Allan Pinkerton

Allan Pinkerton was born in the Gorbals, a working-class area of Glasgow, on August 21, 1819, the second surviving son of William Pinkerton, a retired policeman, and Isobel McQueen; he was baptized on August 25, 1819, which many sources incorrectly give as his birthdate. He left school at the age of 10 after his father's death. Pinkerton read voraciously and was largely self-educated. A cooper by trade, he was active in the Scottish Chartist movement as a young man. He was not raised in a religious upbringing, and was a lifelong atheist.

Pinkerton and his wife moved overseas to escape either arrest for his involvement in the Chartist movement, or the ire of the Chartists having turned informer. While sailing toward Canada, their ship accidentally ran aground on Sable Island. They eventually secured passage on a schooner and continued their journey to Detroit, Michigan. Unable to find work there, Pinkerton used the last of his money to buy a horse and wagon. He and his wife then traveled west to Chicago, where he found work as a cooper for a brewery and began to establish a new life. In 1843, he heard of Dundee Township, Illinois, fifty miles northwest of Chicago on the Fox River. He built a cabin and started a cooperage, sending for his wife in Chicago when their cabin was complete. As early as 1844, Pinkerton worked for the Chicago abolitionist leaders, and his Dundee home was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Pinkerton married Joan Carfrae (1822–1887), a singer from Duddingston, in Edinburgh on March 13, 1842. They remained married until his death. They had six children: Isabella, William, Joan, Robert, Mary, and Joan. His daughter Joan Pinkerton Chalmers married William J. Chalmers, the son of Allis-Chalmers co-founder Thomas Stuart Chalmers.