governments. Although the agency was not the first private detective agency, it became known as "the Pinkerton Agency." Allan's daughter Mary Pinkerton became an educator; her grandson Allan Pinkerton would join the agency after his father's death in 1884.