1892 President THi X^K One Hundred Years of Fire Insurance^ of the ^TNA Insurance Company Hartford, Conne6ticut 1819-1919 3l/ Henry R. Gall and William George Jordan Published by the iEtna Insurance Company Hartford, Connecticut 1919 r^ jm^ ;^^ ^ \^)b'^m^)^m&M^-^^}^''^^M m ^^^^^^^^^^^p ^TNA INSURANXE COMPANY PRINTING DEPARTMENT CONTENTS Chapter page I The Dawn, 3 II Birthplace of the yEtna, 17 III Starting a Great Enterprise, 28 IV Building for the Future, 40 V The ^tna Begins to Spread, 55 VI Facing its First Crisis, 65 VII "Old Etna's" Growing Pains, 85 VIII New Times and New Faces, 106 IX The i^TNA's Courageous Stand, 112 X President Clark's Administration, .... 128 XI The ^tna and Its Agents, 149 XII The Winning of the West, 176 XIII The Pacific Branch, 188 XIV The Law Makers and Insurance, 198 XV Marine Underwriting, 207 XVI During the Great War, 220 XVII The Past and the Present, 224 Appendices I ^TNA Charter and Amendments, 231 II Chronology of the .^tna, 239 III Original Stockholders of the ^Etna, .... 248 IV Directors 1819 to 1919, 249 V ^TNA Officers 1819 to 1919, 252 VI Losses Paid by the ^Etna, 254 Index, 255 [v] 2012484 ILLUSTRATIONS William B. Clark, Eighth President, . . . Frontispiece FACING PAGE Thomas K. Brace, First and Third President, .... 30 Section of Original Petition for ^tna Charter, . . 32 Original Entry in First Record Book, 36 Seal of ^tna Insurance Company, 38 First ^tna Advertisement, 42 Henry L. Ellsworth, Second President, 52 Page from Correspondence Book No. i, 58 ^Etna Policy No. i, 74 ^TNA Office Building, 1837 to 1867, 78 Isaac Perkins, First Secretary, and Simeon L. Loomis, Second Secretary, 82 Old Farm House with "^tna" Tin Sign over the Door, 90 Edwin G. Ripley, Fourth President, 96 Thomas A. Alexander, Fifth President, 102 ^TNA Office Building, 1867 to 1903, 108 Lucius J. Hendee, Sixth President, 114 JoTHAM Goodnow, Seventh President, 124 Henry E. Rees, Vice-President; Almeron N. Williams, Vice-President; Edgar J. Sloan, Secretary, .... 130 Etna's Present Office Building, 136 [vii] ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Edwin S. Allen, Guy E. Beardsley, and Ralph B. Ives, Assistant Secretaries, 142 Loving Cup presented to President Clark, .... 146 Old Office Building of ^tna at Cincinnati, Ohio, . 182 Thomas E. Gallagher, General Agent, and Louis O. Kohtz, Assistant General Agent, Western Branch, Chicago, . 186 George C. Boardman and George W, Spencer, former General Agent and Assistant General Agent, respectively, Pacific Branch, San Francisco, California, . . . .190 William H. Breeding, General Agent Pacific Branch, . 196 William F. Whittelsey, Marine Vice-President, and Raymond E. Stronach, Marine Secretary, .... 214 ^Etna "Roll of Honor," 222 [ viii ] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE Chapter I THE DAWN IN tracing the history of any idea, institution or subject, it is a bit daring and self-confident to stick a pin into a certain date or incident and to say that there was its actual beginning. The origins, in every phase of life and thought, are shrouded in the haze of tradition or controversy. There is often the germ of a great idea, or the recognition of a real need, followed by tentative and inadequate efforts to meet it, yet no more like its present state of develop- ment than the first hot-air balloon is like a 1919 model in airships. So it is in the long evolution of fire insurance into a well-organized, modern business. Away back in the old days in Assyria and the East, about twenty-five hundred years ago, as we learn from the inscriptions on clay tablets and cylinders dug up from the ruined cities, there was a primitive kind of insurance. In case of fire, the magistrates, judges and priests of the town or district were empowered to make up the loss to the individual by assessing all the members of the community. This method, in a modified form, still exists in China and in parts of Russia. It seems also to contain the germ of state [3] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE fire insurance as practiced, to a degree, in the bureau- cratic and autocratic Germany of yesterday. During the Middle Ages there was some kind of security against loss from fire and other hazards in connection with the Anglo-Saxon and German guilds. The members of these guilds made contributions regularly to a common relief fund, somewhat in the manner of our modern benefit societies. There is little doubt that marine insurance, covering fire at sea and other risks of traffic and travel on the waters, preceded land insurance. In the twelfth century marine insurance was either conceived or rediscovered by the Italians, as claimed by the historian Villani. The earliest of these policies of insurance now known is dated September 20, 1547, on the ship Santa Maria de Venezia^ covering her trip from Cadiz to London. It is from the Italians that we get our word under- writer^ for they began their contracts with the equivalent of "We the underwriters." The custom was to divide a large risk among a number of people, who agreed to share in the hazards and in the profits of the enterprise in proportion to the subscription made by them, each writing under or below the contract, his name and the amount of risk he would assume. The word policy^ too, seems to have come from Italy, probably being derived from the word "polizza," meaning "promise," though some authorities claim for it a different origin. In the year 1609 we have the first clear statement of an actual system of fire insurance as we understand it today. It was a proposition made to Count Anton [4] THE DAWN Giinther, who has been described as the "wisest prince" that ever ruled Oldenburg, one of the grand-duchies of Germany. It was proposed that he offer, for the sum of a dollar a year on every hundred dollars of valuation, to guarantee his subjects against loss by fire, the misfortunes of war alone excepted. He gave con- siderable thought to the plan, which he believed could be made successful, but finally turned it down for two reasons: he feared it might seem that he was willing to make money from the sorrows of his people, and, more important to him, it seemed a tempting of Providence. But good ideas often move slowly, and for a quarter of a century the subject lay dormant. In 1635 a peti- tion was presented to Charles I of England **to ensure all your Majesty's subjects whomsoever for so much of their estates combustible as they themselves shall conceive in danger of Fire." This seems to have been pigeon-holed, for three years later a similar petition was favorably received; and on October 16, 1638, the King ordered the Attorney General to prepare a patent for such a company, to run for forty-one years, and to "await his royal signature." But the King soon became engrossed in taking care of his royal political fences, and the insurance project was forgotten. Other attempts, made later, also failed. Then came the great fire of London in 1666, which burned over 435 acres and destroyed over 85 per cent, of the buildings, with a loss of about ten million pounds. This conflagration advertised graphically and tragically the need of protecting individuals against loss by fire. [5] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE In the year following, Nicholas Barbon, one of the first and most important builders of London, opened an office where he individually proposed to insure buildings. He had some success, and in 1680 he formed a part- nership and established the "Fire Office" at the "back side of the Royal Exchange." This concern insured houses to a stated amount for a fixed premium; namely, lyi per cent, of the yearly rental for brick houses and 5 per cent, for frame houses, the rental being assumed to be 10 per cent, of the value of the property. The capital of the firm was £40,000, or about $200,000 — to be increased by £20,000 for every 10,000 houses insured. It was believed that the interest of the fund would pay all losses and leave a good margin of profit. They must have had luck, for although their plan seemed to leave no opportunity for discrimination in risks, and there were few facts to go by and only most crude statistics, yet somehow the business prospered. Possibly their recent calamity had taught the people caution, and thus reduced the probability of fire to a minimum. Within a year the very success of the new ven- ture threatened to kill it. Envy and opposition were followed by a socialistic demand that such profits should not go to a private concern, but should accrue to all the people. The Common Council voted to do the business at a lower rate than the Fire Office, and books were opened and policies issued. Realizing that they could not stand against this opposition, which had so coolly appropriated their idea when it promised prosperity, Barbon and his associates, facing disaster [6] THE DAWN and ruin, fought for the life of their concern. Many fair-minded citizens, who believed in rewarding and encouraging individual initiative and enterprise, joined with them. The battle, carried on by means of public meetings, pamphlets, and articles in the "Gazette," proved warm and spirited. In a year or so the city abandoned the project. The "Fire Office" at the back of the Royal Exchange was thus left alone in the field. Its symbol or trade- mark was a phoenix amid flames; and as it placed a badge with this device on all buildings it insured, it soon became known as "The Phoenix Office." Later, when it aged, it was called the "Old Phoenix," much as the JEtna Insurance Company centuries later became popularly and affectionately known throughout the Western world as "Old JEtna." Then came upon the stage of action the first of the mutual insurance associations. It was the Friendly Society, with its device of a sheaf of arrows. The plan of this new organization was different. The assured had to meet three conditions — first, the payment of a small sum yearly, varying in amount as his building was of brick or frame; second, he deposited a sum equaling five annual payments in advance to guarantee future assessments; and third, he agreed to contribute toward the settlement of each loss of the Society by fire, up to and not exceeding thirty shillings on each hundred pounds of his insurance. The policy-holders were thus responsible for one another's losses. The Phoenix promptly began to fight the Friendly, tooth and nail. It applied to the Lords of the Privy [7] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE Council for the exclusive right of "making and register- ing all assurances, policies, and contracts of houses from fire for thirty-one years." Its greedy demand was not satisfied, but it was granted the entire field free from competition for one year; after which the Friendly Society could do business for three months and rest for three months, and so on by alternate quarter years of business and retirement. As a part of this decision, given in 1687 in the presence of King James II, the Phoenix was required to pay the government for its work in putting out fires, the amount being fixed by the King for each individual fire. In 1688 the political and business atmosphere of England began to clear; there was greater freedom from petty restrictions, and underwriting no longer required a special license. In 1696 a new form of mutual insurance was started by an organization which had many names during the ensuing century, among them the "Amicable Contributionship," but since 1776 has been known as the Hand-in-Hand Company; deriving its name from the device of inter- clasped hands, which from the beginning it had used as its emblem on all the buildings it insured. This Company grew rapidly and prospered. It is now the oldest mutual fire insurance company in the world, but confines its operations to London and its suburbs. The original plan of the Hand-in-Hand had as one element a deposit to be paid back, less expenses, on the termination of a policy. Profits from interest on invested funds, less losses and expenses, were to be distributed among the stockholders, and the rate of [8] THE DAWN assessment was to be determined annually by the Board of Directors. Up to the dawn of the i8th century, insurance on dwellings, stores or other buildings had covered only the structures themselves, and not the contents. In 1704 "Lombard House" was organized for the insurance, among other things, of household and business goods. This was the first company to enter this field, as it also was the first to institute a salvage corps, for the rescue and saving of goods at fires. The proposal to insure household furniture was at first met with loud and merry ridicule, but it soon became popular. It was about this time that Charles Povey, who seems to have been an energetic hustler, with a streak of the Yankee in his composition, made his appearance in the fire insurance field. He had no money, but apparently plenty of nerve, for he formed an organi- zation and opened an office in London to insure buildings against fire. This venture not succeeding, he formed another organization to insure household furniture and merchandise throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Although he was long on hope and short on funds, the laughter incited by his efforts did not daunt his courage and determination. The second venture not proving any more successful than the first, Povey conceived the idea of a third organization; and here he seems to have foreshadowed the ''holding company" of the nineteenth century, for his third organization was to own the other two. It was known as the London Insurers, but soon adopted the name of the Sun Fire Office. There was one [9] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE difficult phase of his problem — he had no capital to pay losses. This, however, was only an incident to the young Napoleon of finance. He solved that difficulty to his satisfaction by stating in his policies that one-half of the premium received would be set aside as a reserve fund from which losses would be paid, with the added proviso that when this reserve became exhausted the company was not to be held further liable. His reserve fund must not be confused with that carried by our modern fire insurance com- panies, which is a wise, safe guarantee in addition to their entire capital; the reserve fund of the Sun Fire Office, or Mr. Povey, as you prefer, represented his only capital. Insurers somehow did not take over-kindly to this scheme, with its lottery atmosphere of chance and with the odds all against them. Later, the company announced that it would make its promise to pay unconditional, and in 1726 a capital fund of £48,000 was secured. The company remained a partnership and never incorporated. Begun in 17 10 on a shoe- string, it succeeded and it still exists, flourishing today as the oldest non-mutual fire insurance company in the world. There were by this time a number of companies in operation, doing a profitable business. Fire insurance had vindicated itself as a real need; and the prosperity of these companies tempted men, some impractical, some over-optimistic and others unscrupulous, to enter the field. In 1720 began an era of flimsy, speculative companies, which flooded the market, somewhat like [10] THE DAWN the wildcat concerns that proved such a menace to safe, sound and conservative underwriting in our own country at different periods during the last century. The air of England, in the early part of the eight- eenth century, seemed surcharged with get-rich-quick schemes. The people were wild over the possibilities of the great "South Sea Company," organized in 171 1 to capture what was claimed to be the untold wealth of South American trade. Enthusiasm grew to frenzy, mad, unreasoning and unreasonable; every class of society from the King, who was its Governor, down to the humblest peasant, was in the Company, or was begging or borrowing or stealing money to get in. For valuable concessions and privileges, the Com- pany offered to take over the entire national debt of England, amounting to over £50,000,000. There were tricks, and wheels within wheels, in this scheme; but Parliament nibbled at the bait and then swallowed it whole, and the offer was accepted despite the opposi- tion of the Bank of England, which offered £5,000,000 for the same privileges. The business was prosperous for years or was made to seem so; big dividends brought in bigger investments, and shares rose from £100 to £1,000 in a brief time. Then at the very height of speculation Sir John Blount, one of the promoters, sold out. This started an avalanche of unloading, and the beautiful "South Sea Bubble" burst. Thousands who dreamed themselves millionaires were actually beggared, and the whole fabric of trickery, knavery and corruption was revealed. The speculative mania inspired during the life of [II] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE the "Bubble" affected fire insurance. It was the time of the promoter's paradise, and prospectuses breathed of romance and wealth, and luxury for one's whole lifetime, to be easily secured by merely investing in a few shares of some new company. Shortly before the collapse, when the "Bubble" was showing its most iridescent hues. Overall's Insur- ance Company invited stock subscriptions to the tune of one million pounds sterling. Their prospectus read like a page from Monte Cristo; they were going to do wonders, but really they did not, for they too went down in the crash. Other companies were started with calls for capital of from one to three million pounds each. One of these proposed a scheme to combine insurance and building. This saturnalia of frenzied finance eventually came to an end. The wreckage was great and the mourners were many; but after it was all over, legislation stepped in to safeguard insurance in the spirit of modern business. There was a steady increase along normal lines, new companies being formed as needed, until in 1856 there were seventy-two corporations or companies recognized by the government, and insuring property to an amount aggregating over nine hundred million pounds sterling. Fire insurance as a business was still in its infancy when it was transplanted to America. The first company in this country of which we have record was started in 1752 in Philadelphia. Like its prototype in England, it had a long, cumbersome name which it succeeded in shortening and living down; it was "The [12] THE DAWN Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire." Benjamin Franklin was one of its most enthusiastic promoters. It was modeled on the Amicable Contributionship, or Hand-in-Hand, of London, and adopted its name, plan, seal and badge — four hands clasped. Under the name of the Hand- in-Hand this company still continues in business. In 1783 the Company passed a by-law refusing to insure houses surrounded by shade-trees, on the ground that the trees impeded the putting out of a fire. This stand aroused opposition, and many of those insured by this institution seceded and organized a new com- pany known as the "Mutual Assurance." Its house- mark was a green tree, made of lead, fastened to a wooden shield and affixed to all houses insured by the company. It was not until 1770 that there was even an attempt to organize a fire insurance company in the city of New York. Though proposed and discussed under the dignified chaperonage of the Chamber of Commerce, discussion soon languished into inactivity and the whole plan petered out. It was not until seventeen years later that the first company in New York was organ- ized (though not incorporated until 1809) under the name of the Mutual Insurance Company and later changed to the Knickerbocker Fire Insurance Co. In the same year, 1787, the New York Insurance Company was also started; in 1801 the Columbian Insurance Company; and five years later the Eagle Fire, now the oldest stock fire insurance company in New York. In 1799 the Providence-Washington began [13] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE business at Providence, Rhode Island, and still con- tinues in successful operation. During the closing years of the eighteenth century in this country, thirty charters for insurance companies were granted, most of them being for marine and fire insurance. They were distributed as follows: Mary- land seven, Massachusetts six. New York four, Pennsylvania four, Connecticut three. South Carolina two, Rhode Island two, New Hampshire one, and one in Mrginia. Fire insurance existed in but a crude, experimental form in the eighteenth century. Though based on a genuine need, in its practice even the broad funda- mental principles were not recognized, and there were no statistics and no precedents of value. Early colon- ists who came to this country brought over the idea from England; but in the working out, the development and improvement of the thought into finer, practical detail, it was more American than British. In this field no State did more important work than Connecti- cut, and Hartford early achieved prominence that later came close to pre-eminence. The early underwriting in Connecticut, as in the other colonies, was generally of an individual or partnership character, even partnerships not coming in until near the close of the eighteenth century. Early in 1794, Peleg Sanford and Daniel Wadsworth opened an office in Hartford, for the insurance of houses, merchandise and furniture. A year later they formed a copartnership, taking in Elias Shipman of New Haven, who was made agent for that city, for the purpose of [14] THE DAWN underwriting on vessels, merchandise and stock, under the firm name of the "Hartford and New Haven Insur- ance Company." In 1797, Shipman withdrew from this firm and estabhshed a new business, under the charter of the New Haven Insurance Company, which was devoted exclusively to marine insurance and was carried along until 1833, when it was discontinued. The oldest insurance company in Connecticut, and the first to be incorporated in the State, is the Mutual Insurance Company of the City of Norwich, which received its charter in May, 1795. Each person joining agreed to pay on the sum insured, for the first year one-half per cent., for the second year one- third, and for each subsequent year one-quarter per cent. It continues to do a small business and has never attempted to branch out into larger activities. A similar company was organized in 1801 in New Haven, under the name of the Mutual Assurance Company, but it did not succeed and soon died a natural death. In 1 8 10 the Hartford Fire Insurance Company was organized with a capital of ^150,000, with the privilege of increasing to $250,000. The first President was Major Nathaniel Terry, who headed the company for twenty-five years, resigning in 1835. It was in 1 8 13 that the Middletown Fire Insurance Company was incorporated. It somehow did not strike the right gait, as it survived its organization by only six years and then passed out of existence. Two brief mentions complete the record of insurance in Connect- icut up to the year 18 19: the Norwich Fire Insurance Company, which was organized in 18 19 and was wiped [15] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE out by the Chicago fire; and the New Haven Fire Insurance Company, started in the same year as the Norwich Company, and surviving only a few years. Fire insurance in America had now merely made a good start; it was in a tentative, learning, struggling stage. Its real vital history, as a business reduced to principle, system and wise and scientific underwriting, was still to be written in the years to come in the nineteenth century, which at this time was still an infant in its swaddling clothes. [i6 Chapter II BIRTHPLACE OF THE ^TNA THIS country of ours, during the few years preceding 1819, was passing through stirring times of storm and stress, of wars and peace, of alternating depression and prosperity. Underneath the surface of conflict and confusion there was, however, the pulsing throb, the freeing of mighty formative forces, and the reaching out toward greater things. Though the States were not in close sympathy, and while there were sectional jealousies and inharmonies and the threat to split on vital issues, yet notwith- standing, it was the real dawn of a national spirit in America. The people began, because of the unifying pressure of conditions, to think and to act in terms of a nation, and not of a mere union of States. In 1 8 14 we had two wars on hand at the same time — the hard conflict with England and the war with the Creek Indians in Alabama which, when settled, ended the power of the red man east of the Mississippi. The South favored the war with England, but the North bitterly opposed it. The presence of British troops holding on land a large part of Maine and the southern portion of Massachusetts, and by sea block- 2 [17] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE ading the ports, roused the indignation of the people of New England to fever heat against the Federal Government, which they held responsible for these conditions. The shipping interests, which had been the pride and prosperity of the people, were com- pletely ruined. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island refused' the levy of troops to the government and threatened to secede from the union. The people of Nantucket declared themselves neutral and under the protection of England. The famous Hartford Convention of 1814, with delegates from all the New England States condemning the war and the adminis- tration of President Madison, was a vent to the angry feelings of the people, but it accomplished nothing but the ruin of the Federalist Party that called it. In August, 1 8 14, occurred the burningof the White House and of the unfinished structure of the Capitol, con- taining the archives and books of the Congressional Library. This disaster led to the flight of the President and his wife, the popular "Dolly" Madison, who hid in the woods beyond the Potomac to escape capture by the British. It was in this year, too, that the "Star Spangled Banner" was written by Francis S. Key while detained on a British ship during the bombardment of Fort McHenry. Money was scarce, business was paralyzed, and an oppressive and unpopular war-tax was levied on caps, hats, boots, watches, household furniture and other articles. Henry Clay was leader of the new Democracy, gloating over the downfall of the Federal- ists. Nearly all the banks in the country suspended [18] BIRTHPLACE OF THE ^TNA specie payment, and at the close of the year the national debt had reached what was for the people at that time the appalling sum of about one hundred million dollars. Then came the war with Algeria, and a year of depressed spirits and empty pockets. The painful work of reconstruction, with all its irritating and perplexing problems and tangles, did not begin till after the election of President Monroe in 1 8 17. It was President Monroe who, six years later, in his annual message to Congress, enunciated in a few sentences what was later to become famous as the ''Monroe Doctrine." He declared that the United States would regard as "unfriendly" any attempt by any foreign power to extend its territory on this side of the Atlantic or to meddle with the political affairs of the two Americas. This declaration was inspired by the war which Spain was then carrying on against her revolting colonies. It was given new life by President Cleveland in 1895 in his message concerning the Venezuelan question. In the beginning of the Monroe administration the rechartered Bank of the United States resumed operation with a capital of $35,000,000, and long- languishing business began to revive. The first savings bank in America was opened in Philadelphia; Congress abolished all internal taxes and enacted a high pro- tective tariff to encourage American industries. We were just beginning to breathe freely the air of peace when we were plunged into a new war, the eighth in our history — this time with the Seminole Indians of Florida. The great West began to open up under the Government encouragement to settlers to [19] Jgf ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE buv public lands, and the guarantee by the States of immunity from taxation on these lands for several years Endless picturesque processions of prairie wagons passed through New York and Pennsylvania on their way to the prairies, which soon became dotted with little settlements, the germs of future cities and towns. . ,. . /r It was the "Era of Good Feeling" in pohtics (tor by this name was the period from 1817 to 1823 popu- larly known), and party lines were in general broken down. Henry Clay was prime mover in an attempt to unscramble the eggs of slavery, by forming the African Colonization Society to return negroes to Africa, when the year 1817 was nearing its close. The slavery question was much in evidence; there was violent agitation and vigorous resistance incident to the petition of Missouri for admission as a slave State. The Union was now evenly divided into eleven free and eleven slave States; the South threatened secession if its demands were not satisfied. Our pension system, which was to assume such gigantic proportions in later years, was at this time begun with the first grant by Congress of pensions to needy veterans of the Revolutionary War. It is interesting to note in this connection that in the Great War, a century later, the Government abandoned the time-honored pension scheme of relief for soldiers and their depend- ants, and adopted a plan based on the principle of insurance. There were many parallels