Tag: people

History

Many People Ask: What Is a Pinkerton Detective?

Denise M. Colby

One of my characters in A Whole New Plan is a female Pinkerton detective. Lydia Spencer is hiding in plain sight as a teacher. But she’s working undercover to help catch a crime boss back in Cincinnati and protect one of her new teacher friends. I’ve had several people ask ‘what is a Pinkerton?’, so I wanted to share with you the historical background of Allan Pinkerton and the agency he founded in 1850.

A Whole New Plan is a historical romance set in California image shows in both paperback and e-book formats for tablets and phones

What’s the Pinkerton Detective Agency?

Allen Pinkerton was a Scottish immigrant. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency became America’s first and most famous private law enforcement organization. Originating in Chicago and expanding into Their motto was “We Never Sleep” and they had a logo with an open-eye in it to promote as such.

Pinkerton National Detective Agency Logo

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency specialized in railway, stagecoach, and bank theft. They were known for tracking down burglars, counterfeiters, forgers, and the oft-feared masked hold -up robbers, including famous outlaws like Jesse James and Butch Cassidy.

Before the creation of the agency, Allen was settling in a new land and figuring out his future. He had unintentionally discovered a band of counterfeiters, reported it to the sheriff, and then found himself being appointed in 1849 as the first police detective of Cook County, Illinois. That led to him starting the Pinkerton agency. Mr. Pinkerton’s goal was to pursue justice and decrease crime. And he was good at it.

He had a natural talent for investigations and solved many different types of cases including a grave-robber case (medical students) that was promoted in several newspapers (what we would call viral today). The widespread attention caused a flood of new clients to seek his services.

What About Female Pinkerton Detectives?

Allen Pinkerton was a forward thinker. He hired the first female detective, Kate Warne. From research, it’s been said that Kate approached Allan and convinced him to give her a trial. In an excerpt from his book – The Murderer and the Fortune Teller, first published in 1877.

Previous to the early part of 1855, I had never regularly employed any female detectives; nor were women engaged in that capacity in any part of the Union. My first experience with them was due to Mrs. Kate Warne, an intelligent, brilliant, and accomplished lady. She offered her services to me in the early spring of that year, and, in spite of the novelty of her proposition, I determined to give her a trial. She soon showed such tact, readiness of resource, ability to read character, intuitive perception of motives, and rare discretion, that I created a female department in the agency, and made Mrs. Warne the superintendent thereof.

Kate opened an agency office in Cincinnati. Which is where I got the idea for the agency house in my story, and having Kate be included in A Whole New Plan as Lydia’s boss. (Please note, since this is fiction, I took liberties with the timeline in order to fit my story world and have Kate in it.)

Kate Warne was the first female Pinkerton detective

In real life, it was Kate that implemented a plan to protect President-elect Abraham Lincoln in order to get him to his inauguration safely. It was because of this connection that I decided to name Lydia’s dog Fido. Lincoln had a dog name Fido, and that was well known. It’s one of the reasons Fido was a more popular dog name at that time.

Finding Books with Female Pinkerton Detectives

I have read several books through the years where the main character is a Pinkerton detective and have enjoyed them all. Possibly the ones with women as Pinkerton’s even more. Some of you have asked for additional reads with female Pinkerton leads. I didn’t keep track specifically of them because I didn’t know I would be writing one, but I wanted to highlight a few.

One of the first books I ever came across was Margaret Brownley’s series Undercover Ladies. They were released starting in 2014, and I had found two of them at a library book sale. I then found the first one title Petticoat Detective on Amazon. I held onto them because I enjoyed them so much.

Undercover Bride and Calico Spy by Margaret Brownley are part of the Undercover Ladies series, with female Pinkerton heroines.

Another story I’ve recently read is An Agent for Dixie by Linda Carroll-Bradd. Linda and I are part of a local writing group and when I saw she had written one, I couldn’t wait to read it. The premise is that the female Pinkerton must be trained by a male counterpart. This story is part of large series called Pinkerton Matchmakers by different authors.

An Agent for Dixie by Linda Carroll-Bradd is part of the Pinkerton Matchmaker series

A Whole New Plan has a Female Pinkerton Detective

In my book, A Whole New Plan, Lydia thrives (or so she thinks) on working alone. She’s been trained by Kate and has something to prove to others and to herself. Little did she know God would send her on a completely different path than what she had planned for herself.

