Mom’s Favorite Reads eMagazine December 2018

Page 86

The First Female Private Detective by Hannah Howe

In 1861 Allan Pinkerton of the Pinkerton Detective Agency placed his entire squad of hand-picked detectives at the disposal of Abraham Lincoln and the Pinkerton agents became the North’s military intelligence arm during the American Civil War. These agents included Kate Warne, the first female private detective, recruited by Pinkerton in 1856. A slim, brown-haired widow, Kate walked into Pinkerton’s office and asked for a job. Pinkerton noted that Kate was “graceful in her movements and selfpossessed. Her features, although not what could be called handsome, were decidedly of an intellectual cast and her face was honest, which would cause one in distress instinctly to select her as a confidant.” Pinkerton asked Kate why she thought she qualified for the job. Kate replied that she could “worm out secrets in many places to which it was impossible for male detectives to gain access.” Pinkerton spent a restless night mulling over the idea of recruiting Kate and he concluded, “the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.”

Kate Warne stayed with the Pinkerton Agency for many years, rising through the ranks to become a branch superintendent. With other agents she was given the task of tracking Southern sympathisers in Washington and with setting up a secret service for the army. In 1861 Kate played a vital role in heading off a plot to assassinate Lincoln in Baltimore. She booked two private sleeping cars on a train out of town for ‘a sick friend and party’ then she smuggled the president-elect out of danger and travelled with him as personal protector. Pinkerton had a high regard for Kate and he left instructions in his will that her grave in Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery should always be maintained to perpetuate the memory of the first female private detective. Picture, Allan Pinkerton (no official photograph of Kate Warne survives)

You can discover more about Hannah on page 77, as well as on the Mom’s Favorite Reads website here: https://moms-favorite-reads.com/moms-authors/hannah-howe/

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The First Female Private Detective

1min
page 86

Reading Tricks for Kids of Any Age

9min
pages 6-10

Is a Name Day in Game of Thrones a Real Tradition?

5min
pages 61-63

Scariest Night of the Year

4min
pages 26-27

Stand and Deliver!

1min
page 79

Author Spotlight Amanda Steel

1min
page 88

Stress, it’s a fact of life, but it doesn’t have to be a way of life

3min
pages 16-17

Superfly Part One

7min
pages 36-39

Kindness, Love, Unity and Bravery - Join the KLUB

3min
pages 34-35

Great Ormond Street

3min
pages 12-13

Midnight Song

3min
pages 32-33

Gingerbread Recipe

1min
page 78

It’s Time for Christmas ‘Hygge’

3min
pages 40-41

Beware the Christmas Mice!

3min
pages 76-77

Christmas in Manila

3min
pages 20-21

Co-Parenting During the Holidays

4min
pages 24-25

Five Tips to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

2min
pages 30-31

Christmas in Trinidad

3min
pages 22-23

Surviving the Holidays Without Gaining a Pound

6min
pages 80-83

Christmas in Germany

8min
pages 50-53

Paddy, The Christmas Turkey

19min
pages 64-73

Yes, Virginia, There Really is a Santa Claus

4min
pages 84-85

A Victorian Christmas

3min
pages 14-15

All I Want For Christmas is a Puppy!

3min
pages 28-29

A Ghost Story for Christmas

3min
pages 18-19

Wordsearch: On the Origins of Christmas

3min
pages 48-49
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