between those times and the present. In order to counteract the use [20] BIRTHPLACE OF THE ^.TNA of ardent spirits among the people, Secretary Calhoun prohibited the use of liquor altogether in the United States army; we went a step further just one hundred years later when it was forbidden in both army and navy, with the resulting final plunge into national prohibition. When in 1819, John J. Crittenden of the United States Senate resigned "because he could not get bread for his family on ^900 a year," which was a Senator's salary in those days, it was a close parallel to the resignation in 1919 of Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo and Attorney-General Gregory, because they needed more money than the ^12,000 a year they received from the Government. The people were then suffering, as are we today, from the high cost of living; they, in that year, suffered from a scourge with its wide swath of mortality — yellow fever, which claimed as one of its victims the hero of the memorable battle of Lake Erie, the famous Commodore OUver Hazard Perry, at the age of thirty-four; we, a century later, faced the horror of a greater scourge, the Spanish influenza, with a higher mortality than our entire losses in the great world war. In 1 8 19 the country faced its first national financial crisis. The stringency and hard times were, to a degree, due to the contagion of the bad times in Eng- land, but also to our own extravagant speculations and reckless over-confidence following the reorgani- zation of the United States Bank. During 18 19 and the five years preceding, there were inventions, discoveries and events, not of great [21] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE immediate importance, but big with possibilities in the future development of the ideals and industries of the country. Beside those already referred to, brief mention may be made of the erection of the first cotton mill, the first rolling mill to puddle iron and roll iron bars, the first lighting of a city by gas, the erection of a city water-works at Philadelphia, the opening of part of the Erie Canal, the introduction of anthracite coal, the beginning of stereotyping and printing from stereotype plates, the first use of steam power applied to cabinet making and paper making, the invention of steel-plate engraving, the first transatlantic packet ^ line, beginning of the United States coast survey, ' first steam vessel to cross the Atlantic, manufacture of porcelain and patent leather, first canned goods, first school for deaf mutes, at Hartford, the invention of the sewing machine, the organization of the first peace society — the first in the world — established in New York, and a host of other important events. At this period Connecticut was a farming and trading community; there was no manufacturing except that of coarse goods in general demand. The larger towns, like New Haven, Hartford, New London and others, were collecting and distributing centers. Through the country roads and lanes came creaking wagons, laden with wheat and peas in bags, kiln-dried corn in barrels, tierces of beef and pork, tons of hay, baskets of beans, onions, potatoes and turnips, firkins of rich butter, great cheeses, cases of tobacco, flour, corn and corn-meal. Sometimes the big wagons were filled with lumber or piles of pipe-staves of spruce or [22] BIRTHPLACE OF THE .ETNA hickory-hoops from some place away back in the woods. Then there were the droves of horses and cattle for the plantations. These processions moved picturesquely townwards, for there were no prosaic railroads in those days. What was not needed for local use was loaded at the busy docks for shipping to Martinique, Barbadoes and other islands in the West Indies. When the vessels came back after their long perilous trips they brought valuable cargoes of rum, sugar, salt or molasses. The West India trade meant much to the people of Hartford in these early days — more indeed than a mere lucrative industry. Many of the young men, energetic, adventurous and anxious to make their way in the world, entered this service. Work on these clipper ships was no sinecure, yet it was splendid training. The open-air life under trying conditions made them strong and sturdy in body. They had to be prepared for any responsibility that might suddenly be thrust upon them, to meet emergencies on the instant, to have courage and fearlessness; the life not only made boys sailors but made them men. There was, too, the tang of romance in their contact with the civilization and manners and customs of the West Indies, so different from their own, and they were forced to see and to think in broader terms than those of merely provincial interests. There was still much of the pioneer spirit in New England, and of close hand-to-hand grappling with the problems of life. There was hard work, with little money and few luxuries. It was a living that made for ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE individuality and initiative, and a fine sane sturdiness. There was no machinery, as we know the word today; the manufacturing was of the simplest, and the spirit of real hand-craft still breathed over a piece of work. If a man built a boat there was thoroughness and solidity in every plank and bolt, if a house it could be guaranteed to defy time and the weather for genera- tions; the cooper put no defective stock in his barrels and the blacksmith made sure of his iron before he forged it. There was individual work and individual responsibility. The communities were small, and every man knew every other; character was a real asset and could not well be counterfeited. In New England at this period, was the only real democracy in the country; there the people truly ruled. The "town meeting" decided matters for the town; every citizen went to meeting, knew what were the issues and problems, formed his own opinion and spoke his own voice. They often were narrow and bigoted and obstinate, but they were free and they gloried in their freedom, as did the old Greeks in Athens. The schools had not reached the elaborate curricu- lum that we know today; but the small amount taught was drilled into permanency and thorough- ness; it tended to make clear, shrewd, practical thinkers rather than scholars. The New Englanders were not stained-glass saints, but they were men of character, strong, sturdy, individual, and with a tinge of conservatism that made their progressiveness safe and sound. Hartford was then a town of about 6,900 people [24] BIRTHPLACE OF THE ^TNA and nine hundred dwelling houses. It was a prosper- ous growing young city of culture and enterprise, and stretched along the banks of the Connecticut River. Grouped near the river were the importing houses and principal business places, and beyond them was what real-estate agents today like to term "the resi- dential section." The whipping-post still stood in the public square, the Puritan strain of religion had not quite faded out; the Sabbath began on Saturday evening at sunset and ended at dusk on Sunday, when the freedom of week-day activities began, except as to the theatres, which, though tolerated, were not considered good-form. There was no prohibition noticeable in Hartford then, for it would have had hard work to compete with the rum from Barbadoes and the fine wine from Madeira. Lotteries still were popular and respectable and were legalized by charter. Money being scarce, a dollar was venerated and a penny treated with respect, and not permitted to wander far away un- noticed; but, perhaps partly because of this, the people were in the main scrupulously honest and strict in money matters, and debt was considered a repre- hensible thing. The newspapers in Hartford at this period devoted most of their space to news from London and foreign countries, extracts from other papers, and little essays on morals, public and private, on economy, industry and other virtues. There was little or no local news, perhaps because in a small town every one might be supposed to know the news anyhow. Such items as [25] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE are today considered of personal, social^ or business interest, were then paid for and appeared in the adver- tising columns. One of the real institutions of the time was the coffee house. It was the club of the period; a place for business and sociability, one where public prob- lems and grievances were discussed freely, and where plans for progressive movements, civic and commer- cial, could be made in an atmosphere conducive to clear thinking and free expression. One of the most popular of these houses was Morgan's Exchange Coffee House, 33-3 S State Street, where the post- horses of the stages were changed. Morgan's was a centre of social activities too; for here was held, among other "functions," the annual "election ball," where dancing kept up to an early hour and the receipts for liquid refreshment mounted high. On the third floor was the dancing hall, with a special "spring floor," and recessed seats where the beaux and belles could say sweet things to their hearts' content. The splendors of the room were enhanced by heavy hangings at the windows, and a large oval gilt-framed mirror at each end of the room. There was a generous space for the musicians, while overhead were three chandeliers, with crystal pendants, appro- priately holding numberless wax candles. Joseph Morgan, the proprietor, was one of the important men of the town; a man of high character, keen mind and energy, and a genius for finance which he handed down to his son, Junius Spencer Morgan, the great London banker, and to his grandson, the [26] BIRTHPLACE OF THE ^TNA famous J. Pierpont Morgan. Joseph was of the third generation from Miles Morgan, who, with his two brothers, James and John, came to America from Wales in 1607. Miles settled in Springfield, Mass., in 1636, and had four sons, Isaac, Jonathan, Nathaniel and David. Nathaniel died in 1773, survived by eight children, one of whom was Joseph, the father of Joseph of Hartford, who was born in North Parish, West Springfield, on January 4, 1780. He spent his early years on the home farm, and in teaching school for several winters after his fifteenth year. In 1807 he married Sally Spencer and in the same year pur- chased for ten thousand dollars Asa Goodenough's coach line and tavern on the west side of the green in Westfield, Mass., and started in the hotel business there. Six years later, on the death of his father, he was left in possession of a farm of 112 acres and other property worth eleven thousand dollars. In November 18 16, Morgan bought a brick house and a barn on the north side of State Street in Hart- ford, and on New Year's Day of the year following he opened in this house what came to be known as Morgan's Exchange Coffee House, and the birthplace of a great American institution. [27] Chapter III STARTING A GREAT ENTERPRISE IN the early days of 1819, there was a subject of spirited discussion at Morgan's Coffee House, among a few of the merchants and business men of Hartford, that seemed but a trifle of irritation at the beginning, but, fanned by heated protest, burst into a flame of revolt. The first Secretary of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company was Walter Mitchell, the uncle of Donald G. Mitchell of New Haven, the beloved "Ik Marvel" of American literature. Walter Mitchell was a handsome looking gentleman with a head like that of Daniel Webster. He was one of the legal lights of the tov/n and lived in Wethersfield, a village three or four miles out of Hartford. Those who wanted to take out a policy had to seek Mr. Mitchell and at whatever hour best suited his con- venience. He had a habit of closing his office at three or four in the afternoons and on Saturdays at noon. He did not count time or appointments as serious and had a way, too, of putting off till tomorrow what might be done today. The trip out to Wethersfield along a clayey road, sometimes swamped by rains or rutted by drought, [28] STARTING A GREAT ENTERPRISE was an exasperating journey at the best, and many citizens of Hartford made this trip when unable to find Mitchell at his little office near Ransom's Inn, close to the present site of the Hartford Courant building. Merchants or business men who wanted insurance did not relish the **Gone for the day" sign that greeted their eyes so often on the door of his office. They pooled their discontent in a general protest and they felt that something radical must be done to mend matters. The leader and moving spirit in the revolt was Thomas K. Brace, who proposed the organization of a new fire insurance company. Brace knew something of the business, for he had been a director of the Hart- ford Fire Insurance Company when it was organized in 1810, and had left the directorate in 18 17 with David Watkinson and Ward Woodbridge. He was the son of Jonathan Brace, Mayor of Hartford from 181 5 to 1824 and was graduated from Yale College in 1 801 at the age of twenty-two. He was now the head of the wholesale grocery and commission firm of Thomas K. Brace & Co., who were also agents for a line of packets plying between Hartford and Boston. This packet line was established immediately after the war of 1812 and consisted of five topsail schooners used for carrying freight and passengers, said to be very handsome boats and specially fine in their furnishings and equipment. Mr. Brace was described as having rather thin features, high forehead and firm mouth which showed him to be keen, energetic and aggressive, with the 1^91 ONE HUNDRED YEAR S OF FIRE INSURANCE courage of his convictions, an excellent executive and the type of man that puts things through. He was a firm believer in Hartford and its future and ever backed his faith by his actions. Prominent as a merchant, there were few vital activities in the town in which his hand as organizer or director did not appear. He was one of the founders of the Society of Savings, incorporated in 1819, and also interested in the promotion of the x^merican Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and the Retreat for the Insane. Mr. Brace's regular business did not so absorb his boundless energy that he could not at the same time be a Director and Vice-president of the Phoenix Bank, a member of the Common Council, Justice of the Peace, Director of the United States Branch Bank, a Member of the Committee to Abate Taxes and a few other things. In after years he also served in the Connecticut Legislature, as Mayor of Hartford and as President of the Hartford County Savings Bank. When a man like Thomas K. Brace decided that he wanted to organize a new insurance company, it was a safe wager that he would put it through. He associated with him, in the preliminary work of the practical details, Isaac Perkins, a lawyer who had his ofHce in Morgan's Exchange Coffee House. Perkins seems to have been an active, dependable, hustling kind of man, with a large acquaintance and a habit of making good in whatever he undertook. There were frequent meetings at Morgan's between these two and other prominent men of the town who were [30] STARTING A GREAT ENTERPRISE interested, and they finally petitioned the Legislature for a charter. The movement for a new fire insurance company was not limited to a few people, nor is it wholly fair to say that the cause of the organization was the Mitchell episode we have cited; it may have been merely a talking point to focus a general, diffused consciousness of a real need. This seems to be proved by the wording of the original petition, which, because of the clearness of its presentation, its conciseness and the occasional quaintness of its phrasing, is worth quoting in full: TO THE HONB. GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT, to be holden at Hartford on the first Wednesday of May, A. D. 1819, the subscribers, inhabitants of said State, respectfully represent — that there is a great deficiency of Fire Insurance Capital in this State, there being but four offices and the whole amount of their capital but six hundred thousand dollars. It is also believed that an increase of capital would tend but little to render the pubhc safe without an increased number of offices; and it has ever been found expedient, if not necessary, to the establishment of proper premiums, to allow Insurance Offices to take risques to any amount, whilst the stockholders are rendered liable only to the amount of their capital. From this principle results the necessity, for the safety of the assured, of multiplying the number of incorporations. Risques will be effected in smaller amounts, and the customers of each office being spread over the whole state, losses by an extensive fire, in any section, will fall on several offices and be less likely to render them unable to pay to the sufferers the amount of their policies. It is presumed that each of the existing offices have undertaken risques to an amount greater than the capital of them all, and should a conflagration take place, in some of our towns, as disastrous as has been experienced in many places, it is greatly to be feared many of the sufferers would too late discover their insecurity. It is also a well known fact that the Insurance Offices in the neighboring states, sensible of the deficiency of our [31] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE Capital of this kind, not only maintain agents in many of our towns but are enabled, so great are the calls for insurance, to render the business equally profitable with those companies which have been empowered by your Honors — W hereiore your Petitioners prav your Honors to grant to them and their associates an Act of Incorporation, with all powers and privileges necessary and convenient to the business of insurance against losses by pire, — and your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. Hartford, April 19, 18 19. This petition was signed by one hundred and thirty-seven men, leaders in the business and social life of the town, and included in this list were the names of nearly every one of the eighty-seven original stockholders of the new company. (See Appendix.) The first sign of life in the Legislature on the subject of the incorporation was an obscure item, stowed away in the Hartford Courant of May 18, 18 19, in a long dry account of the session, to the effect that "Messrs. Olcott, Hitchcock and Griffin were appointed a committee on the petition for a new Fire Insurance Company in this city." On June 8, the Courant stated that *'A bill for incorporating a new Fire Insurance Company in this city, was read a second time and referred to a committee for exami- nation." A little further down in the same column were the words: "The following acts were passed during the session on June 5: No. 38 — An act to incorporate the ^tna Insurance Company." The name of the new corporation, for some reason not given in the petition, was, as set forth in the title of the act, to be the ^tna, happily taken from the famous old mountain of that name on the east coast [32] 0*^ i- SECTION OF ORIGINAL PETITION ASKING FOR CHARTER OF THE ^TNA INSURANCE COMPANY STARTING A GREAT ENTERPRISE of Sicily, which "though surrounded by flame and smoke is itself never consumed." In this modest and unostentatious fashion was ushered into American life, an organization which was to write its name large in the insurance world during the circling years to come. The capital stock was placed at $150,000 with the privilege of increasing to $500,000. It was not necessary for the full amount of the minimum capital, though subscribed, to be paid in at once. Custom, at first due to the small amount of money circulating because of the poverty of the country, made it possible to float new ventures on a small initial investment, to be paid a few weeks after incorporation, leaving the balance in the form of notes properly secured by property. Sometimes these notes bore interest, sometimes they were paid directly, but usually they were lessened and finally canceled by special dividends. But the notes always had the guarantee behind them that made them collectible and safe in a crisis. Subscribers to the y^tna stock were required to pay five per cent, within thirty days after the first meeting of the corporation; five per cent, more thirty days later; and the remaining ninety per cent, in promissory notes, secured by mortgages on real estate or by other surety approved by the President and the Directors, and payable thirty days after demand. Each stockholder was entitled to one vote for every share up to fifty, and had no higher voting power no matter what his holdings. Both corporate and personal liabihty were limited to the amount of the 3 1 33] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE subscription. It was further stated that "for mis- conduct or fraud, the person guilty thereof shall be personally liable to said corporation, or to the insured, as the case may be." In the issues of June 8th and 15th, the following advertisement appeared in the Courant: The General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, having incorporated the &tm. Insurance Company with a capital of Ji 50,000 with liberty to increase the same to $500,000, for the purpose of insuring against loss or damage by fire, and having authorized the subscriber to call the First Meeting of the Company, Notice is hereby given that said First Meeting will be holden at Morgan's Exchange Coffee House in this city of Hartford, on Tuesday the 15th inst., at 2 o'clock p. m., for the purpose of organizing under the charter and to transact other necessary business. Gentlemen desirous of obtaining stock are requested to apply at the office of Isaac Perkins, Esq. Thomas K. Brace. June 8. On Tuesday the 15th of June, 18 19, one of the large rooms at Morgan's was filled with the stockholders of the new Company. How many of the eighty-seven who made up the roll of the original stockholders were present is not given in the records. Promptly at two o'clock the first meeting was called to order, and Mr. Brace was appointed Moderator, or as we term it today, Chairman, and Isaac Perkins was made Clerk. In a few earnest words Chairman Brace sketched the conditions that had led to the organizing of the Company, and spoke of its future. He believed in the future of Hartford, in the splendid body of stockholders present at this launching of the new business; the country itself was growing rapidly, and national growth [34I STARTING A GREAT ENTERPRISE meant increase in population and in wealth, a larger field for greater needs. Fire insurance was a real need; they had part of the increasing business in Hartford as their possibility, but there was no reason why it should be limited to Hartford or even to Connect- icut; it could spread into other States. This would mean broadened business and a safe distribution of risks. Fire insurance, he felt, was in its infancy; there was much to be learned, much to be formulated and redu:ed to system; and it was his sincere belief that the company would do its part in this work. Mr. Brace also emphasized the fact that the busi- ness had its special hazards, but, while the risks were large, the success could be correspondingly great; few lines of enterprise were so absolutely dependent on the character, energy, enterprise and tireless devo- tion of its officers as a company engaged in lire insurance, and he urged those present earnestly to consider this in electing their Board of Directors. The business should be handled with conservatism yet in a spirit of progress, with economy, with liberal faith toward those insured, with strict adherence to broad funda- mentals of principle, an avoidance of conflict that might reflect on the honor and prestige of the company, and fine co-operation within the organization that would guarantee success. His straight-from-the-shoulder talk seemed a fore- shadowing of the great future of the Company. It was the right note, and it won instant response in the election of the first Board of Directors. Those chosen were: Thomas K. Brace, Thomas Belden, Samuel [35] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE Tudor, Jr., Henry Kilbourn, Eliphalet Averill, Henry Seymour, Griffin Stedman, Gaius Lyman, Judah Bliss, Caleb Pond, Nathaniel Bunce, Joseph Morgan, Jere- miah Brown, James M. Goodwin, Theodore Pease, Elisha Dodd and Charles Babcock. An account of the first meeting of the new directors, which immediately followed that of the stockholders, can best be given in the report of Secretary Perkins, as entered by him in the original Record Book, which is still carefully preserved in the vaults of the Company: At a meeting of the Directors of the ^Etna Insurance Co. at Morgan's Coffee House, June 15, A. D., 1819. Thomas K. Brace, Esq., chosen President. Isaac Perkins, Secretary. Voted: That the business of the Co. shall in future be done at the office of Isaac Perkins, Esq. Voted: That Eliphalet Averill, Thomas K. Brace & Isaac Perkins, Esq., be a committee to design & report to some future meeting of the board an engraving, a seal & a form of Policy, stock notes, certificates, etc., & a system of By-Laws. Voted: That the two first installments on the Stock of the Company be secured by notes with or without security. Voted: That the form of notes shall be similar to the notes of the Hartford Fire Insurance Office. Voted: That the business of the Office shall be done at the Phcenix Bank. Attest: Isaac Perkins, Secy. President Brace was right in emphasizing the importance of having the best men for this work. That they should be men of character and integrity goes without saying; but in addition it was essential, he felt, that they have energy, sound business judgment and devotion. Upon them devolved the task of the determination of all risks in those early days when [36] ^;*i i'/'>'ii'.!^y >^ ./y ^^'^ c^ ^iL*' oi^rt ii*- <.. c-'^.^yL. i^^'Af "y ^-'C-^* /.y y^ £iC>i^'^t^i.^d^ ^ rVj'i Z^ J7^y.j^ 'ZC^-^^ ^^\^ £X^£-/ ,^rf^t--«. j^j^«,iat. ^-t-'/i^ t/-M^-Y~ ■-■^'■^ - 6^/^^ • Thomas K. Brace, Thomas Kelden, Samuel Tudor, jr. Henry Kilht.ui-n, Eliphalet Averill, Henry Stymoiir, Griffin Siedman, (i:;iub Lvmun, Judah Bliss, Classes of Hazards and Rales of An- nual Premiunis. 