✨ Perfect for readers who love:

  • Fake engagements that lead to real feelings 💍
  • Opposites attract romances—an adventurous agent and a steady pastor ❤️
  • Strong heroines in unconventional roles (female Pinkerton detective!) 🔍
  • Forced proximity and traveling together on dangerous missions 🚂
  • Small-town mysteries with a dash of frontier charm 🌾
  • Secrets, hidden identities, and reluctant confessions 🤫
  • Faith-tested journeys where God’s plan shines brighter than fear 🙏
  • Gentle, swoony romance wrapped in historical Christian adventure 🌹

Here’s the book blurb:

Sometimes God’s best plan is the one we never expected.

California, 1870. Pastor William Baker built his life on steady faith and safe choices, but the arrival of Lydia Spencer upends everything. Independent, outspoken, and hiding a limp from a recent injury, Lydia is unlike any woman he’s ever known. And she has no interest in church—or in sharing her secrets.

What Will doesn’t realize is that 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.

When strange thefts strike the ranch and a frightened boy appears with ties to their past, Will and Lydia are thrown together in a search for truth—and find themselves fighting not only for justice, but for a future neither had planned.

Full of faith, mystery, and romance, A Whole New Plan weaves a story of healing hearts, unexpected love, and God’s perfect design.

there’s a little bit for everyone in this story:

💕 Romance Tropes

  • Slow Burn Romance
  • Opposites Attract
  • Pretend Engagement / Fake Relationship
  • Out of My League
  • Forced Proximity
  • Protector Hero

🔍 Mystery/Adventure Tropes

  • Pinkerton Agent / Lady Detective
  • Small-Town Mystery
  • Undercover Investigation
  • Secrets & Hidden Identity

Best-laid Plans Series

A Whole New Plan is the fourth book to launch in the Best-laid Plans Series.

Three young women. One new beginning. A journey of faith, friendship, and unexpected love.

It’s 1869 and three young women travel to Sacramento, California, ready to begin new lives as teachers in the rural one-room schoolhouses of the West. But the plans they carefully laid soon give way to something far greater. As God gently redirects their paths, each woman discovers lessons in friendship, faith, and trust—and encounters the most surprising gift of all: love.

They weren’t searching for it.
They never expected it.
But they may just find everything their hearts truly need.

No Plan at All was a side story that came out of the first book, although these characters are related to Will, the hero in A Whole New Plan and are part of this story.

To read in chronological order, here’s a timeline order of the books:

The best-laid plans series by Denise M. Colby includes four books so far

If you’d like to read more about Allen Pinkerton, Kate Warne, or the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Hero’s, Heroine’s, & History blog has a bunch of different blog posts on these topics. I provided a link to the search term, Pinkerton, to find them all for you.

History

Historical Teacher Rules And Regulations From the 1860’s

Denise M. Colby

Have you ever seen old historical teacher rules from the 1860’s? As a historical fiction writer, I love learning about these things. Oh to be a teacher back then!

Of course there weren’t options for women who needed to support themselves or wanted to do something outside of the home. So landing a teaching job was a really big deal. And there was a set of rules they needed to follow. From how they managed themselves, to how they managed their classroom.

This is actually how my writing journey began – when I first learned about these “teacher rules” .

Learning about these historical teacher rules

I was visiting Sacramento, our state capital, with my son’s fourth grade class and they spent part of the day at the one room schoolhouse there. The docent performed a school session for the kids to show them what it was like. I found all of it fascinating.

But this post is about the historical rules teachers had during this time.

These rules had to be followed in order to keep their job. Since much of it was tied to not marrying or even courting (for the women), and I loved to read romance, I wondered what that must’ve been like, and my heroine, Olivia, started to appear in my mind.

List of teacher rules from 1872. Found on internet in multiple places. Author unknown.
Historical teacher rules from 1915 produced by the Old Sacramento Schoolhouse museum

During my research for When Plans Go Awry, I found that women teachers had different rules than their male counterparts. I also learned that women were not allowed to go inside an ice cream parlor.

What?

Since ice cream is my favorite dessert, I had to investigate. And add this one into my story, even though I found it in the 1915 sheet (but ice cream did exist in 1869).

And in case you don’t believe me, here’s a website I found from Williamson County Illinois Historical Society that states the teacher rules as well. Which means these rules were throughout all the states, not just in one region or area.

Historical Punishment List

There also were a list of punishments the teacher had to adhere to. I purchased this sheet from the Old Sacramento Museum because it captured my attention that much. And I incorporated a few of them into my story as well.

List of punishment rules for teachers from the 1848. This sheet was purchased by Denise M. Colby on a trip to the Old Sacramento Museum

The discipline was strict. Take a look at how many lashings a student would receive based on each infraction. To make a swing and then swing on them was a big one with seven lashings, where fighting at school was only 5. Girls and boys were not allowed to play together and had separate play places. Playing cards was the worst, as well as misbehaving to girls.

How did teachers in the 1860s do this? 

It was the times. Which is why historical fiction is so popular. We are transported to a different time, different world, with different rules. In the case of this blog post I can drill down even further, and say different teacher rules.

And so an idea for a story started to brew. What would’ve it been like to live with these rules? And so many of these examples found their way into my debut novel When Plans Go Awry to help give a flavor as to how it was to be a teacher during this part of our history. 

Let me know if you find it interesting as well, or if there are rules you’ve heard of that I haven’t mentioned.

I wrote a blog post about the one-room schoolhouse we visited if you’d like to read more about that.

Blog Title It's the One-room Schoolhouse's Fault with pick of prairie flowers and a one-room schoolhouse by Denise M. Colby includes historical teacher rules
History

Harriet Bishop, First Public School Teacher in 1847

Denise M. Colby

I love history and in my one-room schoolhouse and schoolteacher research for my book, I found an article titled Harriet Bishop, Frontier Teacher by Zylpha S. Morton through the Minnesota Historical Society. Harriet traveled by herself to Minnesota in 1847, leaving her family to go live in a community smaller and more rural than anything she’d ever lived in, all to become a teacher.

Blog Title with the words Harriet Bishop , one of the first public school teachers; 1847; History; Writer's Research by Denise M. Colby

Men were teachers of choice in the East, but as the West expanded the opportunity arose for women.

She was sent by a board, that actively sought ought opportunities to bring women teachers to these rural areas. The thought was women would have a greater impact on their students.

This board, National Popular Education, was organized in Cleveland on April 7, 1847. The aim of the board was to “advance the cause of Popular, Christian Education in our country” by encouraging well-qualified “Female teachers” to take positions in the remote West.

Their first class of twenty-six young women, received prep training in New York State before being sent out to parts unknown. This prep training school was led by Catherine Beecher (sister of Harriet Beecher-Stowe)—the teacher whom I reference in my novel (I’ll share more about her in a future post). Harriet Bishop was from the first graduating class of this organization.

Harriet Bishop was also one of the first to volunteer to go to a small settlement outside of what we now know as St. Paul, Minnesota.

A place that had five stores, a dozen families, and about 36 children.

Room and board was furnished by one family who had four children in return for free tuition. She had to bring her own schoolbooks, as the nearest bookstore was over three hundred miles away.

According to Morton, Harriet’s preparation included “a review of the common school subjects, in addition to lectures on domestic economy, health of children, punctuality, truth and honesty in the schoolroom, diet, how to avoid sectarian jealousy, how to deal with party politics, and how to meet petty gossip”.

The last item in the training course was considered necessary because it was said that as soon as a young woman set foot in the new West, some man would promptly woo her from her profession and make her his wife. It seemed to help because by 1858 (10 years later), the board had sent 481 teachers to the West and only 75 had married.

Another tidbit from this article — it turns out the pupils who attended the schools were the ones who entered into matrimony. They made the claim that school and the lessons they learned in running a household helped them find a mate.

I’ve used some of this history in my story.

My heroine, Olivia Carmichael, goes west to teach through one of these organizations. She just happens to go way further west…all the way to California.

She too has to live with families of students for her room and board, and learn how to live in a more remote area.

But more on that later—this post is about Harriet and to acknowledge what she was known for — the first public school teacher in the area.

Old black and white photo of Harriet Bishop one of the first public school teachers in 1847
This photo can be found in the Wikipedia entry on Harriet Bishop

She had a lot of courage to leave her family behind (with the mindset of never seeing them again). In digging around further, I’ve learned she stayed in the St. Paul area for the rest of her life and was instrumental in starting many charities and fundraisers. She married, divorced, and petitioned to get back her legal maiden name successfully. She also wrote a few books, too.

She made an impact on her community and her students.

Like all the teachers I know today.