Title: Pinkerton Brothers Arrive in the United States
General Information about Item:
- Verbal folklore
- English
- United States
Informant Data:
- Lester Pinkerton, interviewed November 5, 2017 via telephone. Lester lives in North Idaho.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context: This is the next segment of the Pinkerton brother’s story (Departure #1), though Lester told it less frequently. It was still, however, often told during gatherings were family history was discussed.
- Cultural Context: The cultural context of this piece is reflected in that it shows the struggles of immigrants to find jobs to support their new life in the United States. Having left their home country, they now needed to alter their lifestyle to match their new surroundings.
Item:
- “The three brothers made it to the United States with relatively little trouble. Once there, they decided to stay away from the political rallies that had cost them their lives in Scotland. John, who had heard of all the free land in Nebraska, told his brothers that he would be moving there to start his own farm. Robert and Allan were always welcome, but neither wanted to spend the rest of their lives in fields under the Nebraska sky. Robert chose a career as a doctor, and Allan became a cooper. Allan’s career quickly changed however, after he joined the Chicago police department. While working a case on the railroad, Allan gained the attention of the then-railroad attorney Abraham Lincoln, a meeting that would benefit both men later in life, as Allan Pinkerton then started his own detective agency, the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which discovered a plot to assassinate Lincoln before his first inauguration.”
Informant’s Comments:
- Lester heard this story from his grandfather, Norris. He is descending from John and the farming branch of the Pinkerton brothers.
Collector’s Name: Hannah Pinkerton ’19
Tags/Keywords:
- Immigration, United States, Scotland, farmer, doctor, detective