'ST CLASS. Buildings of brick or stone, vitti the, slate, oi metal ; lUe doors n"- Solid iron ; goods not hazar<' SilOO. . H Til. xa levers e.' tive .ii"o** the m»s I lialiy si' I remuri' cessa I lb I 1 city 1 woe th- REPRODUCTION OF THE ETNA'S FIRST NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT ON JULY 26, 1819 BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE turn in the direction of its future great success, then unknown in the keeping of the years. The country at this time began to feel acutely the pressure of bad times which had been growing worse for months. It was to a degree a back-wash from the money tightness in England and to a degree the extravagance and inflation in our own States. Niles' Weekly Register^ in August, 1819, put the situation graphically in a few words: From all parts of the country we hear of severe pressure on men in business, a general stagnation in trade and a large reduction in the price of staple articles. It is estimated that there are 20,000 persons daily seeking work in Philadelphia, 10,000 in New York and 10,000 in Baltimore, How these conditions directly affected the i^tna may be seen in this brief note: Isaac Perkins, Secretary of the Hartford, Sept. 27, 18 19. yEtna Insurance Company. Sir: In consequence of my pecuniary embarrassments I hereby resign the Presidency of your Institution. You will please notify the Gentlemen Directors that the office is vacant. I am sir, respectfully Your obd't Sev't, Thomas K. Brace. There was more real feeling beneath these few lines, short and direct almost to the point of curtness, than was apparent on the surface. Mr. Brace, as a wholesale grocer and dealer in goods from the West Indies, had suffered severely the embargo on commerce during the years of the war of 18 12. The shipping of New England, then demoralized, was only beginning to recuperate; but with the storm of "bad times," in addition, he felt fearful of the outcome. The iEtna meant much to him, more than a mere invest- [43I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE ment; it was largely his project and his idea, and he had dreamed in a big way of its future. Whatever the fate of his personal fortunes, he did not wish any failure of his to cloud the name of the ^Etna or to handi- cap its progress. So he resigned, but happily he weathered the gale, and, though out of the Presidency of the Company for a while, he returned later, so that his interim of retirement seemed only a vacation, not a breaking off in the continuity of his service. Henry Leavitt Ellsworth was elected second presi- dent of the Company to succeed Mr. Brace. He was a son of Oliver Ellsworth, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and twin brother of William \V., and was born on November lo, 1791. He was graduated at Yale in 18 10. He studied law and had been practicing his profession at Windsor, Connecticut, closing out his business there to move to Hartford in June, 18 19, and had been in town only about three months before becoming president of the ^^tna. President Ellsworth wore the regulation dress of the' period, which is worth noting as contrasted with our present more sombre garb. His black broadcloth "cutaway" coat was somewhat similar to our "evening coat" though not so close fitting; white lace ruffles for cuffs — a survival of the colonial dress; green waistcoat, soft ruffled shirt, a high collar which came up well above the chin, and loosely-tied black bow tie, made up his costume, and he wore a heavy seal ring and seal watch fob. President Ellsworth resigned from his office in 1 821, though he continued for sixteen years a director [44] BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE of the Company. In 1832 he went to Arkansas as Indian Commissioner, for ten years was head of the Patent Office at Washington, and later, as United States Land Commissioner, settled at Lafayette, Indiana, where he became one of the largest farmers in the West. He died at Fair Haven, Connecticut, on December 27, 1858, leaving the bulk of his large estate to Yale College; the will was contested and the matter ended in a compromise. William W. Ellsworth, the twin brother, practiced law in partnership with Thomas S. Williams, who was a nephew of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and who became attorney for the i^tna in 1826. Mr. Ellsworth married Emily, daughter of Noah Webster, who in 1828 published the first edition of his world-famous dictionary. In 1827 Mr. Ellsworth was made a Director of the Company, serv- ing for eighteen years, and two years later was elected its first General Counsel. He held this position for a little over a year and from 1838 to 1842 was Whig Governor of Connecticut. In the fall of its first year, the Company issued a booklet entitled "Instructions and Explanations for the Use and Direction of the Agents of the ^tna Insurance Company." It was prepared by Secretary Perkins, and the idea that inspired it was later adopted by other companies. It was the first book of the kind ever published by an insurance company. The Insurance Register, nearly a century later, said: As far back as September, 18 19, the Company issued a book of instructions for the use of its agents; classifying risks, fixing [45I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE the rate of each, and excluding some as non-insurable. It insisted on correct surveys as serving to expose frauds, prevent law suits and secure truthfulness. Buildings and fixtures were not to be estimated above their actual cash value, and any proposal for more was of itself a cause of suspicion; the rule, however, was not to be enforced against merchandise and other personal property- liable to vary in kind and quantity. The insured was entitled to no more than the value of the property proved to have been destroyed. It is interesting to observe that the correctness of the rules appearing on the pages of this little book — (believed to be the oldest of its kind in the country) — has never been successfully assailed, though attempts for the encouragement of robbery have been made through valued policy laws and other vain schemes. The ^tna early pinned its faith to the building of business through agents. It was realized at the very beginning that the local field, shared as it was with another company, would be small, and that it would be essential to stimulate outside business through carefully selected agents. In the latter part of the year Gurdon Robins of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and a former resident of Hartford, was appointed the first agent in the South. In October, 1819, the yEtna assumed all outstanding risks of the Middletown Fire Insurance Company, founded in 18 13. These risks, aggregating ^69,500, consisted of twenty-one policies. The /Etna put up an indemnity bond for $200,000 and received a total premium of $286. This was the first known case of re-insurance, which has now reached tremendous proportions and has become a business in itself. In the evolution of re-insurance the phase where one company took over all the risks of another cor- poration was followed by a division of individual risks, wherein a company assuming a risk higher than [46] BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE it seemed prudent to carry, re-Insured part of it in some other company. A germ of this later develop- ment in the system of re-insurance may be found in an instance which occurred in 1821, when the ^tna re- ceived an application for a policy for 1 15,000; the Directors decided that this was more than they were willing to carry, so the secretary put the matter before the Hartford Fire Insurance Company and it was arranged that each company should take half of the 1 1 5,000 risk. This, of course, was not re-insurance, but it was a groping in that direction. In October, 18 19, there appeared in the Courant a letter signed "Watchman," calling attention to a recent fire and saying: "This suggests very forcibly the necessity as well as the propriety of a night watch. Seasonable attention to this subject is of the utmost importance to the welfare of this place. The expense of it is too trifling to defeat so prudent a measure." This matter seems to have been taken up by the city authorities, for on December 12, the Board of Directors of the yEtna voted to pay $12 to the night wardens of Hartford for defraying the expenses of the night watch of the city for the ensuing year. The event seems trivial, yet it was important as showing the dawning of recognition by fire insurance companies of the need of preventive measures to safe- guard against fires occurring at all, just as modern medical practice seeks not only to cure disease but by proper regulation and hygiene to prevent it. What- ever reduces the liability of fire occurring, or lessens its spread, or quickens putting it out, increases pro- [47] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE tection to all risks and lowers premium rates; but greater than all, it is an invaluable service to the community in the preservation of life and property. It was perhaps with this thought in mind, that Secretary Perkins wrote to an agent at Troy, N. Y., in 1820, concerning the rate of premium on a cotton mill, stating that if the owners kept a night watchman on the premises the premium would be one-half of one per cent, lower. On March 5, 1827, the Board voted "that in consideration of an agent's service in securing a fire engine for Newcastle, he be allowed, in addition to his regular 5% commission on premiums, 3% commission on the business he secures during the ensuing year." About this time and later the Company had fre- quent calls to contribute to a fpnd, in one town after another, to buy hose, or an engine, or some other item of fire paraphernalia. An occasional contri- bution as a gift might be pardoned, but when requests came thicker and faster and the request had somehow the atmosphere of a demand, the Company began to chafe under the obnoxious system and finally shut down tight on the whole scheme. They rightly held that the fire department of a town is essentially a public service for the good of all and one to be sus- tained by the town itself. All these reachings out to bettei conditions have since been largely stimulated by the work of local boards and the activities of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. When, on December 15, 18 19, the iEtna closed the books on its first six months of life, though only [48] BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE its fourth of actual business, the directors felt that the excess of receipts over expenses justified them in declaring a dividend of ^900, this being six per cent. on the 1 1 5,000. When a balance was struck on May 31, 1820, the total receipts were $3,646.42, and the total expenditures, exclusive of dividend, were $451.82. They paid no enormous salaries in those days, for Secretary Perkins, who seemed to be the general active mainspring of the business, received only $225 for his six months of service and the rent of his office. The President of the Company received no pay what- ever. Ezra Colt, the Town Clerk, probably felt that the $20 voted to him for recording the charter, opening the stock-ledger and for et ceteras that ran into con- siderable detail, was a goodly sum to get all at once. Business was conducted in those days in what would seem a crude, slow, primitive way. The letters were all carefully written out with a quill pen and then transcribed in one of the old letter-books, not by a ''process" but again by pen. These books, jealously treasured by the Company, are growing yellow at the edges of the pages, and the writing is gradually grow- ing fainter and more difficult to decipher in places. The handwriting was not always of the best, and this further complicated correspondence, as one may judge from a letter written by Secretary Perkins to an agent in which he said: I notice the contents of your favor of the 23rd inst. The name of our President is Thomas Kimberly Brace. You will from his name thus written at length understand his abbreviations. It has sometimes been made a question of our Board of Directors which writes worst — mark, worsts not best — and they have 4 [49] ONE HUNDRED YR^RS OF FIRE INSURANCE with great iudement, and seriously, decided that as the President never makes any marks found in the Alphabet, he can never mislead, but that as the Secy., by accident, sometimes does — the President does not write best, but the Secretary does write worst. In the early correspondence there were constant references to the difficulty of sending packages of policies to agents at a distance. These were nearly always sent by "private conveyance" and had to be held up until some one was found who chanced to be traveling in the direction of the agent's town. In a letter to Gurdon Robins of Fayetteville, North Caro- hna, Secretary Perkins wrote on February 5, 18*20: I have anxiously looked for an opportunity to remit more blank policies. As no opportunity direct presents, I propose to send some by way of New York and Wilmington, if you can obtain them from Wilmington, and will direct to whose care they shall be sent. The postal rates were high and the service unsatis- factory. The charge ran from twelve cents for letters within a radius of forty miles, up to thirty-seven and one-half cents for over five hundred miles. Early agents were remiss in the matter of specifying amounts on buildings and contents and failed to supply other details. This necessitated more correspondence and long irritating delay. There was not a single mile of railroad in the United States, and travel was by stage-coach or by boat; which may have romance to us as a relic of bygone days, but then meant dis- comfort and slow journeying. There was no fine, steel safe in the office of the ittna, for the records were all kept in an old, hair- covered trunk which remained the "safe" for the first [50] BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE nine years of the Company's business. On January i, 1828, the Board of Directors, waking up to the need of fire protection for their own records, voted "that hereafter the small trunk containing the stock securities and notes belonging to the Company be kept in the Phoenix Bank and in no case be permitted to remain in the office over-night." These were some of the smaller, though none the less trying, phases of con- ducting the business during its early years. The Board of Directors was proceeding most conservatively, taking no unnecessary or unsafe hazards in its policies nor in the expenditures and in the general conduct of the Company. While rates of premiums were specified in the policy, agents were instructed to vary rates according to location or character of construction, and largely to use their own discretion. At the same time they were instructed to send a complete survey of each proposed risk, on which the i^tna directors passed. The limit of risk to agents was $5,000. In February, 1820, the Board voted that the Company would not insure any amount exceeding 5io,ooo on any single risk, other than for policies already issued, "except by unanimous vote of the Board, and for this purpose a quorum shall not be less than nine." It was characteristic of Perkins to write good "selling" letters to the agents; he kept in close personal touch with them, dropping in a word of encouragement here or of inspiration or counsel there, ever emphasizing the basic principles and policies of the company, advising in favor of distributing risks and of watching I51] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE the character of applicants for insurance, booming the standing of the officers of the Company and the soundness, safeness and solidity of the ^Etna. There was a fine spirit breathed through it all, and he never lost an opportunity to make his own confidence and enthusiasm contagious. On May 5, 1820, the Board voted to petition the General Assembly for a charter amendment to permit the writing of life insurance, and on May 26 this was granted. Though the Board voted to issue $50,000 additional stock to be set aside as a separate fund for life insurance, no further action was taken in this direction until the middle of the century. The second dividend, 12 per cent, on the amount paid in, was voted June, 1820, and six months later the third dividend, of 15 per cent., was declared. In September of this year. Secretary Perkins, who had now been made a member of the Board, fell dangerously ill with typhoid fever, and James M. Goodwin, a director, acted for some weeks as secretary pro tem. A long letter written in November, 1820, by the Secretary, to an agent, contains two or three sentences worth quoting, as showing the principles and practices of the Company: The i^tna Company do indeed consider the practice of older and well regulated companies and endeavor to derive instructions from their greater experience. The Board of Directors disclaim all interference with other companies, or underbidding upon their premiums. A fair competition is all we aim at, and rely on our economy, prudence and liberality for success. Further on in the same letter he states that the Board of Directors consists of seventeen members, [52] ^iteir'HENRY L.ELLSWORTH "^ 1819 PRESIDENT- 182 ^ BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE most of them from among the largest stockholders, all within a few minutes' walk of the office, and whose attention to the business is assiduous. One of the important regulations, he says, is "refusing to vest the funds of the company in large sums in the hands of individuals, however perfect the security, or in small sums except on ample security, and payable in sixty days. It is also a primary consideration with them to distribute their risks in such a manner that any single fire, though extensive as any that has desolated our cities, would not destroy the Company." As to the financial solidity of the corporation, he says: *'The capital stock of the i^tna Insurance Company is $150,000, of which 90 per cent, is secured by notes, with mortgage or personal security, payable in thirty days after demand, and by the terms of our charter the stock is pledged to the surety and to the Company. No person, therefore, can transfer his stock while indebted to the Company. These notes are constantly under the eye of the Secretary and are reviewed by the Directors every sixty days. There is now not a doubted debtor to the Company. With the exception of one instance there is not a stock- holder that owns over fifty shares (shares are $100)." The Board, at all times, carefully scrutinized all risks and watched zealously every expenditure. The success of the Company was not due to luck or chance; it was the natural result of character and brains con- centrated on every problem, judging each, not by hard, unchangeable rules, but on its individual merits. This was shown when in May, 1821, the agent at [53] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE Providence made application for a policy for $17,000. There was a buzz of excitement and an air of earnest discussion and debate round the Directors' table the day that application was before the meeting. It did seem like putting a good many eggs in one basket, but much could be said, too, on the other side of the question. The matter was threshed out to a finish; the Board finally decided to take the plunge into higher risks, and the nine Directors, to a man, voted in favor of it. President Ellsworth, who could not spare as much time from his personal affairs as the demands of the iEtna required, and who may have felt his presidency as an interim-filling of a vacancy caused by the business pressure on Thomas K. Brace, resigned on March 6, 1821, and Mr. Brace, who had come bravely through the national financial storm, was re-elected President. He seemed really glad to be back in the harness; he started in with the glow of enthusiasm, and spoke much of the glorious future in store for the Company. The Directors felt that the foundations had been laid on the lines of solid, true principles, that real progress was now to begin, and that they were all prepared to work with zeal to make their great vision a reality. I 54] Chapter V THE .ETNA BEGINS TO SPREAD IT really seems at times that just when we are feeling elated and grateful that things are running along so smoothly we bump into some little snag that disconcerts us a bit. It may not amount to much after all, but it serves to remind us that we are human and that sunshine is transitory, not per- petual. Thus it was with the ^Etna. The Company, which was now twenty-three months old, seemed to have led a charmed life in its immunity from losses; it seemed too good to be true; it was like running a fire-proof fire insurance business. Secretary Perkins rubbed his hands together with glee when he wrote on March 17, 1821, to one of the agents: "Truly you may say the Company is prosperous. It is two years next May since they were chartered, and no loss of any kind, except a two-dollar counterfeit bill, has occurred." Whether it was that Perkins' premature joy broke the spell, or that a fire was bound to take place some time, will never be definitely known, but the two years were destined not to be completed. The first fire loss occurred in May, 1821. It was on the store of [55] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE Shepherd & Co. of Northfield, Massachusetts. The amount was ^4,000, but Perkins faced disaster as smilingly as he had met prosperity, for he referred^ to the mishap with airy nonchalance in a letter in which he said: "Four thousand dollars loss is no great affair, nor in fact is it any more loss than the lava of yEtna is when it runs down upon the shepherds." This was the greatest loss until 1824, when $10,000 was paid on the burning of a steam sawmill at Darien, Georgia. The year following saw two fires in Provi- dence in November, which consumed over |^ 15,000 of the Company's money. The JEtnd., while having strong confidence in the power of agents to build up the business, did not scorn the power of printer's ink. Agents were permitted to advertise at their discretion and the Company paid the bills. The agents were urged to be as liberal as possible to all insurers and to endorse permission to them to do certain things not specified in the contract, wherever they seemed reasonable and when consistent with the spirit and purpose of the policy. New inventions, relating to lighting and heating, might affect policies for better or worse, and the i^tna Directors felt they should be consulted if the innova- tion modified the contract in the least. In 1826 kerosene was first used as an illuminant; the year following the manufacture of fire brick was begun at Baltimore; and in 1829 friction matches were first used — all elements in considering risks. As an instance of the modifying of a policy, it might be that a progressive tenant or owner had I56] THE yETNA BEGINS TO SPREAD desired to put stoves in his house when his contract with the Company specified "fireplaces," and in one such case the Secretary wrote: When stoves were first introduced they were looked upon as much increasing the risk, but this opinion has now passed away and our officers consider them as no more hazardous than fireplaces; still it is perhaps best for the insurers and the insured, in order to avoid the possibility of a misunderstanding, to mention stoves, when they are used, in the survey. The Company's watchfulness in the matter of finances was shown in every detail of the conduct of the organization. The salary list was limited to the Secretary and a clerk, who was also Clerk of the Town, and who seems only to have helped 6ut in emergenci^, for which service he was paid forty dollars a year. The President received no pay until December, 1 821, when it was voted to pay Thomas K. Brace fifty dollars salary for the six months preceding. The Directors were cautious, conservative, feeling their way in the hazardous uncharted sea of risks and rates. They felt the need of collecting data and statistics on which to base an intelligent method of writing insurance. The first real move in this direction was the request made to the Secretary to register in a blank book all losses by fire he should chance to note, designating the place, the kind of property, the loss, and whatever details might seem necessary; and for this service an extra compensation was prom- ised him. He was requested to subscribe for one New York and one Boston paper, and to purchase a gazetteer to aid him in the work. This might well be the beginning of what is now an elaborate system, [57I ONE PRJNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE which has placed fire insurance underwriting on a more or less scientific basis. Prior to the entry of the JEtna. into the field, the practice of the few American companies in operation was to confine their efforts almost entirely to such local business as could be secured by the executive officers. In the very beginning, however, the JEtna. inaugurated a policy, then regarded as radical and revolutionary, of planting agencies far afield and of entrusting its agents with discretionary powers and authority theretofore jealously reserved to officials and Directors at the Home Office. In March, 1822, Secretary Perkins was sent on what was then considered a long trip, to Norfolk, Virginia, to adjust and settle a loss by fire on the woolen factory of Earl P. Pease. This was the first journey of a Company official to adjust losses. On his return he was requested "to journey on the seaboard of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, and from there, through the interior of the country, home, and establish agencies; and for his services he shall be allowed his expenses and two dollars a day." This per diem allowance was not in addition to salary, but took its place. The success of this trip led, three years later, in October, 1825, to the bolder action of the Board of Directors, authorizing the President and the Secretary to employ a suitable person to travel through Penn- sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and the southern states for the purpose of establishing agencies. William L. Perkins, of Ashford, Connecticut, who had [58I n t^iXy c^-* ,^ .^ 'X i»4i /^ -^^ ^-w #rx.^ />^^-«^-^-^%— /--r*- C£^^^ I. ^^--a^ ^ -;A'^>- .^> t-i -'-<- c^' i^izzr'^ 0-4.,,^^:^ Ayupi..,^^ y.^ &: *xa-^ ^<1- ^;<<:- «. g-^Z^ it ^-^ ^^^'-/i^'^ PAGE FROM CORRESPONDENCE BOOK No. 1 LETTER AT TOP RECORDS PAYMENT OF THE ETNA'S FIRST FIRE LOSS THE ^TNA BEGINS TO SPREAD been serving as local agent there, was appointed; therefore he might properly be called the first Special Agent of the Company. In line with its policy of extending its agency business and thus securing a greater distribution of its risks, the iEtna had early entered the Canadian field; having, on December 22, 1821, appointed Abijah Bigelow agent at Montreal. The first loss there was on a building occupied by Holt & Co., which was destroyed by fire caused by gunpowder stored on the premises. In this connection an incident occurred which showed the spirit inspiring the ^tna, and also how important a factor in the early success of the company was Secretary Perkins, and how cordially the Board bowed to his judgment. On April 23, 1822, President Brace, in a letter to Bigelow, advised him to dispute the claim and to contest it in court. He left to Bigelow freedom of action, but it was clear that in his honest indignation he felt a contest was fair. He would never consent "that any honest sufferer insured in the JEtnsL should," as he expressed it, "be choused out of a just claim by a subterfuge or mere legal lack." But in this case the powdery he pointed out, was the sole cause of the destruction, and "as we took no premium on this extra hazard, we cannot think that justice or equity requires us to pay the loss." There was a postscript to this letter which read, "Isaac Perkins, Esq., left town yesterday on a journey. Thomas C. Perkins is appointed Secretary pro tem." [59] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE About three weeks later, on May 15, the Secretary- pro tern, wrote to BIgelow as follows: At the date of our President's communication to you, our Secretary, to whose sole judgment the Directors had submitted the settlement of Holt & Co.'s loss, was absent on a journey, from which he has not yet returned, and it is only within a day or two that I have been able to hear from him and learn his views of the subject. He is decidedly of opinion that a lawsuit is to be avoided unless the case is beyond all question in our favor. To gain the reputation of a litigious office would be death to our success, and even if law and equity were clearly in our favor the mere fact that we had disputed a loss must to some extent iix upon us that character. You will therefore consider it as the earnest wish of the Directors that a lawsuit may be avoided and the matter amicably adjusted, and particularly that the loss should be paid unless on investigation you are satisfied that you can demonstrate to the Court not only that the conditions of the Policy have been violated, but also that the insured either fraudulently caused the fire, or wilfully & understandingly deviated from the conditions of the policy to the enhancement of the risk. Respectfully your Obt. Servt., Thos, C. Perkins, Secy, pro tem. The incident was closed a few weeks later when the case was settled without litigation for a little over four hundred dollars. But the ^tna learned its lesson too, for some months afterward when new blanks were sent to Bigelow, they were accompanied by a signifi- cant little note to the effect "that the principal difference in the blanks from those which you have had, consists in the direction that powder is not insur- able and that over-valuation by the insured shall render void the policy. These alterations require no comment." Though the Company consistently avoided liti- gation, it had no fear of it and did not hesitate to [60] THE /ETNA BEGINS TO SPREAD dispute claims in which fraud was strongly suspected. One of the first of such cases occurred in connection with the claim of one Flanders in 1823, when the attitude of the JEtna was completely vindicated by a verdict in its favor on the ground of fraud. The growing needs of the Company at this time demanded more capital; but it was also realized that fresh blood would be helpful too, and would tend to lessen the likelihood of getting into a rut or of having the weight of a rapidly increasing business bear unduly on the shoulders of a few men. When it was decided, therefore, in 1822, to increase the capital stock from ^150,000 to $200,000, it was provided that the new stock should not be offered to the existing stockholders, but sold, so far as possible, with a view to interesting new people in the Company. The corporation was moving ahead on such safe and solid financial lines that the stock was offered, not at par, but at a premium of five per cent.; fifteen dollars to be paid in cash on each share, and the balance, ninety dollars, in well secured notes. In the correspondence with agents as given in the yellowed and faded old letter-books which form so valuable a part of the archives of the y^tna, there was no let-up in the constant iteration and reiteration of the principles and policies which were making the business so successful. These talks on paper, not for?n letters, but close intimate explanations, put the agents in close touch with the home office, no matter how far removed in mere mileage. They furnished argu- ments to be used with prospective customers or [61] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE applicants for insurance, though this was never so stated. Here is a characteristic bit from one of Perkins' letters about this time, explaining the Company's policy of distributing its risks: I conceive that office is safest which, having its risks duly- dispersed, does the most business — if the business to a given extent is deemed profitable, the profits of further business must undoubtedly be considered a guarantee of the funds of the Co. Note, the argument for extension rests on the proper location of risks — if an office with a million of capital should insure to the amount on every building in a compact part of Philadelphia, its exposure to ruin would be much greater than that of our Office with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, insuring ^100,000 in each of ten towns. The disparity of these examples is great, & almost forces the conclusion that the system of doing business is of more importance to the insured than the magnitude of the capital; in the one case, with an increased business, millions may be exposed to a single conflagration; in the other case, it is not in the experience of any man that the whole capital of j2oo,cxx) would be lost. The business of the ^tna Co. is scattered throughout the