George W. Pinkerton, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of George W. Pinkerton
GEORGE W. PINKERTON was born and reared in the county that is now his home and in which he is recognized as a representative exemplar of the agricultural and live-stock industries, under the discipline of which he grew to man's estate. He has shown the same integrity of purpose, the same energy and the same thrifty habits as have the other members of the family, and he has not been denied the rewards of well directed and earnest endeavor. His homestead farm is situated in Morgan township, at a point about ten miles southeast of Valparaiso, the judicial center and metropolis of the county, and it comprises seventy acres of excellent land, virtually all of which is under cultivation or available therefor.
In the old homestead, about one fourth of a mile distant from his present attractive residence, George W. Pinkerton was born on the twenty-first of June, 1868; he is the youngest of the children of Robert and Ellen (Harris) Pinkerton. George W. Pinkerton grew to adult age under the sturdy training of the home farm, his early educational advantages being those of the public schools of that rural district in which his home was situated. This elementary intellectual development he has supplemented by intelligent attention to the practical affairs or life. After his marriage, in the year 1900, Mr. Pinkerton found himself excellently equipped with ambition and determination, as well as habits of industry, but his capitalistic resources were practically summed up in his own producing ability. He and his loyal young wife began their married life on land rented from his father and in a modest but attractive little house erected for that purpose. Upon the death of his honored father Mr. Pinkerton inherited forty-three acres of the old homestead. This he did not consider adequate in area to satisfy his ambition in the line of progressive agriculture, and accordingly, with the courage born of energy and determination, he secured an adjoining tract of land, so that his present farm comprises seventy acres, all in section 24, Morgan township. He has made excellent improvements on his place, where he and his wife have bent all their energies to securing for themselves and their children a position of definite prosperity. Their success has been proportionate to their labors and their farm is one of the valuable pieces of property in Morgan township, the various departments of its work being conducted according to scientific methods and with the best of modern facilities.
Mr. Pinkerton is not only known as a practical agriculturalist, but he has been able to combine with his farming enterprises the business of threshing. For ten years he operated his father's threshing machine and after that he conducted similar operations with a machine used jointly by himself and his brother, R. J. Pinkerton. Yet another line of profitable activity has this versatile man conducted, having engaged in the running of a buzz-saw with steam power, for a period of seven years in association with the LaPorte and Parker companies. A new addition to the improvements on his farm is the projected building, in the spring of 1913, of a large barn measuring twenty-eight by thirty-eight feet, and with sixteen-foot posts.
Mrs. Pinkerton is a member of the family of Julius and Augusta Schultz, sterling German citizens of the county, of whose thirteen children five sons and four daughters are yet living. Emma E. Schultz was the fourth in order of birth and was born on the twentieth day of January, 1875, in this township, of which her parents have long been valued citizens. Her marriage to Mr. Pinkerton took place on the sixth of June, 1900, and in the years that have followed, three children have been added to the home, who have been named as follows: Mildred S., Grace C. and Dorothy E. The favored home of this family is popularly known by their extensive circle of friends and acquaintance as "The Cottage Grove Farm."
Mr. Pinkerton is a quiet but conscientious ally of Republican principles and a man who, with his family, stands high in the active circles of the Christian church, with which congregation George Pinkerton has been connected since his early youth. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, affiliating with Camp No. 13781 at Wanatah, Indiana, of which he is a charter member and in which he holds a life insurance policy of $1,000, made payable to his wife. He has also had the honor of serving as one of the trustees of this order.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 402-403
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook