Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in a Pennsylvania town not very long ago, Men struck against reduction of their pay." The mill owner intends to starve the union into submission; in the process, "Father was killed by the Pinkerton men." The singer appeals to politicians to help
AUTHOR: William W. Delaney (Willy Wildwave)
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement strike hardtimes political orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1892 - Homestead Strike
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 235-236, "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 157, "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 200, "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 185, "(Father was Killed by the Pinkerton Men)" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 244, "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (1 text)
DT, PINKMEN*
Roud #22303
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Homestead Strike" (subject)
NOTES [313 words]: For the details of the Homestead Strike, the apparent subject of this song, see "The Homestead Strike." Although there are also similarities to the 1876 Long Strike that ended with the destruction of the Molly Maguires and the Union movement by the Pinkertons; for that, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25].
We think of the Pinkerton Agency as a detective organization, and that was certainly how they initially presented themselves, but as the company expanded, it became more and more what we would now call a contract security firm -- and an armed one, which existed to do the bidding of corporate managers, the "Pinkerton Protective Patrol" (Lukas, pp. 81-83); they sound very much like the sort of private security firms the United States has used in the twentieth century in places like Iraq to substitute for the U. S. military.
Incidentally, the Pinkertons were not above murder if it met their ends. A famous example was the case of Frank and Jesse James and their mother and stepfather, Dr. Reuben Samuel and Zerelda Cole James Samuel. On January 28, 1875, a gang of Pinkertons firebombed their home in hopes of catching the James brothers. They didn't capture either brother -- but they did kill Archie Peyton Samuel and do such damage to Mrs. Samuel's hand that it had to be amputated (Yeatman, pp. 134-137).
The Pinkertons were eventually charged with murder (Yeatman, p. 143), but the case never came to trial (p. 147).
Later on, the Pinkertons were regarded as whitewashers -- that is, they were called upon by the guilty to try to protect their guilt (Oney, p. 62). To be sure, both the Homestead Strike and their reputation for whitewashing came after Allan Pinkerton died in 1884. But the Samuels case was before he died.
For other songs with strong Pinkerton connections, see "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]." and "Harry Orchard." - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 6.1
File: SWM235

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