United States & the Canadas. Thus the risks being detached, the losses come singly upon us, & tho it is possible it is incredible to suppose we shall at one period incur so many losses as to endanger the existence of the Co. These remarks are not intended to discredit other offices — necessity or rather the want of business at home, compelled us to take a wide range — a range unknown to any other American office, & now experience & reflection concur to convince us that the course we pursue makes assurance doubly sure, not only to the insured but also to the stockholders of the Co. When Lafayette made his memorable visit to Hartford in 1824, and the city went wild to do him honor, there was ringing of bells, booming of cannon, fine street decorations, a parade of eight hundred school children who strewed the General's pathway with flowers, a review of the troops, and music and feasting [62] THE /ETNA BEGINS TO SPREAD without Stint. Prominent among organizers of the great festivities were members of the Board of Direc- tors of the /Etna. There were Henry L. Ellsworth — one of the two men deputed to meet Lafayette at the State line and to bring him, with a military escort, to the city — Gaius Lyman, James M. Goodwin, Henry Kilbourn and Charles Babcock. One of the policies of the time that had a senti- mental interest and historic association was one issued by the i^tna in 1825 on Yale College, for the sum of twenty thousand dollars. By its terms the policy was always to be continued in force, the Company being authorized to draw on the Treasurer of the college for the premium each year when it became due. It was provided that should either the insured or the insurer desire to cancel the contract, it was necessary to give six months' notice. The policy was kept in force at least twenty-six years, for it was renewed in 1 85 1 by John G. North, who became an agent for the JEtna. the year before. The agency started by North is still in existence, and has the original of this policy on its walls. This old policy suggests many comparisons and contrasts between the methods in vogue in 1825 and those of nearly a century later. The continued prosperity of the ^Etna led it, in a spirit of natural expansion, to petition the Legislature in 1826 for a charter amendment to permit the writing of insurance on inland navigation. There was opposi- tion from some marine insurance company, which must have been vigorous and influential, for it succeeded in deferring favorable action for thirteen years. [63] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE The custom of the iEtna, which was, indeed, a practice among companies at this time, of sending officers or Directors on special missions in the interest of the corporation, was evidenced in 1827 by the appointment of Joseph Morgan as special agent, to go to Canada to investigate the business of the Company and to settle the losses on a fire which had occurred a short time before at Quebec. This was the first of many such trips for investigation or adjustment of losses, which Morgan was to make for the Company. At the close of this period, which immediately pre- ceded the first real crisis in the history of the ^Etna, the Company had become not only a national, but an international institution; and all this accomplished in less than eight years. Its agencies extended as far north as Quebec, reaching out to Saco, Maine, on the east, and as far south and west as Louisiana and Michigan. The Company had made a splendid start; there was a fine spirit of harmony and co-operation among its officers; the name JEtn^. had begun to stand for strength and security and to inspire a confidence that was to grow but stronger with the passing years. [64I Chapter VI FACING ITS FIRST CRISIS I827-I845 AFTER eight years of prosperity the ^Etna was now to meet the first crisis In its history. Financial conditions were bad throughout the country in 1827; idle factories, Inactive trade, poor collections and frequent bankruptcies attested the seriousness of the times. The Company had a series of fires, none of severe loss, but in the aggregate taxing heavily its resources. In July the Directors voted to sell the stock owned by the Company in the United States Bank, the Phoenix Bank of Hartford, Merchants Bank of New York City, and the State Bank of Albany. The summer of 1827 was passed through without special strain, when In November came the news of a big fire In Mobile, Alabama, with reported loss of a million dollars, a startling sum In those days. What the ^Etna's share In this calamity was, did not immed- iately appear. Perkins wrote at once to Thaddeus Sanford, the agent at Mobile, to proceed as rapidly as possible to collect Information as to the amount of the Etna's losses, and said that he himself would go to Mobile to assist in the final adjustment. Two 5 [65] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE days later he was on his way, empowered to settle claims and to establish or suspend agencies. While in Mobile, Secretary Perkins was scrupulously alert not to incommode the Company a bit more than was necessary, for he drew at thirty days for money needed instead of by sight draft as was customary. The adjustment was long and tedious. While he was doing his best at the southern end of the line, the Directors in Hartford were grappling earnestly and efficiently with a most serious problem, for the very existence of the Company trembled in the balance. A committee, composed of President Brace and Direc- tors Henry L. Ellsworth and Stephen Spencer, appointed to devise ways and means to meet the losses, were fully alive to the gravity of the situation. Their prescription was heroic, but it met the crisis. First, all the bank stock of the Company, having a par value of $21,750, was to be sold, except $1,500 in the Eagle Bank of Providence. Second, all loans, amounting to $6,780, were to be collected as rapidly as possible, without inconvenience to the borrowers. Third, all agents were pressed to remit premium funds in their hands. These three measures would, it was thought, bring in about $30,000. Fourth, the remain- ing funds necessary were to be secured from local banks on paper endorsed by some of the Directors, the Board guaranteeing to protect the endorsers. That was the plan proposed by the Committee which, accepted by the Board, saved the day. The seriousness of the situation will be realized when we remember that the investments and losses referred to [66] FACING ITS FIRST CRISIS by the committee constituted the entire paid-in capital and accumulated profits. Up to this time the bulk of the Company's assets consisted of stockholders' notes for ninety per cent, of the par value of their stock. It was not deemed advisable to demand payment of these notes at this time, nor to make an assessment on them. The action of the Board was typical of the way the Company faced the crises and calamities that shadowed some of its later years, calmly, coolly, and in a fine spirit of courage and co-operation that never faltered. There are some thin slips of paper in the vaults of the /Etna, — notes browned with age, and the writing growing dimmer, — that tell today how Brace and Morgan, individually and jointly, signed their names during the dark months of the winter of 1827, and long into 1828, to promises to pay amounts aggregating $103,000 to preserve the Com- pany's life and its honor. One great lesson from the Mobile fire was the realization of the need of a reserve fund or surplus, slowly accumulating, as a resource in a crisis. There had been a happy optimistic feeling theretofore that a premium paid in was a profit and as such should be divided. But the Directors who had gone through this ordeal, with its perilous stress and strain, were not likely to face willingly a repetition, when a surplus would prevent, or at least reduce, the force of the blow of a heavy loss; so they began work to this end. It was the character and credit of the Board of Directors that pulled the Company through, not [67I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE ordinary assets. Part of the money raised was needed to pay other losses, for 1827 seemed a hoodooed year to all insurance companies, losses being four times in excess of the normal. The long after-effects were shown when on June i, 1828, the iEtna account was found to be overdrawn $2,163.90 at the Phoenix Bank, which had stood bravely by in the crisis. The loss at Mobile was finally determined to be about fifty thousand dollars. The solvency of the Company was questioned by enemies during this dark period, and James M. Goodwin, Secretary pro tem. in the absence of Perkins, was kept busy answering personal inquiries and letters from all over the country, from agents and other anxious seekers for information. The Company's promptness in paying all losses, dollar for dollar, as it ever has during its century of existence, soon dis- pelled all doubts. The Mobile fire had one result that was to grow with the years. It was in 1827, the coming together in conference of the three Hartford companies — the i^tna, the Hartford, and the Protection — to compare experiences to the end that the business should be stabilized by means of equitable and just rates. This was an early, if not the first move of insurance com- panies to combine their wisdom on questions of vital and common interest and to agree on certain details — a movement which later broadened into the splendid work of the local boards and of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. The Protection Insurance Company, just mentioned, [68] FACING ITS FIRST CRISIS was organized in 1825, and its first President was W. W. Ellsworth, a Director and later general counsel of the ^tna; subsequently Eliphalet Averill, another iEtna Director, became President of the Protection. The spirit between the two companies ever remained cordial, and often they had joint agents. About the middle of March, 1828, Secretary Perkins returned from the South, after a hard, anxious, four months' trip, weary in body and mind. He realized that the growing business of the Company was making it extremely difficult for him to attend to his diverse secretarial duties and, in addition, carry on his law practice. Four months of absence had seriously disturbed his legal business, and it became imperative for him to choose between the law and insurance as his permanent profession. The result of his decision was his resignation as Secretary on June 9, 1828. For the last year of his service to the Company his salary, including rent, had been reduced from ^1,000 to ^750 in consideration of allowing him to use the "front office" for his legal business. In the withdrawal of Perkins the Company lost an intelligent and loyal worker. After leaving the i^tna he continued to practice law in Hartford for some time, being a partner of Thomas Clapp Perkins, one of the leading lawyers of the state. Isaac Perkins served as State's Attorney of Connecticut in 1839, a year before his death, which occurred on August 18, 1840. Fifty-four years later, Frederick Perkins, surviving son of Isaac Perkins and administrator of his estate, filed papers in court for the distribution, [69] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE among the heirs, of ^127.58, which was discovered as having been left by his father, at the time of his death, in the Society of Savings of Hartford. In 1908 the ^tna received from the family of Isaac Perkins an oil portrait of the Company's first Secretary made the year of his death. After the Mobile fire the ^tna seems to have been even more than usually watchful of its risks; it drew sharper lines of distinction between the buildings it insured, as to their construction, proximity of other buildings, and the kind of business carried on within their walls. The letters to agents at this period had frequent reference to such questions, and rates were increasing. New England agents were instructed not to renew any risks on buildings occupied for cotton, woolen or paper manufacture without having the rate specifically fixed by the home office. Beginning in June, 1828, the Company, which for nine years had paid rent to Perkins, now paid it, at the rate of ^175 a year, to Joseph Morgan. In the year following, Morgan sold his Exchange Coffee House to Selah Treat, and then leased the City Hotel at Hartford, which he disposed of in 1835, and permanently retired from the hotel business, devoting the remaining years of his life to the affairs of the iEtna. He made shrewd real-estate investments, notably on Farmington Road and Asylum Avenue in Hartford, which increased greatly in value in later years. In the early days of Morgan's Exchange Coffee House, or, to be more exact, the year which saw the organization of the ^Etna, Joseph Morgan employed [70I FACING ITS FIRST CRISIS as an assistant a youth of sixteen years, named James Goodwin, 'whose son. Rev. Dr. Francis Goodwin, and grandson, Charles A. Goodwin, a century later, were to be among the active Directors of the Company. James — who, by the way, should not be confused with James M. Goodwin, successor to Perkins as Secretary of the ^tna — was an aggressive lad. His bent and later activities in life were disclosed when, at the age of twenty-one, he purchased a stage-coach line running out of Hartford. This young student of transportation later was to be prominently identified with the development of steam and street railroads in New England. It was a proud moment in his life, many years after, when he performed the ceremony of driving the first horse-car along the newly-laid rails of Hartford's first street railroad system. In 1832 James Goodwin married Lucy Morgan, the daughter of his early employer, thus cementing a relationship between two families that have made their impress upon every period of American life for more than two centuries. After retiring from the hotel business, Joseph Morgan made many trips for the Company, establishing agencies, investigating risks and adjusting losses. To his diaries, begun when he was only twelve years and kept up without a break till three weeks before his death, we are indebted for interesting details of his trips in those early days, when travel was slow, roundabout and tiresome. In and between the lines of these diaries may be gUmpsed much of the history of the JEtna. during the first quarter century of its existence, for during those [71] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE years Joseph Morgan was closely and continuously connected with its progress. Like President Brace, in time of crisis he was a tower of strength, and more than once the magic of his name on company notes enabled the JEtns. to meet serious losses fully and promptly. Likewise, behind the brief entries in his diaries, we can see the iEtna growing and extending its activities in the north and south and west, keeping pace with, and oft-times leading, the constructive and civilizing forces that built the inland cities and towns of America and Canada as we see them to-day. An excellent account of some of these trips is given by Frank Farnsworth Starr, the well known genealogist of Middletown, Connecticut, who says: On Mr. Morgan's first journey, in 1827, he went to Quebec to adjust losses from a fire, and ten years later made a trip to St. John, New Brunswick, necessitating an absence of three weeks, and covering iioo miles of stage and steamboat travel, excepting the distance by rail from Worcester to Boston. Three years later, on a Southern trip, he touched at Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va., Wilmington, N. C., also at Petersburg, Richmond and Fredericksburg, where he visited the grave of George Washington's mother. An extensive and interesting trip was that of April 21st to June 30th, 1842, on which he visited New York, Trenton, Phila., Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Zanesville, Chillicothe, Columbus, O., Dayton and Cincinnati. In Cincinnati he visited Lane Seminary, of which Dr. Lyman Beecher was President. Having left that city, he saw from the boat while en route to Louisville the home and burial place of President Wm. Henry Harrison at North Bend, Ohio. Arriving at Lexington, having left Louisville and Frankfort, he called on Henry Clay. By the i8th of May he had returned to Louisville and boarded a steamer for Natchez. Making interesting and instructive notes in his diary, he went to New Orleans by boat. His passage from New Orleans to Vicksburg, _ and thence to St. Louis, was retarded by sand bars in the river, breaking of paddle [7^1 FACING ITS FIRST CRISIS wheels and other injuries to the machinery. Pausing to note 50 steamboats in the river near St. Louis, and commenting on the prosperous appearance of that city, he traveled cross-country to Springfield and Peoria, 111., thence by stage and steamboat to Chicago — then a place of 5000 souls — and thence by boat to Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo. After visiting Toronto he came East, stopping at Rockport, Rochester, Auburn, Syracuse, Utica and Albany: "thus," as he says in his diary, "having performed a journey of 6099 rniles in ten weeks, viz: 4330 by s. boats, 743 in stage-coaches, 716 on railroads, and 310 in canal packet boats. The whole legitimate expense of which — ^3.83 for every hundred miles, including board, etc., it being per day for every expense $3.29, and being for every twenty-four hours including lying still, etc., about eighty-three miles of travel." A comparatively local trip occurred in 1843, when, at the age of sixty-three, he visited Brattleboro, Windsor, Montpelier and Burlington, Vt., Montreal, Ogdensburg, Kingston, Toronto and Rochester. In the summer of the following year a nine weeks' trip embraced Central New York, Southern and Central Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Western Virginia and Maryland. His last extensive trip on insurance business was confined to Canada, where he stopped at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. John, New Brunswick. In the offices of the ^tna are many interesting souvenirs of the life of the organization. Among them is a crudely printed invitation "to sup with the President and Directors of the ^Etna at Morgan's Coffee House on December 13, 1833." That they made merry, and that "to sup" was but the modest deprecation of a host's over-modesty, is proved by Joseph Morgan's bill for this little celebration. It itemized forty-two dinners at six shillings each, and that meant one dollar a plate; and to show that the "drys" were not then in the ascendant, there were seventeen bottles of champagne, twelve bottles of sherry and ten of Madeira, at twelve shillings per [73] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE bottle. The JEtna. still preserves this mute memorial of its reckless extravagance, with Joseph Morgan's signature, acknowledging payment of one hundred and twenty dollars. How Perkins must have shivered at the enormity of the outlay, if he had chanced to be present on this festive occasion! There were heavy losses during the winter of 1832-33 amounting to $56,000 in three months. The Company was doing an unsatisfactory business in New York, as was shown in a letter to one of its agents in May, 1834, written by Secretary Goodwin: I am perplexed and discouraged with our business in your State (New York). We are now minus about a hundred thousand dollars since we commenced with Mr. Van Rensselaer (1828), and it is growing worse. Our business in New York swallows up our earnings everywhere else. Our whole scale of premiums must be advanced from a third to a half. If that cannot be done, we had better withdraw. The iEtna was doing little business in New York City, for foreign offices did no extensive underwriting there until later. There was keen competition and reckless slashing of rates that made foreign companies steer clear of the city, as the prudent man avoids becoming mixed up in a street fight. This rate-cutting was not a new thing, for even in 18 19, the very year of the birth of the ^tna, an organization was founded in New York — one of the early local boards — known as the Salamander Society, the members of which were pledged to adhere to established rates. It did not seem to have accomplished much, for the bitter rate- war went on. Foreign companies, as the term originated during the period of the War of 18 12 when anti-British sentiment ran high, meant only those whose home [74] IN K. '!• >• A J >• S 1 H A v r K T O 31 !'A .V V P.i / HV THIS POLICY 01- INSIIRANTE^TIIE ITNA INSURANCE COMPAST, fa t<>nilil»i.ll.H ,j . //> ( /^ J'tut, '.7't^/anj • 1" *>■» |.>il!;thc KMir^i iKrcin afUt nami-tl, Ihc KCtipt Mhenof i* hrfcbf widuio^Mgt^f DO L\iL H£ A<; ttx^T LOSS (Hi iJ.iMA*.k tn nut:, to 'hil imitkwei» It was in 1828 that the ^tna made its first experiment in the General Agency field and appointed as its first General Agent Jeremiah Van Rensselaer of Canandaigua, New York. He had been the secretary of the Western Fire Insurance Company of New York, which had just failed. When he came with the JEtna he brought with him about twenty former agents of the Western Company, located principally in Western New York towns. His territory was not clearly defined, for he was authorized to appoint sub-agents at any point in Western New York or in the Western country, except in such places as JEtna agents were already operating. Among the Company's principal Western agents at this time were Samuel Cowles, a former Hartford resident who had moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to take up the practice of law in 1 8 19; Henry S. Cole, appointed at Detroit in 182J; General Simon Perkins, first ^^tna agent at Warren, Ohio; William Goodman, second /Etna, agent at Cincinnati, having in 1826 succeeded his father, Timothy S. Goodman, appointed in December, 1823; Nathaniel Sawyer, Chillicothe, Ohio; and Isaac Thoni, Louisville, Kentucky, both appointed as first agents in 1825; James Crosby at Zanesville, Ohio, John Sering at Washington, Indiana, and James Smith at Vincennes, Indiana — all appointed in 1826 as the first agents in their respective towns. It was on February 4, 1828, that Jeremiah Van Rensselaer received his commission as General Agent with full authority to appoint sub-agents at his pleasure. Doubt must have come to the minds of the .-Etna [163] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE officials as to the wisdom of what they had felt in the beginning to be a somewhat radical extension of their original plan for conducting their business through agents, for in the following October Secretary Goodwin wrote to Van Rensselaer stating that thereafter the appointment of agents in his territory would be made directly by the Home Office, but that his recommenda- tions as to such appointments would be followed. This arrangement continued until January, 1829, when occurred the death of General Agent Van Rensselaer. To an applicant for the vacant position Secretary Goodwin wrote: "After mature deliberation at a special meeting the Directors concluded that it was inexpedient to appoint another General Agent, but to transact the business in the ordinary way." With one exception. Van Rensselaer was the last General Agent of the /Etna until the appointment of J. B. Bennett and the establishment of the Western Branch at Cincinnati in 1853. The exception occurred in 1840 when Herman Baldwin, /Etna agent at Richmond, Virginia, was appointed General Agent for Virginia. His claim to the title of General Agent was largely technical, however. He was named at the request of other iEtna agents in Virginia, who found that if they could serve as sub-agents of a General Agent, it would be unnecessary for them to pay a special state tax which had been levied against all direct-reporting agents of foreign insurance companies. He was therefore a General Agent in name only. With expanding business and an increasing number of agents at distant points, it became less and less [164] THE ^TNA AND ITS AGENTS possible for the directors of the Company to devote their time to traveling about the country supervising the agency work, and the Special Agent became more and more a necessary and important figure in the growing organization. Until about 1840 the duties of Special Agent were largely performed by Director Joseph Morgan, when additional men were employed. Among these special mention may be made of Col. A. A. Williams, who served the ^^tna as Special Agent from 1840 until after the close of the Civil War; S. B. Hamilton, one of the Directors, who was a Special Agent from 1840 to 1848, and who was then made local agent at Albany, New York, for the three Hartford insurance companies; W. I. Pardee, whose title was General Agent with headquarters at Oswego, New York, but who was really special agent for much of the western territory and was appointed in 1848; A. F. Willmarth, who was elected traveling agent for the New England territory in 1850 and later became the first Assistant Secretary of the y^tna, and in 1856 Vice-President of the Home Insurance Company of New York; C. C. Hine, appointed in 1859 to supervise the work of agents in Alabama and Georgia, and later editor of The Insurance Monitor of New York; Henry L. Pasco, appointed as special agent in the late fifties and later local agent at Chicago as a partner of Jonathan Goodwin, Jr., under the firm name of Goodwin & Pasco, until after the great Chicago fire of 1871; E. J. Bassett, who served the ^Etna continuously as special agent with the title of General Agent from 1862 until his death in 1891; J. C. Hilhard, special [165] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE agent from 1866 to 1891. Many other names familiar in the history of American Fire Insurance might be enumerated in this list. The yEtna to-day has special agents in every State in the Union and for all the Provinces of Canada. It may be of interest to many of the JEtnsL agents of to-day, if not to the general reader, to mention the names of the first of their predecessors in some of the states and principal cities of the country, and to trace, briefly, the progress of a few of the more important agencies such as those at Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, and possibly one or two others which were destined to figure largely in the future history of the Company. The list follows: Alabama, Mobile, Thaddeus Sanford, 1825 California, San Francisco, Edward H. Parker, 1858 Connecdcut, Ashford, William L. Perkins, 1819 ' Hartford, General Leonard A. Dickinson, 1868 District of Columbia, Washington, Moses Poor, 1826. Georgia, Augusta, Horatio Alden, 1821, Illinois, Chicago, Gurdon S. Hubbard, 1843. Indiana, W^ashington, John Sering, 1826. Kentucky, Louisville, Isaac Thorn, 1825. Louisiana, New Orleans, Bowers, Osborne & Co., 1823 Maine, Saco, Lauriston Ward, 1822, Maryland, Baltimore, Leonard Kimball, 1824. Massachusetts, Greenfield, Franklin Ripley, 18 19. Boston, Charles D. Coolidge, 1826. Michigan, Detroit, Henry S. Cole, 1823. Mississippi, Natchez, H. A. Daingerfield, 1826. Missouri, St. Louis, Christian Saunders, 1830. New Hampshire, Portsmouth, Samuel Lord, 1821. New Jersey, Paterson, Philomen Dickerson, 1821. New York, Albany, John Ely, Jr., 18 19. New York City, Edward Dickenson, 1826. North CaroHna, Fayetteville, Gurdon Robins, 18 19. Ohio, Cleveland, Samuel Cowles, 18 19. [166] THE ^.TNA AND ITS AGENTS Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Edward Seldon, 1820. Philadelphia, Mark Richards, 1826. Rhode Island, Providence, Stephen Tillinghast, 1820. South Carolina, Cheraw, Augustin Averill, 1821. Vermont, Rockingham, Hall & Green, 1819. Virginia, Richmond, Thomas May, 1824. West Virginia, Wheeling, Samuel H. Fitzhugh, 1826. As may be noted in the foregoing list, it was not until 1868, when the /Etna was nearly half a century old, that a local agent for the city of Hartford was chosen. Up to this time all of the Company's local business had been conducted directly through the home office. On January 22 of this year General Leonard A. Dickinson was appointed Hartford agent. Prior to the war he had gained a working knowledge of insurance as a clerk in the offices of one of the Hartford insurance companies. He served during the Civil War as a captain of the Twelfth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers. He was a loyal friend of the ittna and served the Company continuously, first alone, and then as senior member of the agency firm of Dickinson, Beardsley & Beardsley, until his death at the age of seventy-four years, on January 27, 1901. This agency, now operating under the firm name of Beardsley & Beardsley, has since continued to represent the .Etna in its own home and maintains its offices in the .