The Thiel Detective Service Company was a private detective agency formed in 1873 by George H. Thiel, a former

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

spy and Pinkerton employee. The Thiel Detective Service Company headquarters were in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. The company was formed to be a direct competitor to the

Pinkerton Detective Agency Pinkerton is a private security guard and detective agency established around 1850 in the United States by Scottish-born cooper Allan Pinkerton and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker as the North-Western Police Agency, which later became Pinkerton ...

, but never achieved this status. The

Burns Detective Agency Burns may refer to: * Burn, an injury (plural) People: * Burns (surname), includes list of people and characters Business: * Burns London, a British guitar maker Places: ;In the United States * Burns, Colorado, unincorporated community in Eagle C ...

was Pinkerton's largest competitor. By the late 1890s, Thiel had seven offices, including one in New York and one in Portland, Oregon. Many of the agents employed by Thiel spied on railroad workers, covering every state and territory in the Union, as well as Canadian provinces between

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. They referred to themselves as "testers", meaning that they tested employees' honesty, while railroad workers called them "spotters". The Thiel Agency was also involved in infiltrating and breaking a number of

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

strikes in the United States and Canada, much as the Pinkerton agency was. After the

Homestead Strike The Homestead strike, also known as the Homestead steel strike, Homestead massacre, or Battle of Homestead, was an industrial lockout and strike that began on July 1, 1892, culminating in a battle in which strikers defeated private security agent ...

, the Thiel Detective Agency, along with the Illinois Detective Agency, U.S. Detective Agency, and Mooney and Boland's Detective Agency were investigated by both chambers of the United States Congress.Norwood, ''Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America,'' 2002. One of the company's first employees was John F. Farley, a former

United States Cavalry The United States Cavalry, or U.S. Cavalry, was the designation of the mounted force of the United States Army by an act of Congress on 3 August 1861.Price (1883) p. 103, 104 This act converted the U.S. Army's two regiments of dragoons, one ...

trooper. In 1885, Farley was appointed manager of Thiel's

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

office. Farley later served as Chief of Police in Denver for two spells: 1889–1893, 1897–1901. By 1914 Farley was assistant general manager of the Thiel Detective Service Company. From his office in San Francisco he had jurisdiction over the offices in Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver.See: ''Salt Lake Telegram'', Utah, February 19, 1914.

Notes

References

* Dorich, Thomas J. "This Is a Tough Place to Work: Industrial Relations in the Jerome Mines, 1900–1922." ''Journal of Arizona History.'' 38 (Autumn 1997). * Morn, Frank. ''The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. * Weiss, Robert P. "Private Detective Agencies and Labour Discipline in the United States, 1855–1946." ''Historical Journal.'' 29:1 (March 1986). Private detectives and investigators History of labor relations in the United States Labor detectives {{US-hist-stub

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