Grave Tales: Famous Detective Nabbed Horse Thieves, Counterfeiters in Geneva

The small, simple granite headstone with the moss-covered lettering doesn’t seem all that impressive. But beneath it lies one of the most nationally prominent residents in Geneva history.

Bartholomew Yates enjoyed a distinguished career as an East Coast private detective before he moved to Geneva to farm in 1846, said Geneva History Center educator Margaret Selakovich during one of her popular tours of West Side Cemetery. He broke up a regional counterfeiting ring and captured a number of horse thieves. His record earned him a spot on the federal committee that founded the U.S. Secret Service.

Yates’ fame must have preceded him, because Kane County residents elected him as their first sheriff in 1848—just two years after he arrived. During his four years in office, he arrested 14 horse thieves, virtually stamping out horse rustling in the county, and caught at least one counterfeiting ring red-handed with the help of his assistant, fledgling detective Allan Pinkerton.

In 1851, the U.S. Department of the Treasury recruited Yates and Pinkerton to work as special agents tracking counterfeiters in Chicago. A few years later, Yates left that job to work for the Chicago Police Department, eventually becoming chief of police. Both he and Pinkerton later opened their own detective agencies.While Yates’ agency flourished locally, Pinkerton’s agency spread across the U.S. and into Europe.

During the 1880s, Yates wrote his autobiography and recounted some of his cases for The Geneva Republican. According to a 1995 Chicago Tribune article, Yates stated in his autobiography that, “No man can be a good detective without, No. 1, a stool pigeon.”

But his success did not protect him from personal tragedy. In 1857, his wife, Mary, and an unnamed infant son were laid to rest in a single grave in West Side Cemetery.