-Etna home office building. With the establishment by the Protection Insurance Company of the General Agency under Ephraim Robins in 1826 and the Western Branch of the .Etna under J. B. Bennett in 1853, Cincinnati, which early came to be known as the "Queen City of the West," [167] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE was destined to win a unique position as a school for fire insurance underwriters. Many men who later became dominant figures in the insurance world, there received their early training. It was late in 1823 when the ^Etna entered Cincinnati and appointed Timothy S. Goodman, a former Hartford resident, as its first agent. He served until 1826, when he was succeeded by his son William, who retired in 1837, when Nathaniel Sawyer, the Etna's first agent at Chillicothe, Ohio, was placed in temporary charge of the Cincinnati agency. He returned to Chillicothe in 1 841. During the next four years the ^tna and Protection were jointly represented by Henry Stagg and W. B. Robins, son of Ephraim, who succeeded his father as General Agent for the Protection in 1846. From 1845 to 1848 the ^tna agent was Henry Hayes, another former resident of Hartford. On his retirement James H. Carter was appointed, and he served as local agent at Cincinnati until the fall of 1853, when the Western Branch was established under General Agent J. B. Bennett. Another city which looms large in the early history of fire insurance, is Chicago. In the early 40's Chicago was still an infant, though strong, lusty and growing rapidly. Long before the ^tna established its first agency there, it had received many applications for insurance through agents in other localities. It was not until 1842, however, after Director Joseph Morgan had visited the city and made a careful survey of the situation, that the Company decided to risk the perils of what they designated as a "wooden [168] THE JETNA AND ITS AGENTS city." In November, 1841, and again in May, 1842, A. G. Hazard, the ^Etna's agent in New York City, forwarded to the home office applications which he had received from New York owners of Chicago property, but Secretary Loomis wrote in reply: "We have had many applications from Chicago, but they have been uniformly declined." While in Chicago, Director Morgan made tentative arrangements with Gurdon S. Hubbard to represent the /Etna in that city. This was in the early fall of 1842; but he was not actually commissioned by the Company to act as agent until June 3d of the following year. The first applications sent in by Hubbard were for Stephen F. Gale and the firm of Botsford & Bairs on November 4, 1842. An extract from the letter of Secretary Loomis, dated November 15, acknowledging these applications, is of interest as indicating the hesitancy with which the Company entered the new field, and as being prophetic, as well as expressive of a fear which the great Chicago fire of 1871 more than justified. "We would be very careful," wrote Loomis, "what risks we take in Chicago and how we take them. It is a new place, and in all such there is generally a tendency of everything to the center — hence, houses, shops and shanties occupied for purposes indescribably varied, are wedged in together with ample material to cause the destruction of the whole, good, bad and indifferent. Against such calamity it becomes our duty to protect ourselves .'' Hubbard continued to represent the .'Etna until I169I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSUR.ANCE 1866 — at first alone and then as a member of the agency firm of Hubbard & Hunt. On the retirement of Hubbard the agency was taken over by a new firm composed of Jonathan Goodwin, Jr., former assistant secretary of the JEtna^ and Henry L. Pasco, for many years a special agent for the Home Of^ce. As we have already noted, they were the Chicago agents at the time of the great fire. This arrangement contin- ued until June 3, 1875, when the JEtna converted the agency into a Branch office with Goodwin in charge as General Agent. He served in this capacity until his retirement in 1885, when he was succeeded on June 4th by James S. Gadsden, who for many years had been connected with the inland marine division of the Chicago agency. At the same time Louis O. Kohtz was appointed as Assistant General Agent and placed in charge of the inland marine work. His service with the JEtna began shortly after the close of the Civil War, through which he served. It was in 1866 that he entered the office of the ^Etna's Chicago agency, and his connection with the Company has been continuous to the present time. On the death of Mr. Gadsden, which occurred on September 17, 191 1, Mr. Kohtz was promoted to the position of General Agent of the Marine Branch. As the City of Chicago grew with mushroom-like rapidity and its population leaped from the thousands into the millions, the Chicago Branch of the ^tna under Gadsden and Kohtz enjoyed a corresponding growth until in 1907 it had become one of the important departments of the great national organization of [170] THE ^TNA AND ITS AGENTS the Company. In this year, as we will read in a succeeding chapter, the Chicago Branch was merged with the Western Branch, the headquarters of which were transferred from Cincinnati to Chicago. In our general story mention has been made of the difficulties confronting the ^tna in the South at the outbreak of the Civil War. An examination of the cor- respondence between the home office and the southern agents at this time strikingly illustrates the loyal and friendly spirit which always has distinguished the relations between the iEtna and its agents. Thomas Muldon of Mobile, Alabama, was one of the last /Etna, agents in the South to close his agency before the war and he also was one of the first, if not actually the first, to be re-appointed after the war. His last letter to the ^tna, on May 31, 1861, breathes a spirit of sadness and regret, despite the generally prevailing bitterness: My business relations with the i^tna for the last twelve years have been too pleasant to forget you all so soon. I fear, however, it will be a long time before you will again he able to open agencies South. In reply Vice-President Alexander wrote: Our relations with our Southern agencies have been so cordial and satisfactory that we cannot allow ourselves to despair of a more speedy reunion than you appear to anticipate. On July 12, 1865, immediately after the close of the war, Secretary Lucius J. Hendee wrote as follows to an applicant for appointment as agent at Mobile: We had the pleasure of a short visit from our former agent, Mr. Muldon, while in this city. He is anxious to represent the ^tna at Mobile whenever we decide to resume business in your city, and we shall give him the preference. [171] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE And so, in compliance with this promise, Thomas Muldon, on September 17, 1865, was re-appointed. Among the earliest ^tna agents in the South, in addition to Gurdon Robins, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, who was the first, were Horatio Alden, a Hartford resident who moved to Augusta, Georgia, in 1 821, and who later returned to his old home and became a director of the Company; Anson Kimberley at Darien, Georgia, who served from 1821 to 1837 and was then succeeded by Ebenezer S. Rees, grandfather of Henry E. Rees, who is now Vice-President of the iEtna and in direct charge of the entire southern field for the Company; Augustine Averill at Cheraw, South Carolina, appointed in 1822; and Salma Manton at Savannah, Georgia, appointed in 1821 and succeeded in 1824 by Isaac Cohen, who, with his son, continued to represent the yEtna there until the beginning of the war. We have traced, however briefly, the development of the y^tna agencies and business in the West, the South, in Canada, and in a few of the important cities in those sections. Let us now, for a moment, turn to the East. Reference already has been made to the Company's entrance into New York City in 1836 following the disastrous fire of '3^. Edward Dickenson appears to have been the first JEtna. agent there, having been appointed in 1826. He served but a few months and was succeeded by Humphrey Phelps. But practically no business was done until 1836 when A. G. Hazard was named. He retired on July 18, 1845, the day before the great fire of 1845, [172] THE .ETNA AND ITS AGENTS which, as we have seen, precipitated the second crisis in the affairs of the i^tna. Upon his retirement, Hazard founded the Hazard Powder Company at Enfield, Connecticut. He was succeeded in the Aitnti agency by Thomas A. Alexander, who in 1853 became Secretary of the iEtna and later Vice-President and President. His son James A. then became agent and so continued until June 4, 1874, when the local agency was discontinued and he was appointed (ieneral Agent of the New York City Branch office which was opened by the JEtna on that date. James A. Alexander continued as General Agent until the formation of the firm of Scott, Alexander 6^: Talbot, in January, 1889; on the death of William A. Scott in 1907 the firm name was changed to John M. Talbot & Co. Mr. Alexander remained with the firm until his death in 1913 at the age of eighty-six years, after more than seventy years of continuous service with the ^Etna. He was born July 29, 1827, and as a boy of fifteen had entered the ^^tna agency under his father and A. G. Hazard in 1842. In 191 5 there was a general reorganization of the New York business when a new firm — Russell, Scott & Ziegler — was formed to take over the fire agency representa- tion. In February, four years later, the firm name was changed to the present one of Russell & Ziegler. Meanwhile the firm of John M. Talbot 6s: Company was changed to Talbot, Bird & Co., who for many years have been General Agents of the Marine Depart- ment in New York City. From 1840 to 1870 practically all of the .Etna's [173] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE business In New Jersey was handled by the New York City and Philadelphia agencies. Prior to that time there had been several local agencies. It was not until the early 70's, when William B. Clark, then Assistant Secretary, personally traveled through the state and appointed local agents in the various towns and cities, that local agency representation was revived. This move was immediately followed by a gratifying increase in the business, which has since continued. One of the many evidences of the mutual good will and loyalty that have characterized the relations between the ^Etna and its agents during the past century, is the length of service of so many of its representatives. Some have served continuously for more than half a century, while terms of thirty and forty years are so numerous as to be commonplace. Limited space has prohibited the recording of many events and incidents that have featured the growth of the thousands of ^^tna agencies throughout the United States and Canada. As far back as 1897, more than twenty years ago, in commenting on the i^tna and its agents, the Insurance Magazine said: Many a year has gone by, more than forty of them, since any agent has had to say to a property-holder, "I should like to insure you in the -^tna; the lEtrn. is an old Hartford Company, and I can safely say that it will pay any loss whatever that its policy contract says it will pay." The Mtnsi agent has no solic- iting work to do. He must inspect men and risks, but he is not compelled to solicit business. If an agent has the /^tna in his agency his reputation as an insurance man is established. No history of the great agency system which has been so wonderfully developed by the ^tna, would [174I THE .ETNA AND ITS AGENTS be complete that did not tell of the Western, North- western and Pacific Branches. Their stories, however, we have reserved for later chapters. As the chief pioneer and veteran of what has come to be known as the "American Agency System" the ^tna Insurance Company has inaugurated a business which has spread its network of protection over the United States and Canada, and which, in the marine field, is now reaching into every part of the world. [175] Chapter XII THE WINNING OF THE WEST Voted, To establish a Branch Office at Cincinnati, Ohio, and to appoint J. B. Bennett as General Agent with full powers to appoint new agents, remove them for cause, adjust losses and attend to the interests of the Company in all particulars; the territory to embrace the following States: Ohio, Indiana, Mich- igan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky,_ Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and portions of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, and the Territory of Minnesota. Compen- sation of General Agent, ^2,000 and traveling expenses, and a commission of 10% on the net profits of the business in his territory — arrangement to begin September 12, 1853. Signed, ^Etna Insurance Company, Hartford, Sept. 2, 1853. E. G. Ripley, Secretary. THIS prosaic entry in one of the old official record books of the ^Etna records the opening of an epoch-making event in the history of the Company, and introduces a character who was to make a lasting impress on the profession of fire insurance underwriting. Before we begin to build the great structure of the Western Branch, let us for a moment glance back to the early days of the Company. We have seen how, in the very beginning, it became the pioneer in the field of real agency work; we have noted the slow planting of agencies in the South and West and [176] THE WINNING O F THE WEST ' North, and we have traced the development of the local agency in Cincinnati from 1823 to the middle of the century. During all these years the ^Etna's chief competitor in the Western field was the Protection Insurance Company, organized at Hartford in 1825. It was in the year following that the Protection opened a General Agency in Cincinnati under Ephraim Robins. In the story of his career may be read one of the many romances of American business. At the age of forty, Robins had won success and comparative wealth as a merchant and exporter in Boston. Two years later a calamity of navigation destroyed his entire fortune. Discouraged, but undaunted, he turned from this disaster to build his life anew. His attention was suddenly caught by an item in a Hartford newspaper which a relative had sent him, telling of the formation there of the Protec- tion — a new fire and marine insurance company. The recent loss of his own fortune, through lack of insurance protection, and his own need for immediate occupation, combined to inspire a new idea. He felt that no one could more fervently preach the gospel of insurance than he, and he believed that his experience in business and knowledge of men would enable him to win success in the new field as he had in the old. Within a few months General Agent Robins was in far-away Cincinnati, laying the foundations of the great agency system in the West for the Hartford company. During the next twenty years, with an organization of hundreds of agents covering the 12 [177I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE villages and cities of the South and West, he restored his own fortunes and brought prosperity to the com- pany at home. His death in 1846, however, seemed to mark a turn in the tide of the company's progress, for in August, 1854, following a series of heavy losses at sea and on land, insolvency brought an end to its career. W. B. Robins, who succeeded his father as General Agent, moved to England soon after the company failed, and with his entire family, met a tragic end by drowning while on a yachting trip. It was under Ephraim Robins that Joseph B. Bennett, the first General Agent of the Etna's Western Branch, received his early training. Born in England August II, 1825, he and his brother, F. C. Bennett, came to America in 1832 with their parents and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, then a small village of 3,000 inhabitants, on the banks of Lake Erie. In 1834 the Bennett family moved to Cincinnati, then the greatest city in the West. In 1841 young Joseph entered the office of Ephraim Robins. Keen of mind, quick to learn and ambitious to succeed, it was not long before he had mastered every detail of the business. His advancement was rapid. Within a few years he had become one of the trusted investigators and loss adjusters of the agency. In the summer of 1852 the iEtna was concerned in a loss by fire which destroyed the business section of Brandon, Mississippi. J. B. Bennett was on the ground to adjust losses sustained by his company. He discovered mistakes in one of the claims against the iEtna and saved the Company seventy-five per [178I THE WINNING OF THE WEST cent, of the original demand. This incident led to a correspondence which resulted, one year later, in the founding of the Western Branch of the /Etna, with Joseph B. Bennett in control as General Agent, and with offices in a little cottage at what then was 297 Elm Street, in Cincinnati. That Bennett had a great opportunity before him is indicated in the letter written to him by Secretary Ripley of the ^tna on October 4, 1853: You are now in a position to build up a reputation and a profitable business for this Company and yourself, such as few men have the opportunity of doing. You begin with a good business already secured, and if the Company has its deserts, with a high reputation for fairness, promptness and liberality, there is no reason why your efforts should not be crowned with success. With characteristic energy Bennett turned to his new task. Every local agency which had been estab- lished by the JEtna. within the limits of his territory, except those at Chicago, Cleveland and Mobile, was placed under his control, so he was able to begin with a ready-made organization of no mean proportions. Within a year great good fortune came to him, though it spelled calamity and ruin to others — the failure of the Protection Company. He was quick to seize the opportunity. He was personally acquainted witli the hundreds of Protection agents throughout the South and W' est, and was able to pick and choose among i them. They brought with them to Bennett and to I the ^tna a material share of the business which they ihad developed and the benefit of the schooling which I they had received under Ephralm and W. B. Robins. It was not long, therefore, before Bennett had an [179] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE army of more than one thousand active and experienced agents under his command, and he soon came to be known among them as "General." Until the day of his death, more than thirty years later, he was known throughout the insurance world as General Bennett. An avalanche of prosperity now descended upon the i^tna as the result of the sudden activity of hun- dreds of new agents. During the seventeen years of J. B. Bennett's management of the Western Branch the premiums averaged one million dollars a year. The literature of American fire insurance teems with incidents and stories of Bennett's career. That he was a genius in the profession of fire underwriting is conceded by all; but like most geniuses, he was eccentric and intolerant of restraint. With the increasing prosperity of the Western Branch, he soon came to regard the home office as a mere adjunct. As stated in the Insurance Report in 1907, by Ross F. Stewart, an old insurance underwriter who had served under General Agent Bennett nearly half a century before: Let it be said in sorrow that it was through this very spirit of independence that the meteoric career of a character acknowl- edged by all to have been one of the greatest, if not the greatest, fire underwriting has ever known, came to an inglorious ending. Not content with the renown which he and his Company had achieved as the chief pioneers and veterans of the agency system, Mr. Bennett sought to develop the Cincinnati Branch on Hnes wholly apart from those established as fundamental principles by the home office in Hartford. Having nothing to risk but his position. General Agent Bennett was unhampered by responsibilities and i obligations which statute and unwritten law placed [180] THE WINNING OF THE WEST upon the shoulders of the Officers and Directors back in Hartford. While they recognized the genius and talents of their Cincinnati agent, they likewise feared his impulses and eccentricities. Many are the incidents recorded in the old correspondence between the home office and the Western Branch which describe this situation. One, for example, occurred in 1864, following a fire which destroyed Colt's great pistol factory at Hartford. Some weeks later, in looking over Bennett's reports for the preceding month, the home office found a receipted bill for ^4,000, for a colored poster of Colt's fire. Inquiry developed that Bennett, without seeking authority for what, in those days, was regarded as a stupendous expenditure for such purpose, had ordered the poster for advertising purposes and had paid the bill out of the Company's funds. This action was followed by other infractions of the rule that Company funds should be expended only with the sanction of the Officers and Directors. When he began, however, to assume the authority of investing the funds of the Western Branch, and even went so far as to make preliminary arrangements for the expendi- ture of many thousands of dollars for the erection of an office building for the Company in Cincinnati, without consultation with the home office, the Officers and Directors felt that the time had come for a final understanding. Therefore, in the late winter of 1870 President Hendee, accompanied by a committee ot three Directors, visited Cincinnati, where a final shock awaited them. They entered the .Etna's offices in the Company's building at No. 171 Vine Street, where [181I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE they found the "General" seated at his desk. He slowly surveyed his visitors, making no motion to greet them, then turned his back with the curt remark: "Be seated, gentlemen. I'll see you when I am through." This was the final straw. Bennett's commission was revoked, and his brother, Frederick C. Bennett, was named General Agent in his place. With his retirement from the iEtna, J. B. Bennett immediately took steps to erect a competing organiza- tion. Before the end of the year he had launched the Andes Insurance Company with a capital of ^1,000,000. He gave it a name as nearly like that of the JEtna, as he could, and adopted a seal similar to that of the iEtna, with a mountain as its most characteristic feature. The Chicago fire in 1871 ended its brief career. Bennett later organized two more companies — the Amazon and the Triumph. He died at Indianapolis on November 10, 1889, and was buried in Cincinnati, where his last resting-place is now marked by a monument erected to his memory by the insurance men of the United States. Frederick C. Bennett in many respects was the antithesis of his gifted and eccentric brother. Although an able executive, he was modest and shy almost to diffidence. Like his brother, he received his early insurance training in the old Protection agency, entering the office under W. B. Robins in 1847. Although offered a post in the new i^tna agency in 1853, he remained with the Protection up to the time of its failure in 1854, when he entered the employ [182] WFmtt- OLD CINCINNATI OFFICK BUILDING OF TIlK.i:'rN\ IXSlK'WCi: COMPANY 171 VINE STREK'I THE WINNING OF THE WEST of his brother, where he continued in various capacities until March 9, 1870, when the ^tna Directors elected him General Agent. On the same date they also elected as Assistant General Agent, William H. Wyman, who was to live to celebrate, in 1904, fifty years of continuous service with the Company. Mr. Wyman was born at Canton, New York, July 21, 1831, and received his early schooling in the Beloit and Milton Academies. At the age of nineteen he entered the Cincinnati office of the Protection Company as a junior clerk. He remained there until the failure of the company in 1854, when, with F. C. Bennett, he joined the ranks of the /Etna, under General Agent J. B. Bennett. Wyman spent his first year with the Company traveling through the South and West as Special Agent, and in 1856 was appointed State Agent for the ^tna in Wisconsin. It was while serving in this capacity that he was promoted to the position of Assistant General Agent at Cincinnati in 1870. During the years which followed, the Western Branch of the i^tna continued to expand under the guiding hands of Bennett and Wyman, until 1890. By this time the territory covered by the Western Branch had become so populous, and the volume of business so great, that it was decided to divide the field. On September 24 of this year the Directors voted to divide the W'estern Branch and establish a new branch, to be known as the Northwestern, with headquarters at Omaha, with William H. Wyman as General Agent. The territory allotted to the [183I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE new department was composed of North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Indian Territory; while the States remaining in the Western Branch were Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Ken- tucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. The Chicago office was still operating as an independent branch. With the establishment of the Northwestern Branch, Charles W. Potter, another ^Etna veteran, was elected as Assistant General Agent to serve with Wyman at Omaha. He had entered the service of the JEtna. in 1867 under J. B. Bennett, and during the intervening years had served as local agent at Milwaukee and State Agent for Wisconsin. He continued as Assistant General Agent only two years, however, when he resigned to accept the management, at Denver, of the Mountain Division of the Northwestern Depart- ment, where he continued until his death in 191 8. W. P. Harford, who had been identified with the Western Branch for many years, was chosen for the vacancy caused by Potter's resignation, and served as Assistant General Agent under Wyman until their joint retirement in 1910, to which further reference will be made. Frederick C. Bennett continued in sole charge of the Western Branch during the two years following the transfer and promotion of William H. Wyman. On November 30, 1892, the day on which William B. Clark was elevated to the Presidency of the Company, and upon his recommendation, N. E. Keeler, [184] THE WINNING OF THE WEST who had been connected with the Western Branch since boyhood, was elected Assistant General Agent at Cincinnati, to succeed Wyman. After fifty years of continuous service in the ranks of insurance underwriting, of which forty-three were spent with the ^tna, death closed the long career of F. C. Bennett on May 25, 1897. No truthful history of American fire insurance could be written that did not write large the names of the two Bennett brothers. Both, in their day, wrought mightily for the cause of insurance in general and for the JEtns. in particular. F. C. Bennett was one of the founders and first president of the old Western Fire Insurance Managers' Associa- tion, from which was evolved the present Western Union, the great organization of fire insurance under- writers of the West. With the termination of Bennett's long leadership of the W^estern Branch, there was now to appear, in the person of Thomas E. Gallagher, a new figure in the Western field of fire insurance. Born at Dansville, New York, on July 31, 1848, Gallagher first entered the insurance business as a local agent at Elmira. In 1886 he became Special Agent for the Washington Fire and Marine Insurance Company. In 1888 he was appointed Special Agent in New York State for the Continental Fire Insurance Company, and later General Agent, until in 1894 he joined the ranks of the iEtna as Special Agent in the same state. In accordance with a plan formulated by President Clark, N. E. Keeler, Assistant General Agent of the Western Branch, and Thomas E. Gallagher, became [185I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE associated under the firm name of Keeler & Gallagher; and on June 2, 1897, the members of this firm were named joint General Agents to succeed F. C. Bennett. This arrangement continued until October, 1907, when Keeler, after forty-two years of continuous service with the ^Etna, resigned, to take effect at the end of the year. He was given a pension for the remaining years of his life. His death occurred on June 10, 1912. For some years prior to this period the ^tna officials had considered plans for a complete reorganiza- tion of its Western business. Cincinnati had long since surrendered to Chicago its prestige as the metropolis of the West. And so, with the retirement of Mr. Keeler, the following announcement was issued by President Clark on November 12, 1907, to the Western agents of the Company: After a long and careful consideration of the subject, we have decided to remove the Western Branch from Cincinnati to Chicago, and now expect to be located in offices in the National Life Insurance Company's building, 159 La Salle Street, in May- next. In due time the Chicago City and Cook County Agencies will report to the Western Branch instead of as now to the Home Office at Hartford, thus consolidating our entire interests in the Middle West. The Branch at Chicago will be under the management of General Agent Thos. E. Gallagher, and Mr. Jas. S. Gadsden will continue as General Agent of the Inland Marine department. Mr. Louis O. Kohtz, our present Assistant General Agent at Chicago, will continue as Assistant General Agent in both Fire and Marine Departments. The foregoing announcement was only the fore- runner of another important change a few years later; for on October 5, 1910, President Clark issued a notice [186] LOUIS O. KOHTZ ASS'T GENERAL AGENT THE WINNING OF THE WFS'I to the agents announcing the decision of the Company to consolidate the Western and Northwestern Branches with headquarters at Chicago, under the management of General Agent Gallagher and Assistant (General Agent Louis O. Kghtz. The new arrangement was to become effective on December ist. In his announce- ment President Clark paid a glowing tribute to the long and faithful services of General Agent William H. Wyman and Assistant General Agent W. P. Harford, the former having served the ^tna for fifty-six years, and the latter forty-five. In recognition of