James Clerk Maxwell

(Oh, and Happy Birthday, Arthur!)

No, not Maxwell. And thanks, Bill! 70 years old today … never thought I’d make it past 35.

More clues:

I secretly married a Glasgow singer in 1842, then emigrated to the United States.

In 1843 I built a cabin on the Fox River, fifty miles northwest of Chicago, sending for my wife when the cabin was complete.

I want to say Emerson or Thoreau, but I’m sure both are wrong….

Not Emerson or Thoreau.

As early as 1844, I worked for the Chicago abolitionist leaders, and my home was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Dred Scott

Not Dred.

While wandering through wooded groves, looking for trees to make barrel staves, I came across a band of counterfeiters. After observing their movements, I informed the local sheriff, who arrested them. As a consequence, I was later given a job in law enforcement.

Buford Pusser

Not Buford. Bill, I thought that was a made-up name! LOL.

As the US expanded in territory, rail transport increased, which led to me solving a series of train robberies during the 1850s.

Pinkerton (I don't know his first name)

Looks like you and I are the two night owls of the group. Yes, Alan Pinkerton it is.

I had many more clues:

When the Civil War began, I served as head of the Union Intelligence Service during the first two years.

During this time I headed off an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland while guarding Abraham Lincoln on his way to Washington, D.C. I also identified troop numbers in military campaigns.

My agents often worked undercover as Confederate soldiers and sympathizers to gather military intelligence.

I myself worked across the Deep South in the summer of 1861, focusing on fortifications and Confederate plans. I was found out in Memphis and barely escaped with my life.

The organization I established was the predecessor of the U.S. Secret Service.

After the war, I continued my pursuit of train robbers, including the Reno Gang.

I was hired by the railroad express companies to track the outlaw Jesse James, but after failing to capture him, the railroad withdrew their financial support. I continued to track James at my own expense, but after James allegedly captured and killed one of my undercover agents, I abandoned the chase.

In 1872, the Spanish Government hired me to help suppress a revolution in Cuba.

I died in Chicago on July 1, 1884. It is usually said that I slipped on the pavement and bit my tongue, resulting in gangrene. Contemporary reports give conflicting causes, such as that I succumbed to a stroke (which I had a year earlier) or to malaria, which I had contracted during a trip to the Southern United States.

At the time of my death, I was working on a system to centralize all criminal identification records, a database now maintained by the FBI.

I am buried in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, and I’m a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

After my death, the agency I established continued to operate and soon became a major force against the labor movement developing in the US and Canada.

I was so famous that for decades after my death, my surname was a slang term for a private eye.

(Happy belated birthday, Arthur!)

Thanks, Karnak! As a fellow rock musician, whoda thunk I'd make it this far?

As the winner, you're up next, Bill.

The train robberies are what brought Pinkerton to mind.

I did not realize that he was Scottish, nor that he was part of the underground railroad.

I'll have a new person later this evening. I know who it is, but I have a few things I have to finish first.

Yes, when I researched him, I was surprised to learn about some of his lesser-known exploits.

1. I was born in Somerset.

2. Two years later we'd moved to West Lothian, Scotland.

3. A year later we were in Surrey, and a year after that, in Nairobi.

Jane Goodall.

Desmond Tutu?

Interesting that you should guess Dame Jane, inasmuch as she was the subject of one of my clue lists several pages back.

Not Jane, nor Desmond. (Desmond is interesting too, for a completely different reason that I cannot reveal. Yet.)

4. While boarding at Nakuru School in Nairobi, I returned home one mid-term break to discover that my parents had divorced.

Nelson Mandela?