these services they were granted generous pensions on their retirement. Mr. Wyman's death occurred on October 7th of the following year, while Mr. Harford died on October 25, 1910. These events marked the close of a memorable era in the life of the Western Branch and the beginning of a new period of growth and prosperity. In 191 5, as noted in the preceding chapter, Assistant Secretary Ralph B. Ives was transferred from the home office to Chicago, and the team work with General Agent Gallagher and Assistant General Agent Kohtz has produced gratifying results. Just as the story of the iEtna as a whole encompasses much of the history of lire insurance in America during the last hundred years, so the various steps in the progress ot the Company's Western Branch have been coincident with the important developments of underwriting throughout the West since the middle of the nineteenth century. [187I Chapter XIII THE PACIFIC BRANCH IN the fifties, California seemed a long, long way from Hartford; there were no railways reaching to what President Ripley called "the remote Pacific shores," no telegraph service, and no method of communication, except by mail, which was slow and expensive. California had hardly been acquired by the United States as a territory when the news of the discovery of gold at Coloma, on the Sacramento River, thrilled the country. Almost as if by magic was the sleepy little Spanish village of San Francisco transformed into a live, hustling, American town. There was a feverish rush of gold-seekers from all parts of the world. Thousands tracked across the plains and mountains, with ox-teams and prairie-schooners; many came on horseback or trudged wearily along on foot. Many others swarmed across the Isthmus, and in a single year five hundred ships, filled with adventurous miners, came 'round the Horn to reach the new El Dorado. In 1850 California became a State, and two years later San Francisco was a city of 42,000 inhabitants. Such an influx of new settlers meant the erection of thousands [188] THE PACIFIC BRANCH of new buildings, and with this naturally came a demand for fire insurance. For several years prior to 1858 the ^tna had been urged to establish an agency in San Francisco, but the difficulties and disadvantages seemed so great that no action was taken until December 8, 1858, when Edward H. Parker was made local agent there. Mr. Parker was so highly recommended, and the distance from the home office being too great for advice and authority in every instance, that with a few general suggestions and limitations, he was urged to conduct the business there as though it were his own. This arrangement was unchanged until 1866, when on August 15th the Board of Directors voted to send General Agent Erastus J. Bassett to California, with full power to look over the business of the Com- pany, and to arrange for extending its operations by opening a general agency or to close up the local agency and withdraw from the field, as his judgment might dictate. On reaching the Coast and after studying the situation from all sides, he advised the establishment of a branch office in San Francisco, which resulted in the appointment in December, 1866, ot Robert 11. Magill as General Agent. Mr. Magill came from Cincinnati, where he had been a member of the firm of R. H. & H. M. Magill, general agents of the Western Branch of the Phoenix of Hartford. The Pacific Branch of the iEtna, thus begun under Magill, covered California, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah,. and Wash- ington. He continued in charge for two years until [189] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE October, 1868, when George C. Boardman succeeded him. Mr. Boardman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 20, 1828, of English stock that settled in this country about the middle of the seventeenth century. He received his early education in the schools of his native city and entered upon a mercantile life in Hartford and later in New York City. In 1855 he began his insurance career as special agent for the Merchants' Insurance Company of Hartford, and in i860 was sent to Cahfornia. In the year following he became secretary of the San Francisco Insurance Company, which had just been organized, and in 1863 he became president. Under his administration the company had remarkable success, but shortly after his resignation in October, 1868, to become General Agent for the i:Etna, the San Francisco company retired from business. Mr. Boardman was a sound, conservative, and experienced underwriter, the first Special Agent of an Eastern company to visit the Pacific Coast, planned and promoted the first Board of Fire Underwriters there, and had a part in every development of fire insurance on the Coast. Under Mr. Boardman's able and aggressive management the y^tna's Pacific Branch prospered. The receipts for the first year were $70,000, and in his last year with the Company the premium income of the Branch had reached nearly $1,100,000; every year, except 1906, the year of the San Francisco fire, the business yielded handsome profits. When Mr. Boardman had been twenty-eight years in charge alone, [190] GEORGE W.SPENCER SAN FRANCISCO MEMBERS OF THE FIRM OF BOARDMAN & SPENCER. CENERAL AGENTS. PAClKIl' BRANCH, AT TIME THE CONFLAC.RATION IN SAN FRANCISCO. M'KII. l'x»<. oi- THE PACIFIC BRANCH the business had so increased and the duties of the agency had proved so onerous, that in 1896 he took in as partner George W. Spencer, and the firm became Boardman & Spencer, General Agents. Mr. Spencer was born in Philadelphia on September 17, 1843, and his early youth was spent at New London, Connecticut, where he received his education. When he was sixteen he returned to Philadelphia and engaged in business, where he remained until 1862, when he entered the army, and at the close of the war went to New York as an accountant. In 1868 he took a long trip to Tahiti to enter into a partnership there; but conditions not seeming favorable, he went to San Francisco and began his insurance career as accountant and Special Agent of the ^tna under Mr. Boardman. After serving in this capacity for eleven years, he left in 1880 to accept the position of manager of the Marine Department of Balfour, jGuthrie & Company, but resigned in 1896 to return to the i^tna as an associate of General Agent Boardman. I When Rudyard Kipling visited San Francisco, Mr. Spencer entertained him at his home, and when the distinguished author left he had such vivid memories of his host that he wrote "The Prince Among Merchants," based on the experiences of Spencer; in his "American Notes" Kipling also pictures him as the "Captain of American Horse," representing an old soldier of the Civil War. On April 2, 1908, Mr. Spencer died suddenly, and the Company lost an able |Underwriter and a loyal and valued agent. On May 10, 1908, Edwin C. Morrison, who had [191] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE been connected with the Company for about twenty- two years as special agent, became Assistant General Agent. In the year following, the death of Mr. Boardman brought a new change in the election of Morrison to the position of General Agent. Mr. Boardman, who died on April 24, 1909, at the age of eighty-one, had served the JEtuB. with rare ability and devotion for forty-one years, his entire period of service being with the Pacific Branch. His death brought sincere sorrow not only to the officers of the ^tna but to the insurance circles of the Pacific Coast. On July 12, 1909, Arthur G. Sanderson was elected Assistant General Agent. He had long been connected with the i^tna's Western Branch; and when sent to San Francisco in 1906, as one of the adjusters of the losses incident to the great fire, he had rendered such valued service and had won such personal popularity that his election again proved the care and wisdom of the Company in the selection of its agents. While the business of the Pacific Branch all these years had been growing in strength and prosperity, invisible lines of control and guidance stretched across three thousand miles to the home office in Hartford into firm, sure hands. From almost the very beginning i of its existence the affairs of this Branch had been under the charge of Mr. Clark, first as Assistant Secretary and later as Vice-President and President. It was in 1866 that the Branch was opened, and it hadj hardly completed its first year when Mr. Clark came with the Company, so that the history of the Pacific Branch and President Clark's life with the JEtna. are [192] THE PACIFIC BRANCH contemporaneous, and their stories are constantly interwoven. He has ever been in perfect touch with all of its activities, and knows San Francisco from an underwriter's point of view as thoroughly as though he were on the ground. He has made every audit of the accounts of the Branch except in one year, when Vice-President Rees visited the Coast. In 1874 President Clark, then Assistant Secretary, made his first visit to San Francisco, and the story is best given in his own words: In April, 1874, Mr. Boardman having had some difficulty with one of his employees, President Hendee said to me: "It is about time that somebody from this office visited the Pacific Branch, and I advise that you pack your trunk and go at once;" so on the thirteenth day of April I left Hartford for San Francisco. Only one railroad was in operation at that time — the Union Pacific — and it was a seven days' trip, with rather crude sleepers and getting meals at stations en route. I well remember, on the morning of my arrival on the Coast, of leaving the train and going through an arch of ice and snow to the restaurant, and at twelve o'clock on the same day in the Sacramento Valley, picking poppies by the roadside. It was a surprise visit to Mr. Boardman, our General Agent, and I had intended to reach his office the next morning before him. I arrived in the city at ten o'clock at night, but omitted to "leave a call," and when I awoke the next morning the sun was shining bright in my room. I looked at my watch and saw that it was ten o'clock. I jumped out of bed and proceeded to dress hurriedly. All at once I heard the whistles blowing, and on looking out of the window, saw workmen going by with their dinner pails. Then it occurred to me that there was a difference of three hours and twenty minutes between their time and my Hartford time. So I reached the office in good time that morning and surprised Mr. Boardman, and received a very warm welcome from him. This visit was followed by eleven visits to the Branch, namely, in 1890, 1896, 1899, 1903, 1906, 1909, 191 1, 1913, 1914, 1916, 1918, and 1919. On President Clark's return from his sixth visit to the Coast in March, 1906, he had reached Hartford on 13 [^93] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE the first of April. A little over two weeks later — April 1 8 th — came the terrible news of the earth- quake and the great fire. On two or three previous visits to San Francisco Mr. Clark had made a careful study of the Company's local business, visiting each section, street by street, going over the maps with the General Agent, and fixing the maximum lines, particularly in the congested districts. It was this close knowledge that enabled President Clark, seated in Hartford, and studying the reports from the stricken city, to advise the Board that the net loss of the Company, after deducting re-insurance and salvage, would be about three million dollars. This was a remarkably close estimate, for the amount actually paid was ^2,983,000. While the story of the great fire has been given in detail in another chapter, it may be worth noting, as illustrating the generous spirit of the Company, the public announcement which was made at the time by Boardman & Spencer, General Agents. The policy-holders were notified that the vaults of the Compiany had just been opened and the records were found uninjured, and that the adjustment and payment of losses would proceed at once. Requirement of giving "immediate notice" of losses was waived; time for filing proofs of loss was extended; loss papers would be prepared by the adjusters without expense to the assured, and no attorney would be necessary; if policies had been burned the assured would suffer no delay, and all policies would be paid in cash, without discount, immediately on adjustment. [194] THE PACIFIC BRANCH In the years following the fire the Pacific Branch speedily regained strength and vitality and continued to prosper. On December 2, 191 2, General Agent Morrison died, at the age of sixty-two. He had been for a quarter of a century in the service of the Company as special agent, superintendent of agencies, Assistant General Agent and General Agent, and had been most successful in the management of the Pacific Branch. Assistant General Agent Sanderson was elected as his successor on January i, 1913. On President Clark's visit to the Coast early in 1913 he found Mr. Sanderson dangerously ill, and it was decided to appoint William H. Breeding as Assistant General Agent. Mr. Clark telegraphed the facts to the Company on March 8th, and on March loth Mr. Breeding was elected by the Board as Assistant. Between the time of the sending of the i telegram and the action of the Board, however, Mr. i Sanderson died suddenly. On Mr. Clark's return ' to Hartford Mr. Breeding was promoted to the position of General Agent. I Born in Texas on March ao, 1871, Mr. Breeding I received his education in the public schools of the State and acquired his early insurance training in local and general agencies in Texas. He was account- ant and later special agent of the Alamo Insurance Company of San Antonio, and then Texas agent for I the Germania Fire Insurance Company of New York; 1 later he traveled for that company throughout the I Southern field, and in 1900 was appointed Manager of itheir Pacific Coast department, which he established. [195] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE In 1907 he came with the ^Etna, serving for six years as special agent and as Superintendent of Agencies, prior to his election as General Agent of the Company^ which position he still holds. Mr. Breeding proved himself a most successful and satisfying manager of the Pacific Branch, and for the year 191 8 the premiums from fire underwriting alone exceeded two million dollars. An Assistant General Agent, George E. Townsend, was elected in March, 191 5, to relieve Mr. Breeding of some of the arduous duties of the Branch. For several years Mr. Townsend had been special agent and agency superintendent, and remained in his new position until October, 191 8, when he resigned. While the entire marine business of the Company is under the immediate charge of its Marine Vice- President, William F. Whittelsey, at the Home Office; on the Pacific Coast, General Agent Breeding has supervision of the marine risks in his territory. The details of the work, however, are in the hands of a marine Assistant General iVgent. From April 2, 1913, Ernest L. Livingston held this position until his death on March 6, 191 8, when he was succeeded by the present incumbent, Harry Durbrow, who was chosen on May 13, 1918. Both proved exceptionally competent marine underwriters, and the premiums in 1 91 8 amounted to over a million and a quarter of dollars, with a moderate profit, considering the war hazards. The present territory of the Pacific Branch covers California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, [196] W. H. BREEDING general agent Pacific branch san francisco, calif. ^ ^ THE PACIFIC BRANCH Washington, Arizona, Alaska, and the Hawaiian Islands. The history of this Branch extends over more than half the entire life of the y^tna. It seemed rather a bold move to establish a general agency away out on the Pacific Coast in 1866, when what are now flourishing States within its field were but mere territories, so sparsely settled that they were really little more than names and a boundary line. But the Directors never made any important move without studying the subject so thoroughly that success was assured. They elected good men as General Agents, men that had proved themselves of special fitness, and these men when chosen were given the largest possible freedom of discretion and the fullest sympa- thetic co-operation of the Home Office at Hartford. The story of the Pacific Branch makes a bright and memorable chapter in the life of the Company and in the administration of President Clark, who, in the Etna's centennial year, at the age of seventy- eight, made his latest trip to the Coast to inspect the affairs of the Branch. Under his fostering care it has developed to its present success and importance. [197I Chapter XIV THE LAW MAKERS AND INSURANCE IT Is a comparatively simple and easy matter for a company confining its business within the borders of its own State to carry on all its activities. When it crosses the State line it enters a new jurisdic- tion and is subject to different laws. If the company seeks to do a national business, with branches, offices or agents in all the States, it has to face the somewhat puzzling problem of adjusting Itself to laws and regulations of forty-eight separate commonwealths. The iEtna had not been long in existence, with its plan of business development by means of local agency representation, before it began to feel the pressure and limitation of adverse legislation. It had early ventured into New York State and established agencies; but in 1823, when the State passed a law taxing the business of the agents of out-of-State fire Insurance companies ten per cent., profitable underwriting became difficult. In 1825 the iEtna asked Its agents at Troy and Albany to petition the Legislature to repeal or modify this obnoxious tax; but nothing came of this until after the great fire of 1835 in New York City, which wiped out so many local companies, and made foreign concerns [198] THE LAW MAKERS AND INSURANCE necessary for the protection of the people, when the tax was reduced to two per cent. Massachusetts proved a troublesome factor to the iEtna when the Legislature in 1827 passed a law relating to foreign fire insurance companies, and providing for a fine of $500 on any agent writing a policy in any company having a paid-up capital of less than $200,000. As the iEtna did not reach this amount until the late forties, the Company was barred. A loophole was discovered In the Massachusetts situation in the early forties, when the scheme of "agent for the people" was Introduced. As the plan was neatly expressed by Secretary Loomis, in a letter of November 18, 1843, to J. N. Stoddard, an agent for the people at Plymouth, Massachusetts, which read: Although we cannot make you an agent, you have the right to offer your services to your fellow citizens as an "insurance broker." You can become their agent for procuring insurance. This plan did not escape the keen vision of the Legislature, assisted by the jealousy of local companies, for In 1847 a law was passed making the $500 fine applicable to any person who directly or Indirectly represented foreign Insurance companies. Meanwhile, in 1846, after the y^tna had attained a paid-up capital of |2oo,ooo, It re-entered Massachusetts, and In 1852 filed Its first report under the laws of the State. Had It been In but two or three States that pressure was brought to bear to keep out foreign companies, the situation would have been fairly easy. But the truth Is that most local companies felt that foreign corporations entering their territory were Interlopers, [199] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE and in the early days they used every form of tactics they could devise to keep ''foreigners" out. That this was a serious problem to the ^tna is manifest in a letter written in May, 1829, by Secretary Goodwin: Our doing business in other States where they have insurance companies has caused some heart-burning with stockholders and agents of local offices. The Legislatures in most of the States have been induced to pass laws intended to drive out agents of foreign offices, considering it an encroachment upon them. Where law has not had the_ desired effect, slander has been resorted to, and it has been maliciously reported of us that we were insolvent. Sometimes this spirit of antagonism to foreign corporations had its good side, as events turned out; for in 1835 the ^Etna was probably saved from losses that might have proved disastrous in the big fires in New York City and Pittsburgh by reason of the laws of New York and Pennsylvania having reduced the activities of the ^tna Insurance Company to a minimum in these two States. Out in Ohio where the Company was vigorously extending its agency business, it met a setback in 1830 when the Legislature passed a law requiring foreign agents to pay a license fee of ^50, and in addition four per cent, on premiums. The Company then promptly decided to discontinue its agencies at Chilli- cothe, Painesville, Cleveland, Ashtabula, Zanesville, and other places, retaining only its agency at Cincinnati. In the year following, the Legislature having repealed the $50 tax law and substituted a reasonable tax on premiums, the /Etna, reopened its agencies and resumed business. [ 200] THE LAW MAKERS AND INSURANCE At this time agents of foreign companies in Vermont were taxed eight per cent, on receipts; in New York ten per cent.; in New Jersey eight per cent.; in Penn- sylvania twenty; in South Carolina eight; in Ohio four, in addition to the ^50 license fee; and in Rhode Island the license fee was $200. Massachusetts and Maine made such severe restrictions that Connecticut companies were practically excluded from these States. In the South, Tennessee joined in the movement to bar foreign companies, or to make their stay so oppressive and uncomfortable that they would shut up shop and go home. This the /Exna did when it closed up its Memphis agency in 1845 ^^ter a brief trial. The failure of local companies, which threatened to leave the State unprotected against fire, led in 1851 to the repeal of the obnoxious statutes. In Virginia, so strong grew the opposition to all companies not bearing the Virginia brand of incorpora- tion that the fire companies refused to put out fires in buildings insured in foreign companies; in other words, they would attend only "union" fires. Such a situa- tion put bitterness and indignant protest into the ink with which Secretary Loomis wrote in November, 1 841, to Robert Ritchie, agent at Petersburg, Virginia: There is something rather horrifying in the Fourth Resolution of the fire companies. Will they utterly disregard the claims of Society and not make an effort to save the property of one of their citizens because he may be insured by an office out of Virginia? Will they stand by and without manning their brakes see the property of one of their fellow citizens pass to destruction? Humanity would forbid it. No son of the Old Dominion would be such a bankrupt in chivalry as to permit it. If the insurance companies were to partake of a tithe of the feverish excitement [201] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE that seized your firemen, they would stop their agencies and aban- don the place to its fate. But, Sir, we always aim to keep cool — the world will never wag right for all of us — but we must make the best of it, go on steadily, do our whole duty — make others, as far as we can, and be content. We hope good will come of the Resolutions, that all may be benefited and satisfied. This general opposition continued for many years, for in April, 1865, President Alexander in a letter to J. B. Bennett, General Agent at Cincinnati, wrote: Notice your troubles with State Legislature; they seem to crop up everywhere just now under the pressure of State insti- tutions, which appear to attribute their absence of success to the fact that if competition did not exist brains would not be necessary to success. During all this time the insurance business was progressive and reaching safer and saner lines of underwriting and administration. Soon after the war, those who prepared taxation schemes for the separate States realized that insurance companies were easy prey; and beside taxing premiums, imposed fees for filing statements and other ingenious devices for enriching the State. Fire insurance companies have had three serious problems: fires, legislation, and taxes. In the earliest decades of fire insurance legislation, the greater part of the law-making seemed to be con- cerned with protecting the local companies against foreign competition and with increasing the revenues of the State. Fifty years or so ago it took a new turn in seeking to protect the people and to safeguard the companies in one way or another. Some of this legislation was good, some bad, and some dubious. It was in 1874 that the much-discussed "valued policy" legislation was begun by the passage of a law by [202] THE LAW MAKERS AND INSURANCE the State of Wisconsin, under the title: "An Act to Prevent Over-Insurance." The valued poHcy was a contract in which, in case of a total loss of the property, the full face of the policy would be paid irrespective of the value of the property at the time of the fire. The i^tna and other strong companies were opposed to it. Almost from the beginning of business, insurance companies expressly forbade agents writing such policies, because it was believed that they encouraged over- insurance and fraud. The companies claimed that it violated the essential principle of fire insurance, which is indemnity, restoring the insured to exactly the posi- tion held before the loss. If the insured were to profit by the fire, the policy would prove an inducement to carelessness, fraud and crime. The practical experience of the insurance company said one thing, the theory of legislators said another. Then began an epidemic of valued-policy laws, which, by the year 191 5, had been passed in twenty-two States. In that year, Wisconsin, the State that had started it all, after having given it forty years of trial repealed its law of 1874, and substituted for it an act forbidding insuring or paying losses in excess of the cash value of property. Another form of legislation that has interfered with and modified the natural development of the business of fire insurance, is the excessive and unwise State supervision manifested in anti-compact laws. Early in the nineteenth century it was recognized that a just rate of premium was the only one that was safe and sound for insurer and insured. It should [203] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE be a rate that would permit the insurance companies to pay ordinary losses and to leave a profit for stock- holders, while permitting the laying aside of a reserve fund to meet extraordinary losses such as might come with a great fire. Where the rate was put too low, it encouraged a volume of business that was unsafe, because it did not secure sufficient funds to meet losses, and led to the failures of companies. If the rate were excessively high, it left an extra margin for rate-cutting, which grew more vigorous and reckless in the fierce compe- tition between companies, bringing them too often into the low rates, unsafe to them and to their customers. Every big fire proved this by wiping out weak companies; then a period of sanity and reform came in, with adherence to a fair rate for a little time, until, in the fervor of business-getting, rate-slashing commenced. The tendency seemed as natural as the recurrence of the ebb and flow of the tides. The early conferences of the JEtna with the other Hartford companies were in recognition of this situation and of an earnest desire to end it in the interests of all companies. There were other conferences and meetings of local boards in different parts of the country seeking the solution of the same problem. There were two elements to be considered — the determination of a fair rate and the agreement to maintain it. The mastery of these two factors demanded co-operation, conferences, and compacts. To find out what was a fair rate required the classifying of statistics and experience, not of one company, but of many. It [204] THE LAW MAKERS AND INSURANCE meant making underwriting a scientific process based on adequate data. In 1885 an unwise campaign against this getting together of the companies was begun by an anti- compact law passed in Ohio, later followed by similar legislation in other States. The plea has been that insurance co-operation is monopolistic in character, and therefore this co-operation has been forbidden. Companies and their agents have been barred from fixing rates. Not only this, but companies have often been indicted, fined, and deprived of authority to issue policies because of membership in associations organized for the purely scientific purpose of ascertaining their average experience. In the history of the yEtna are seen frequent dis- turbances in its Southern business, because of legislation that made its agency work there impossible or unprofit- able. In January, 1889, the ittna announced its re-entrance into Georgia after being out about ten years; and appointed Henry E. Rees, later Vice- President of the Company, as Special Agent for Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Florida. In 1916 practically every foreign fire insurance comany, including the /Etna, and all the other Hartford companies, withdrew from South Carolina because of the anti-compact and anti-discriminating laws. Companies were prevented from employing a common rating agent, which naturally put the South- Eastern Underwriters' Association out of the State. One provision of the law required that all risks of similar hazard must be rated alike, and gave the [205] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE commissioner of insurance absolute power to raise or reduce any rate. Connecticut has been most liberal and fair in its insurance legislation, and to this is partially due the high position it occupies in the insurance world. In 1907 the Legislature passed the "Reciprocal Obligations Act," which accorded to foreign insurance companies from another State doing business in Connecticut the same general treatment as Connecti- cut agents received in the other State. There have been some who have urged fire insur- ance as a new avenue of government business. As has been repeatedly shown in these pages, one constant element in successful fire insurance is distribution of risks. State fire insurance means essentially con- centration of risks, with appalling losses in a great conflagration. Had the San Francisco fire fallen on the State of California, the loss of $350,000,000 would have been one that would have paralyzed the state for a generation. The greater part of the legislation now on the statute books of the States that has really advanced fire insurance, making It safer and more just for insurer and Insured, has come from making mandatory on all companies the wise principles and policies evolved by a few leading companies in their natural growth and evolution. [206] Chapter XV MARINE UNDERWRITING MARINE insurance is the father of all the many phases of insurance known in the world today. Many centuries before marine underwriting, as we know it now, had been in existence, there was in operation a form of protection on vessels and their cargoes among the commercial nations of the ancient world. This early form of insurance was called a "loss on bottomry"; it was a loan on the security of a vessel and its cargo at a high rate of interest; if the ship completed its voyage in safety, the loan and interest were to be paid by the ship-owner, but in case of the loss of the vessel the lender forfeited the principal and the interest. It was the reverse of the present system, the indemnity being paid in advance and returned plus interest or premium if the trip proved safe, while today the indemnity is paid only after loss and the premium is paid in advance. It is said that the Rhodians had some form of meeting losses by sea during the period of their com- mercial activity from 916 to 893 B. C, though we have no details as to the method employed. The [207] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE next development is found In the operations of the Hanseatic League, which dominated the commerce of Northern Europe for nearly four hundred years, from 1239 to 1630 A. D. It Is generally believed that marine Insurance, as It now exists, originated In Italy. Giovanni VUlanl, a 14th century Florentine historian, speaks of marine Insurance as having first appeared In Lombardy In II 82. At that time the whole banking and overseas trade of Europe was In the hands of the Lombard Jews. One family, at least, went to England and settled in London, In what Is today known as Lombard Street, the center of the banking section. They entered Into a banking and pawnbroking business, using the Lombard arms of the three golden balls as their sign, and also Issued marine insurance policies. The earliest policies issued in England, in 1547 and 1548, were written in Italian, but the names of the subscribers or underwriters were In English. Following its introduction Into England, marine underwriting spread rapidly to the various commercial centers of Europe. The Lloyd's policy now used in England is very like that prevailing in the early part of the 17th century, and many features of the English policy have been Incorporated in the policies used In America. Coffee houses and Insurance companies seem closely associated In the history of underwriting. It was in coffee houses that many of the great companies were born. This is natural, too, when we realize that in the earlier days these were the places where [208] MARINE UNDERWRITING men assembled for business discussion as well as for social entertainment. As with the ^tna, it was in a coffee house that "Lloyd's," the world-renowned shipping and insurance exchange, was organized. Its beginnings were humble in the coffee house established by Edward Lloyd in the middle of the 17th century. His little place was largely patronized by seamen and merchants; and to make it more popular, he started a system of correspondence at home and abroad to keep him informed of the move- ment and character of vessels for the information of his patrons. It was successful; it filled a real need, and was extended on a larger scale. Lloyd's soon became the meeting place of underwriters, and the foundation of a future great business was laid. In America, prior to the end of the i8th century the only form of marine insurance was by individual underwriters, and these were for the most part British; early colonial correspondence has frequent reference to London indemnity for American shipping. It proved a slow and irksome process, and in 1759 the first marine insurance office was opened in New York. Others soon followed. It was natural, and to be expected, that the iEtna in the city of Hartford, with its associations with West Indian trade and other shipping, would early look to marine underwriting as an adjunct or branch of its fire insurance business, and that there would be calls and suggestions for it to enter this field. It was in 1826, when the Company was seven years old, that the first application to the Legislature for a 14 [209I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE ^M/£f^ charter amendment authorizing it to underwrite inland marine risks was made. Because of the active opposi- tion of certain marine insurance companies, this was refused; later trials were equally unsuccessful; and it was not until 1839 that the long-denied permission was finally granted. But even with the authority to act, the Company did not actually begin to write inland marine Insurance until four years later. The general attitude of the Board of Directors at this time may be seen in a letter written by Secretary Loomis in June, 1843, in which he said: We have procured an amendment to our charter authorizing the Company to insure against the hazards of Internal Naviga- tion — but we have no power to go outside. Directors, however, are not yet prepared to enter upon this branch, and they will never do so at many points. As factories are becoming, nay, have already become, bad subjects for our protection, the Board will be more likely to go into Navigation as a substitute for this description of business. Our charter does not give us power of insuring money by mail or by steam boats. In all the correspondence on the subject at this time there was an atmosphere of characteristic caution, and evidences of hesitancy about engaging in the new business. Marine risks seem to have been considered as a side-line, as taking a flyer in a new field where the flight would be low, cautious and tentative. This is clearly evident in Secretary Loomis' letter to W. S. Vernon, agent at Louisville: As more reflection on the subject of restrictions has been given by our Board, they agree, on the whole, that we might as well go into the business (Inland Marine) as other prudent cor- porations would, and do. And with your wise judgment and experience we feel safe in committing our interests to your charge. [210] MARINE UNDERWRITING There is one feature in this business that there is not in fire — the risks terminate in a few days, and if we get sick of our business in that line we can wind it up. If the business should prove fair, it may induce our Board to make your powers more general. This was written in October, 1843, at the time of the appointment of the first agents. They were selected for river towns in the South, such as Appala- chicola, Macon, Savannah and Columbus, Georgia, Mobile, New Orleans, Natchez and Louisville, and were authorized to take risks on cargoes of steamers and pole-boats, but not on the boats themselves. There was a strict limitation, too, to the area to be covered by the policies, which was up the Mississippi as far as St. Louis and on the Ohio to Pittsburgh. The cargoes of that species of river craft known as boxes, arks or broadhorns, because extra-hazardous, were declared non-insurable by the Company. The first policies were issued in December, 1843. A few lines in the same month from Loomis to W. B. Robins, JEtna. fire agent at Cincinnati, throw an interesting side-light on the difficulties of corre- spondence at this time: The Board have this evening made you their Marine Agent. The documents will be forwarded by Mr. Junius S. Morgan, who leaves for the West on Monday morning next. The primitive method of sending letters by hand still persisted, and a coming leader in the financial world did not scorn to act as the messenger. With the marine insurance underwriting well begun in the South, the next step in the development of this branch of the i^tna's business was a reaching out to the larger field of the Great Lakes. In 1847 Capt. [ml ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE E. P. Dorr was appointed General Agent at Buffalo, where an office was opened devoted to inland marine insurance. On the death of Capt. Dorr, O. T. Flint, who had been employed and trained in Capt. Dorr's office, succeeded him, and served until February 4, 1 891; when the Board of Directors voted to discontinue the office at Buffalo, and to establish a separate branch for marine insurance in New York City, with H. J. Parmalee as Superintendent, and a branch in Chicago under the superintendence of James S. Gadsden, an expert underwriter and adjuster, who had done good work as one of the adjusters in settling the losses at the Chicago fire. Associated with Gadsden was Louis O. Kohtz, who was Assistant General Agent. In 1907, when the Western Branch was moved from Cincin- nati to Chicago, Thomas E. Gallagher was appointed General Agent, and Gadsden continued as General Agent of the Marine Department; and on his death in 1 911, Kohtz became General Agent of the marine business at Chicago. The opening of the New York Branch marked the expansion of the inland marine business into the broader field of coastwise marine insurance, and prepared the Company for its ultimate entrance into the business of ocean marine underwriting. In the year following, Egbert O. Weeks was called from his field work in Pennsylvania, and made Assistant Secretary at the Home Office. In addition to other duties he was placed in charge of the inland marine business. Under his more direct fostering care this department thrived, and in 1896 the Directors voted to appoint a committee [212] MARINE UNDERWRITING to investigate the general question of the advisability of the Company's going into the larger field of ocean marine underwriting. It was not until 1907, more than ten years later, however, that a charter amendment was secured permitting the Company to write ocean marine policies. Meanwhile, in 1897, Weeks was promoted to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Vice-President Dudley. Mr. Weeks continued to devote his energies to the development of the marine business until the close of his life on October 31, 1902. The department was then placed in the hands of President Clark, with William F. Whittelsey in active charge. With the ocean marine amendment to its charter, the JEtna was no longer limited to risks on mere inland navigation; the broad oceans and the waters of the globe were open to its underwriting. Though it is now eighty years since the ^tna was authorized to take up inland marine insurance, the major part of the real history of its marine business really dates from March, 1907. In January, 1908, the office of Marine Assistant Secretary was created, and William F. Whittelsey was the logical choice for the new position. He had practical experience and training in the inland and coastwise marine field. He had entered the employ of the JEtn3. in the re-insurance department at the home office, on February 2, 1891. For five years prior to this time he had been connected with the local i^tna agency in Hartford. Soon after coming with the Company he was appointed as examiner of [213I ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE fire risks for the suburban business of New York City. When Vice-President Weeks took control of the marine department in 1897, Mr. Whittelsey became his assistant, and so continued until the death of the former in 1902, when he practically assumed full charge of the department under the direction of Presi- dent Clark. In 1905 he was appointed to the position of marine special agent at the home office, and served in that capacity until his election as Marine Assistant Secretary. Four years later, on January 25th, he was promoted to the new position of Marine Secretary. It was on January 31, 1917, that he won his final promotion to the post of Marine Vice-President, the position which he still retains. When he became Marine Assistant Secretary in 1908, the annual pre- miums of the Marine Department were over ^422,000 (net). In 191 8 the receipts of this department, includ- ing automobile insurance premiums, were ^3,382,549 (net). The present Marine Secretary is Raymond E. Stronach, who, after serving twelve years with the Company as chief clerk of the marine department and as assistant to Mr. Whittelsey, was made Marine Special Agent of the i^tna, and two years later was advanced to his present position when Mr. Whittelsey became Marine Vice-President. The principal agencies of the Marine Department are located at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Chicago and San Francisco. Prior to the establishment of the marine department, inland marine insurance was handled [214] R.E.5TRONACH MARINE SECRETARY MARINE UNDERWRITING largely by the regular fire insurance agents throughout the country, except in some of the larger ports like Buffalo and Chicago; but now the agents employed specialize in marine insurance. There is a tang of romance of the very sea itself in marine insurance. There is a thrill of mystery in the fate of some fine, strong vessel that went serenely out of port one day and was never sighted nor heard of again; a tingle of fresh delight in the wondrous treasures recovered from some sunken ship buried for long under the waters; a dash of adventure and peril in the narrative of the captain of some vessel, marked off as lost and the insurance money paid, a prodigal of the sea, finally limping unexpectedly back into its harbor home. They seem the work of ingenious writers of fiction rather than the actual facts from the prosaic, musty, business records of an insurance company. The files of the i^tna archives tell many such stories. There was the Empress of Ireland, which, on May 29, 1 914, sank near the mouth of the St. Lawrence. She settled gently in the soft mud at the bottom of the river, which is 138 feet deep at low tide, and then decided to keel over at a sharp angle. Beside the bodies of those lost in the wreck, she contained 251 bars of silver and many valuable pouches of mail. To secure these by divers was difficult, and the success- ful attempt made was one of the most remarkable feats of deep-sea salvaging on record. Much of the work had to be done 108 feet below the surface of the water, an unusual depth. It was in 191 5 that [215] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE the attempt was made. To familiarize the divers with the arrangement of the ship and the location of the strong box, pasteboard models were made, and the divers were thoroughly schooled and drilled before the great day of the trial. They secured entrance to the ship through openings in her side, made by cutting through the plates of the vessel. One diver lost his life, but all the silver was recovered. The ^tna had paid the owners $82,000, and the Company's share in the salvage was $67,000, thus reducing the i^tna's net loss to about 1 15,000. Most readers will recall the furor created in shipping circles when the Thomas W. Lawson was launched. She was one of the first steel schooners ever built, and the first with seven masts, and was fully equipped with machinery for hoisting the sails. After several coal-carrying trips along the coast between Boston and Norfolk, she was finally sent to Europe; but on this first trip went ashore on the Scilly Islands, and became a total loss. For the Etna's share in this loss there was no salvage. It sounds like a Stevenson story to read of the steamer Pewabic colliding with the steamer Meteor near Thunder Bay, Michigan, and then dropping down into the waters of Lake Huron, in August, 1865, with one hundred and fifty of crew and passengers, and a rich cargo of copper ore, on which the ^tna had paid over $45,000 of insurance to the owners. Then unromantic insurance companies sent down treasure seekers, called divers, who brought up little, though several attempts were made and nine lives were lost. [216] MARINE UNDERWRITING But fifty-two years after the wreck, in 1917, the invention of a new diving suit made another attempt feasible. Then divers, seemingly like ghouls of fiction, walked in an uncanny way through the rich saloons and cabins, now tenanted by skeleton guests, removing from them their diamonds and other jewels, much gold coin and other relics of value. There is always something that makes the blood tingle in the thought of buried treasure, that makes even the mere catalogue of it seem thrilling and inspir- ing. The Pewabic divers brought up several watches, revolvers of ancient make, coins of dates prior to the Civil War, a black silk gown which dried out as good as new, cotton garments whose brilliant crimson and blue were undimmed by the long soakage, gentlemen's boots with the leather still soft, hand-made silk laces and dainty slippers. The slow work of recovering the lost cargo of copper is still in progress; and while the cost of salvage is great, the ^tna and other insurance companies interested have already reduced their original losses of more than half a century ago by several thousand dollars. In its marine department the ^tna has claim agents all over the world who are daily settling claims, in connection with which documents in Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, French, Japanese and many other tongues must be carefully translated before the losses can be paid. The term "marine department" of the Company covers more than mere inland navigation and ocean risks; it also includes the automobile branch of the business. [217] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE In 1906 the Company began writing automobile risks and sent out its first letter to agents. The inland marine amendment to its charter, in 1839, was suffi- ciently broad in the words "against the hazards of inland navigation and transportation" to cover fire insurance on automobiles; but the Company wanted larger powers, so in 1907 it secured a new amendment authorizing it to insure automobiles against damage by fire, theft or collision. In its earliest years of automobile insurance, the fire losses were greater than the losses by theft; but in later years the position has been reversed, and fire losses have decreased, while losses by theft have increased, as stealing automobiles has become an organized business by ingenious, reckless and unscrupu- lous gangs throughout the country. The JEtna. also writes collision insurance, and covers the loss from fire, sinking, or collision when the car is on a ferry, steamboat, or railroad train. Under another form of policy, registered mail is insured for banks, brokers and financial corporations against all risks of loss by fire, transportation, theft or otherwise, from the time the package is deposited in the post- office for registration until delivered to the consignee at destination, anywhere in the United States, Canada or Mexico. The Tourist Baggage Policy covers baggage and personal effects of the insured or of his family while traveling in any part of the world. Under a marine pohcy the yEtna has covered, at one time or other, about every imaginable risk. The main features, of course, are the insuring of hulls, [218] MARINE UNDERWRITING cargoes and freight; but it has insured merchandise on mule-back in Venezuela, rubber in rafts down the Amazon, ivory from the Sudan, cotton from Egypt, furs from Russia, gold from Alaska, copra from the East Indies, coffee from Brazil, cotton from the South (even covering it on the old bark Pass of Balmahuy later converted into the raider Seeadler, recently sold by salvors in the East Indies). Besides covering munitions and war materials for Europe, the Company has insured horses being shipped there for the cavalry and guns, wheat and flour down the Great Lakes to Buffalo, iron from the Lake Superior mines to Cleveland, and coal from the Eastern mining centers to points on Lake Superior, hides from Iceland and Archangel, automobiles to Mozambique, and codfish from the Grand Banks. Now firmly established, the ocean marine part of the Company's business has grown like a green bay- tree from the start and today its agents may be found in every important shipping center of the world. [219] Chapter XVI DURING THE GREAT WAR THE assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdi- nand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and of his wife, on June 28, 1914, was made the excuse to plunge the whole world into such a war that even imagination could not have conceived it as possible. Three years later America was drawn into the titanic conflict. It was not long before the great war made ship- ping on the ocean an extra-hazardous risk, and affected every company doing ocean marine underwriting ; and this was quickly followed by the stealthy bomb or torch applied by alien enemies in the United States to depositories of war material, to factories and to arsenals and shipyards. In speaking of war conditions in 1 91 6, President Clark of the y^tna Insurance Com- pany said: Perhaps the biggest year the fire insurance companies ever had was the fiscal year of 1914-15. While every indication pointed toward even greater success this year, and the insurance men were expecting a record-breaking season, events have occurred which materially change the aspect of the situation. In the munition factories of the East, explosions and fires have occurred in great numbers. Factories manufacturing clothing and other supplies which were reported to be war orders suffered similar [220] DURING THE GREAT WAR "accidents" every few weeks. The insurance companies have paid out huge indemnities as a result. Only additional pre- cautions taken by manufacturers at the instruction of the fire insurance companies have prevented even greater losses. There was a spirit of incipient panic among marine Insurance companies in the fall of 1914, regarding ocean risks; but the prompt decision of the ^tna and other companies to protect their customers and to continue marine underwriting despite the war aided greatly in restoring confidence, and a serious financial disaster in marine circles was thus prevented. There was quick action on the part of the Company, for it was on September 14, 1914, that Marine Secretary Whittelsey appeared before the Board of Directors and reported his views on marine conditions as affected by the war. Among the large marine Insurance losses of the war was that of the Cunard steamship Lusitania, torpedoed and sunk without warning on May 7, 191 5, by a German submarine off Old Head of KInsale on the Irish coast. The iEtna came off fortunately with but a slight loss, about $16,000 on the cargo. The loss of the Arabic^ a White Star line steamer, on August 19, 1915, was one of the historic events of the marine warfare of the period. The vessel was sunk without warning off the southern coast of Ireland while on her way to New York; over fifty passengers, Including two Americans, and a number of the crew, were drowned. The usual line of diplomatic correspondence followed, and the German Ambassador In Washington formally assured our Government that Germany would give "complete satisfaction if it [221] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE developed that the submarine commander exceeded his instructions." Later the German Government put in an explanation that the Arabic was torpedoed in self-defense, refused to pay an indemnity, and then suggested that the matter be arbitrated. This seems to have closed the incident, which cost the yEtna about 15,270. The Gulflight was another vessel that figured prominently in the diplomatic interchange of letters preceding by over two years America's entry into the war. The Gulflight was an American tank steamer carrying 50,000 barrels of gasoline, en route from Port Arthur, Texas, to Rouen, France, and torpedoed by a German submarine off the Scilly Islands on May I, 1 91 5. Three or four weeks later the German Admiralty admitted the torpedoing, but said that the submarine commander mistook the vessel for a beUigerent. The cost to the yEtna was about ^5,000. These are but typical of the dozens of vessels insured in part by the iEtna that were the victims of submarines or mines. At every change of conditions, with their presenta- tion of new problems and policies, the lEtm. was ready to meet them in a fearless spirit of patriotic service. Resolutions were adopted by the Board of Directors that salaries of Company employees entering the military or naval service of the United States Govern- ment would be continued, and their places held for them. The demand for men to serve in the army and navy of the nation depleted the clerical staff; and as [222] 41*.') n rUi^ iEtna SitBuranr^ (Enm^taug HARTFORD. CONNECTICUT ^lir fullmiTiug is an fxtrarl from tbr fllmulrs uf tlir iBrcliuy of thr iBnarii uf Dirrrtura uf the ilftua 3Juauraurr (£iim|iauii. Nnurmhcr tlntruth. Niurtmt lijuuiJrcb auft tiyhlrru: Ihilrii: (That nii this Daij luaDr mruuirablr \\\\ the Biiuiiim iif tlir Armiiitirr arrms bi( (^rrmnm^ tl)UB ^irrpariuu Ihr biaii fur IHurlit-lBii^r |Irarr anft Drmnrrarii. Inr Ilir yr^lii^^nt auh Dirrrlnrii uf the -^lua iluauraurr (luiniianii in niatituiir tn thuHr mm Uihu hanr Irft tlip rmpluit uf this (lumpanii tu tutu the (Eulurs anft tn lirruiralUi ^u tltrir part til Brntr uur (Tuuulrn. riprra& w^inx tiir rrruriis Ihr fulluuiiug uamrs tu vfrVftualr thr liuuor anb rstrrm in taliirli hir l^iiUi tlu'w as triip Amrrtcaus: ALUS. HAMMOND K BAKER R.\>MOND U BAUER. PAUL J BILL. HOSWELL H. liLANCWARD. KENNETH R BOLIRS, rx>NA(,D imOUlLEriE. ALCJDE B\RNE. C CARROLL (ADU Fi I- HAUL J CARPENTER, I KWYHE* CARRIER, EDW C ( A>E, KOIIEHT H, CHAMPION. EOGAK W DARLI V^ I IX;aR C- tNGEL. OSCAR GRACES . BLTttON B CIMN13AHU U)MU^U ] GRANT. LLOYD 5- HEPPNER. WALTER A XOIVMAN. K-^RL T ILUNGUORTH. STANLEY f INMAN. F.t.HERT B ]AMt>, UiLLIAM A. JEWETT. MARIU6 R WFl s F%. IJJI KJfin L KIEFLR. MAR(XJ> J KNOLL. ttUJ-IAM UWOIF, EDW. Iv MARVIN. \ K, L MAKWI' K. DUDLEY A MOFFITT. J A-XW-RENCE MORRDN. M.\RTIN \l MOULrON. CARL f. NORTHUP. GEORGE A. PAGE. HARRY R, >o. lu. . l-ilB n.A^ PE.\RiiON, EDWARD N I'lnHL/XDO, DONALD C ROBERTS, ALBEKT W RtX^RS. IRWIN H ROOD. LESLIE H. ROSS. S WILLLXM SADlilt fRl DK W SPRAGL^ ALBERT U' SPRAGL^ R\^■MO^D .■■ SI ONE. J. H TAYLOR. G KELLOGC; WADDtXk, JOHN M «-Hrn»EY. E.ARL K «'1LUAMS. L NJ> EGGER.MAN, ALBTRT ENDER, ARTHUR ENi^lJ\NDHR IJJ'VS GALLAGHER. JA^tES P. c;-\LL\CHER. VINCENT L CIRARD. HAH\ EY i GIRARD. HUBERT GOMEHSAU- KOItfKI R GRIMES. C T HANIEY. JOHN HOLT ARTHUR E IVES. LOUIS k 1VE,\ RICHARD tC JESSEN. LOUIS A KbB. L A I UKY. HARRY B Mr CvVBE. GEORGE W ME^ ER. AUGLST O MEMJtS. JOSIJ'H I ME-I-ERS. OTTO MtXHEl. FJ>«' A OSCHATZ. FRED PIRKEY. LOUIS E- BAIT. GEORGE RUSCO. JOHN R"! AN. CXO K S10NER WALTER B, WADE. CHARLES B. VlOI». HERMAN ( pariAr %ranrli B.'JtR't . GEORGE C BREEOEN. JOHN P- ( *S51DY. J A- HEISSNER. GEO. H.. Jr HOkFJ*SU4lU\HfXJNAI I'ti Hi>SKbN. J EAR1.E JULIAN. EDWARD A MAUhllALl.. CLYDE MILLS. K F PORTER. JOHN T HANKIN. MARSIIALL ROSS, CHARLE5 E WENDLAND. GROVER A MUllAIX. *ALrej< H UILSON. VltLLWM WRIGHI". FRANK \' BROWN. HARR'^ W ^ HONOR ROLL DURING THE GREAT WAR was common in all business institutions, the vacant places were filled by girls. When the armistice treaty was signed the Directors adopted this resolution: Voted: That on this day, made memorable by the signing of the Armistice Terms by Germany, thus preparing the way for world-wide peace and Democracy, we, the President and Directors of the ^^tna Insurance Company, in gratitude to those men who have left the employ of this Company to join the Colors and to heroically do their part to serve our Country, spread upon the records the following names, to perpetuate the honor and esteem in which we hold them as true Americans. Then follows the list of names. A handsomely engraved copy of this resolution, containing the names of all on the Honor Roll, has been presented to each member and is reproduced herewith. In all the calls for contributions to Red Cross work and to other war needs the Company responded loyally and subscribed several million dollars for the Liberty Loan Bonds of our Government and for the Victory Loan Bonds of Canada. A significant aftermath of the great upheaval caused by the war may be found in the announcement by the ^Etna, in January, 1919, that the Company was prepared to accept risks against the hazards of riot and civil commotion. This decision was the reflection of a feeling existing in many quarters that the world-wide anarchistic propaganda launched by the Bolsheviki leaders in Russia might lead to the destruction of property in America. When the ^tna began its first century America was slowly recuperating from a great war; as it began its second century the world was emerging from the grim shadow of the greatest war in history. [223] Chapter XVII THE PAST AND THE PRESENT GREATER than the success of any individual are the mental and moral qualities behind that success. True greatness is never an accident; it is but the final flowering of characteristics working through the years toward that greatness and making it inevitable. What is true of an individual is equally true of a corporation. In looking back over the hundred years of the iEtna, we find, breathing through its manifold acts and activities, the same clearly defined principles and policies. These are insistent, constant and dominating. They have inspired and guided the Company alike in its dark hours of struggle and crisis and in the sunht days of prosperity. Presidents, vice-presidents, secretaries and directors changed with the years, the old dropped out and the new came in, and the ranks closed up into what seemed the same advancing body, inspired by the same traditions, the same ideals, the same purpose, and the same unswerv- ing loyalty and devotion. When President Brace made his brief address to the stockholders gathered together in that first meeting at Morgan's Exchange Coffee House on June 15, 18 19, [224] THE PAST AND THE PRESENT his clear, forceful words could not have been wiser had he the prophetic vision to see through the long years of the century. He spoke with fervor of the supreme importance of the character of its officers. He realized that no company could rise higher than the men that made it; and he urged, in the selection of the Board of Directors, the necessity of "character, energy, enterprise and tireless devotion." The men constituting that first Board were men measuring up to that high standard, and the same standard has been maintained in every year of the Company's history. The story of the Company's Presidents, Secretaries and other officers has already been told in these pages; but of the men who have sat around the Directors' table and determined what the ^tna should be and what it should do, there has been no space to give details except with a special few who were somehow thrown into unusual prominence. How loyal the service of all, and how safe and sound their decisions, needs no proof other than that evident in the splendid achievements and prestige of the Company, whose fire business now covers an entire continent and its marine underwriting the whole world. It is only occasionally, in facing some real crisis, like the fire at Mobile or at New York, that the curtain is drawn aside for a moment and we see the united spirit of devotion that inspired them at all times. The Company has been remarkable in the length of service of its Directors; and this may explain, to a degree, the continuity of loyalty to the /Etnas IS [225] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE early ideals and traditions. The period of service of some of these Directors is worthy of special mention. Drayton Hillyer served for fifty-five years, Roland Mather fifty, Walter Keney forty-five, Gustavus F. Davis forty-four, Samuel Tudor, Jr., and Joseph Church forty-three, Thomas K. Brace and Robert Buell forty-two, A. C. Dunham forty, Francis B. Cooley thirty-eight, William F. Tuttle thirty-seven, Samuel S. Ward thirty-three, Charles H. Brainard thirty-two, J. Pierpont Morgan, Nathaniel Shipman and Joseph L. Pratt thirty-one, Joseph Morgan and Griffin Stedman twenty-eight, Austin Dunham twenty-seven, and Eliphalet A. Bulkeley twenty-six. Of the Board serving in 1919, the One Hundredth Anniversary year of the Company, the terms of five had exceeded the quarter-century mark — Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley thirty-nine years, Atwood Collins thirty-five, William B. Clark thirty. Rev. Dr. Francis Goodwin twenty- nine, and Charles E. Gross twenty-six years. The personnel of the first Board of Directors as elected at Morgan's Coffee House was noted as a detail of that meeting, and those serving the Company in the same capacity one hundred years later are seen to be men of similar character, men of prominence and leaders in their community. They are: William B. Clark, President of the i^tna Insurance Company. Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley, President of the ^Etna Life Insurance Company. Atwood Collins, President of the Security Trust Company of Hartford. [226] THE PAST AND THE PRESENT Rev. Dr. Francis Goodwin, grandson of Joseph Morgan. Charles E. Gross, General Counsel of the ^tna since 1891, and senior member of the law firm of Gross, Hyde and Shipman of Hartford, which has acted as counsel for the i!^tna for nearly half a century. James H. Knight, President of the First National Bank of Hartford. Charles P. Cooley, Vice-President of the Fidelity Trust Company of Hartford. Arthur L. Shipman, member of the law firm of Gross, Hyde and Shipman. Charles L. Spencer, President of the Connecticut River Banking Company of Hartford. Charles A. Goodwin, lawyer, and great-grandson of Joseph Morgan. Henry E. Rees, Vice-President of the yEtna. Almeron N. Williams, Vice-President of the ^tna. J. P. Morgan, of New York City, financier, great- grandson of Joseph Morgan. H. B. Cheney, of the firm of Cheney Bros., silk manufacturers at South Manchester, Connecticut. John L. Way, Vice-President of the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford. In analyzing the elements contributing to the growth and greatness of the iEtna, emphasis has been placed on the high character of the Officers and Directors who have managed its afi^airs during the first century of its existence, and to the loyalty and devotion of its agents. To the latter the Company owes a large measure of its success. As we have noted, the iEtna did not invent [227] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE the agent, but it did transform him by raising his work to the dignity of a profession. The JEtna. agent has been made to feel that he is not a mere cog in a machine, but a real member of a great family, con- tributing his share to the welfare and prosperity of all. The same spirit of fairness, consideration and liberality that has characterized the relations between the Company and its agents has also featured the Etna's relations with the insuring public. From the very beginning losses were paid fully and promptly. The Company faced many severe fires, and while it was sometimes difficult to provide the great sums needed to pay the claims, they were always met without delay. The perfect faith and certainty that the Company would always ''make good" was not based on a study of the latest JEtna balance-sheet, but on the character of the men behind it. President Brace's words, written in 1822, that "he would never consent that any honest insurer in the ^tna should be choused out of a just claim by a mere subterfuge or mere legal lack," could have been written by every other President of the Company with equal force and truth. The avoidance of litigation and technical quibbling has ever been a dominating policy of the Company. The business of fire insurance is really two-fold, as its sources of profit are two. Its profits come from the excess of premiums over losses and expenses, and from the interest on invested funds. It thus becomes dual in its nature — underwriting and invest- ment banking. It is a question whether the business [228] THE PAST AND THE PRESENT of fire underwriting as a whole in America during the last century can be termed profitable. In this connec- tion there is peculiar significance in the statement made by the National Board of Fire Underwriters following the San Francisco fire, that in that disaster the American fire underwriting profits of more than forty years had been wiped out in a few hours. The same note was sounded a few years ago by Henry H. Hall, in "One Hundred Years of American Commerce," in which he stated: "The business of fire underwriting in the United States for the past century has been done at a loss; and the most successful companies, as a whole, have not retained more than simple interest upon their capital and invested funds." In the presence of such statements one may faintly realize how rare was the underwriting ability, and how wise and far-seeing the banking and investing management, that transformed the ^Etna infant of 1819, with its paid-in capital of $15,000, into the ^tna giant of 1 91 9, with assets well over $30,000,000, and the payment of over $178,000,000 for losses during the last hundred years. It is a record of which all its officers, from the days of 18 19, with President Brace and his directors, to the days of 1919, with President Clark and his official staff, may well be proud. As the biography of a great statesman must naturally overflow into larger relations of which it forms an inseparable part, and becomes, to a degree, a history of his country, so the story of the origin, life and progress of the i^tna must carry with it concurrently the history of fire insurance in America for the same period. [229] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE When the ^tna was organized in 1 8 19, fire insurance as a real business was still in its infancy. It was then little more than prudence and shrewd guessing; there were few statistics of value, and little in the way of classified experience. It was somewhat like venturing into a new country, but slightly explored and sparsely settled. There was pioneer work to be done, and this pioneering and the progress that came from it made history. Much of this history the yEtna made; of all of it the JEtna. was a part. The real, vital history of fire insurance in America is contemporaneous with the hfe of the iEtna. The great development came from ideas, suggestions, innovations and experience that gave fire insurance new impetus, and progressively raised it to higher planes of safety, surety and scientific underwriting: many of these the iEtna originated; in many others it co-operated; in none was it a factor without influence. It is in this spirit of recognition of its splendid record as an individual institution, and of the vital part it has played in the evolution of fire insurance as a busi- ness, that this story of "The Leading Fire Insurance Company of America" — to quote President Clark's slogan — has been written. [230] APPENDIX I ORIGINAL CHARTER OF THE ^TNA INSURANCE COMPANY WITH AMENDMENTS The Charter of the ^tna Insurance Company was granted at the May Session of the Legislature of the State of Connecticut, 1819, and the Governor's signature of approval was attached June 5, 18 19. During the one hundred years from 1819 to 191 9 there were thirteen amend- ments made to the original charter and two general laws which have the effect of amendments. The original charter and amendments are here given: Original Charter Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Assembly convened. That the subscribers to the petition praying for an act of incorporation, with powers and privileges necessary and convenient to the business of insurance against losses by fire, &c., be and they hereby are incorporated, and made a body politic, by the name, style and title of the Mtna Insurance Company, and by that name, style and title, shall be, and hereby are empowered to purchase, receive, have, hold, possess and enjoy to themselves, and their successors, lands, tenements, rents, hereditaments, goods, chattels, and effects of every kind and nature; as also United States stocks, and bank stock of the United States Bank, or any Bank in the United States, and the estate and stocks aforesaid to alien, grant, sell and dispose of; to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in all courts of justice; also, to have and use a common seal, and the same to change at pleasure; also to ordain and execute all by-laws, and regulations, by them deemed necessary, for the well-ordering and governing said corporation; provided said by-laws and regulations are not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this state, and of the constitution and laws of the United States. Sec. 2. The capital stock of said corporation shall not be less than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and may, at the pleasure ofsaid corporation, be increased to any further sum, not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, and shall be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, and on the said capital stock of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in part ofsaid stock, shall be paid into the treasury of said corporation, for the use of said corporation, within thirty days after the first meeting ofsaid corporation, five per centum; and within sixty days next after said first meeting ofsaid corporation, the further sum of five per centum on said stock, shall, in like manner, for like purposes, be paid into said treasury; and the remainder of said stock shall be secured to be paid by mortgage on real estate, or endorsed promissory notes, approved by the president and directors of said corporation, and shall be payable in thirty days after demand; and such endorsers shall have a lien on the stock for which such note or notes are given. Sec. 3. There shall be seventeen directors for the well-ordering the affairs of said corporation, chosen by one or more ballots from among and by the stock- [231] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE holders of said corporation, which said directors shall hold their office at pleasure for one year, and until others are chosen in their room; and the annual meeting for the choice of said directors, shall, after the first election, be holden in the city of Hartford, on the first Thursday of June, or on such day in the month of June as shall be appointed by said board of directors. Sec. 4. The said directors shall choose one of their number to be president of said corporation, and in case of his absence from business, may, so often as necessity shall require, elect from among themselves a president for the time being; and in case any vacancy shall occur in said direction, said directors may elect a director or directors, from among the stockholders, to fill such vacancy, who shall hold their office at pleasure, until others are chosen in their room; and said directors shall have power to appoint for the time being, such officers, secretaries, agents and servants as they shall judge necessary, and shall be capable of perform- ing such other acts, and exercising such other powers, as shall be by them deemed for the best interest of the company. And no director shall be entitled to any emolument unless by vote of the stockholders in general meeting. Sec. 5. The directors shall determine what number of their own body shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and when such quorum is formed, if the president is not present, the electors present shall appoint a president pro tempore. • t i_ • Sec. 6. The number of votes each stockholder shall be entitled to m the choice of directors, or any other concern or business of the company, shall be equal to the number of shares he shall be the owner of; provided, no stockholder shall, by virtue of the number of shares he may be the owner of, in any case, be entitled to more than fifty votes. Sec. 7. The stockholders shall be entitled to vote in person, or by proxy duly appointed; and none but stockholders shall be eligible as directors. Sec. 8. Public notice shall be given, by order of the directors, at least ten days previous to any meeting of the stockholders, in a newspaper printed in the city of Hartford, and in such other manner as they may judge expedient. Sec. 9. Said corporation may ensure on dwelling houses, and all other buildings, on ships and vessels of every description, while in port or on the stocks, on goods, chattels, wares, merchandise, and on all kinds of mixed and personal estate of every description, and shall be liable to make good and pay to the several persons who shall be assured by the said corporation, for all losses they may sustain bv fire in the subject matter insured agreeable to the contract of assurance, and of their policy, effected with said corporation. Provided always, that no stockholder shall be liable to said corporation, for any amount beyond the amount of stock by him holden, and unpaid to said corporation, and neither the members of nor said corporation shall, in any event, be liable beyond the amount of their said capital, for any loss, or losses, whatever; but for misconduct or fraud, the person guilty thereof, shall be personally liable to said corporation, or to the insured, as the case may be. Sec. id. The capital stock of said corporation shall be transferable according to the rules and regulations prescribed by the directors; and every subscriber of any share, or shares in said stock, who shall neglect to pay the installments aforesaid, or to secure the residue of the said share or shares as aforesaid, shall forfeit to the said corporation, such share or shares, and all payments made thereon, and all profits which may have arisen thereon. Sec. II. All notes or policies of insurance, signed by the president, and countersigned by the secretary, shall bind and oblige said corporation according to the terms and tenor thereof. Sec. 12. In case any insured, named in any policy or contract of insurance, made by the said corporation, shall sell and convey, or assign the subject matter [232] APPENDIX I insured, during the period of time for which it is insured, it shall be hiwful for such insured, to assign and deliver to the purchaser such policy, or contract of insurance, and the same shall enure to his benefit, and in every respect as effectual as though the same had been delivered by said corporation to said assignee. Provided always, that before any loss happens, such assignee shall obtain the consent of the assignor to such assignment, and shall obtain said assent to be endorsed on or annexed to the said policy or contract of assurance, executed and signed as a new policy or contract ought to be according to such rules as shall be prescribed by the directors, and not otherwise. Sec. 13. Thomas K. Brace is authorized to call a meeting of the subscribers to said petition, to be holden in the city of Hartford, in the month of June, 1819, which meeting may be organized, by a moderator and such committees as shall be deemed proper, and said meeting may be adjourned from time to time, until said corporation shall be organized agreeable to the charter; and the stock shall be taken up to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, before said directors shall be chosen, and before said corporation make any assurance. Sec. 1 4. As soon as the installments aforesaid shall have been paid or secured by endorsed notes, and the remainder of the stock secured agreeable to the provi- sions aforesaid, and the whole to be done to the satisfaction of said directors ;— and no part of said stock shall be assignable, or transferable until both of said installments shall have been paid, anything in this act to the contrary notwith- standing. Provided, this act may at any time be altered, amended, or revoked by the General Assembly. General Assembly, May Session, 1819. DAVID PLANT, Speaker oj the House of Representatives. JONATHAN INGERSOLL, President of the Senate. Approved June 5, 18 19. OLIVER WOLCOTT. AMENDMENT NO. 1 Life Insurance Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Assembly convened. That it shall and may be lawful to and for the said corporation to add to their present actual capital the sum of fifty thousand dollars, and at the pleasure of the company, may increase said addition to any sum not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and the whole of said capital stock, created by, and raised under this act, shall be denominated the annuity fund, and shall be secured and paid into the treasury of said corporation, and vested in the same proportion and manner as is authorized and required by the act to which this is an addition, in relation to the fire insurance stock thereby created. And the stock created by this act shall be exclusively held and pledged as a fund for the payment of annuities which shall be granted by said company, and of losses upon insurance for a life or lives, or in any way dependent upon life or lives, and shall in no case be liable for the other debts, contracts, liabilities or engagements of the said company. And said annuity fund shall alone be liable to pay, bear and satisfy all losses, expenses; payments and charges in respect to insurance on life or lives, or in any manner dependent on life or lives, and annuities which may be granted by said company; and said /Etna Insurance Company are authorized and empowered to grant annuities, and make insurance dependent on life or lives; to establish a form oi policy, create officers for the corporation, prescribe the mode of authentication of policies, and all other instruments lawful for said company to execute, by seal ['2-33\ ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE or the signature of officers, or an officer, appointed by the corporation for such purpose. Provided always, that this act may be repealed, altered, or amended by the Legislature. General Assembly, May Session, 1820. DAVID Vl^h^T, Speaker of the House oj Representatives. JONATHAN INGERSOLL, President of the Senate. Approved May 26, 1820. OLIVER WOLCOTT. AMENDMENT NO. 2 Inland Marine and Transportation Upon the petition of the ^tna Insurance Company, shewing to this Assembly, that in the year 1819 they were incorporated by the Legislature of this State, for the purpose of insuring against loss or damage by fire, which business they have ever since conducted; that their capital is ample and abundantly secured; that the business of inland navigation, and of insurance against the hazards incident thereto, have of late years greatly increased, while the number of offices empowered to issue such policies is limited; that the petitioners have frequent applications from their present customers and others, to take this description of risks, which, under their present charter, they are obliged to decline; that it would be for the mutual advantage of themselves and the public, to extend their powers to this department of insurance; and praying the Legislature to make the necessary amendment to their charter, as by petition on file dated the nth day of April, 1839, may more fully appear. And now this Assembly, having inquired into the allegations of said petition, do find the same to be true; therefore. Resolved by this Assembly, That the ^tna Insurance Company be, and they are hereby fully authorized and empowered to issue policies against the hazards of inland navigation and transportation; and said policies, when duly executed by the proper officers of said company, shall be to all intents and purposes, binding upon said company, in the same manner as though the power to issue the same, had been granted by their original charter. Approved May 8, 1839. WILLIAM W. ELLSWORTH. AMENDMENT NO. 3 Life Insurance Upon the petition of the ^tna Insurance Company, praying for an amendment of that portion of their charter authorizing insurances upon life. Resolved by this Assembly, That policies of Insurance issued by said company on the life of any person, expressed to be for the benefit of a married woman, whether the same be effected by herself or her husband, or by any other person on other persons effecting the same in her behalf, his creditors and representatives; always provided that this section shall not apply to insurances where the annual premium on the policy shall exceed the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, unless paid from the private property of the wife. Approved June 6, 1850. THOMAS H. SEYMOUR. [ 234 ] APPENDIX I AMENDMENT NO. 4 Incorporating the Shareholders of the Annuity Fund of the /Etna Insurance Company as a Life Insurance Company Upon the petition of the /Etna Insurance Company, praying for such an alteration of its charter as will constitute the shareholders of the annuity fund of said company, their successors and assigns, a distinct corporation for the purpose of life insurance, and the assumption of life risks, as per memorial on file, dated May 9, A. D. 1853, will more fully appear. Resolved by this Assembly, That the shareholders of the "Annuity Fund" of the said "^tna Insurance Company," their successors and assigns, forever, be and they are hereby made and constituted a body corporate and politic for the purpose of life insurance, and for the assumption of all or any hazards connected with life risks, by the name of the "/Etna Life Insurance Company" and with and by that name shall have and possess all the powers and privileges and be subject to all the duties imposed upon the shareholders of said "Annuity Fund" under their present charter and the amendments thereof, and shall also have all the powers and privileges incident to a distinct corporation; provided, that all the liabilities and obligations of said ^tna Insurance Company for and on account of its "Annuity Fund" shall continue and exist against said company hereby incorporated, under the said name of the ^tna Life Insurance Company, and that all debts, liabilities or obligations due to said ^tna Insurance Company for and on account of its "Annuity Fund," may be collected and enforced by said com- pany in the name of the ^tna Life Insurance Company, and that all suits in favor of or against said ^tna Insurance Company, for and on account of its "Annuity Fund," may be continued in force and prosecuted to final judgment by or against said company, in the same manner as if this resolution had not been passed. Sec. 2. That the stock, property, affairs and business of said corporation shall be managed and conducted by not less than seven nor more than ten directors, a majority of whom shall reside in this state, who shall be chosen by ballot from and by the stockholders of said company, and the present managing directors and officers of said company shall be the officers of said corporation until the first Monday of July next, when and in each successive year thereafter, on the day aforesaid, an election shall be held for the choice of directors of said company, ten days previous notice thereof, having been given in some newspaper printed in said Hartford; each stockholder shall be allowed one vote for each and every share of stock held by him, and the directors of said company shall choose a president and secretary of the said corporation, who shall hold their offices for one year, and may appoint such other officers and agents as shall by them be deemed expedient for conducting the business of the company. Approved May 28, 1853. THOMAS H. SEYMOUR. AMENDMENT NO. 5 Authorizing Increase of Capital Upon the petition of the ^tna Insurance Company, praying for an increase of capital. Resolved by this Assembly, That the /Etna Insurance Company be, and they are hereby authorized and empowered to add to the capital stock of said company, from time to time, any number of shares, not exceeding in the aggregate, ten thousand shares, of the par value of one hundred dollars each at such time or times, as the directors of said company may deem proper, which said additions to said capital shall be made from the surplus earnings of said company and shall be divided pro rata, among the persons who may be stockholders at the time or times when such additions shall be made. Approved May 16, 1857. ALEXANDER H. HOLLEY. [235] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE AMENDMENT NO. 6 Authorizing Increase of Capital Resohed by this Assembly, That the /Etna Insurance Company be and they are hereby authorized and empowered to add to the capital stock of said company, from time to time, any number of shares, not exceeding in the aggregate, fifteen thousand shares, of the par value of one hundred dollars each, at such time or times, as the directors of said company may deem proper, which said additions to said capital shall be made from the surplus earnings of said company and shall be divided pro rata, among the persons who may be stockholders at the time or times when such additions shall be made. Approved January 15, 1864. WILLIAM A. BUCKINGHAM. AMENDMENT NO. 7 Authorizing Increase of Capital Resolved by this Assembly, — Section i. That the ^tna Insurance Company be and they are hereby authorized and empowered to add to the present capital stock of said company, any number of shares not exceeding in the aggregate twenty thousand shares, of the par value of one hundred dollars each, at such time or times and upon such terms and conditions as the directors of said company may deem proper, which said additions to said capital shall be divided pro rata among the persons who may be stockholders at the time or times when such additions shall be made. Sec. 2. That so much of Sec. 6 of the original charter of the ^tna Insurance Company, approved June 5, 18 19, as provides that no stockholder shall by virtue of the number of shares he may be the owner of, in any case be entitled to more than fifty votes, be and the same is hereby repealed. Approved February 14, 1877. RICHARD D. HUBBARD. AMENDMENT NO. 8 Hazards of Lightning and Other Elements. Resolved by this Assembly, That the ^tna Insurance Company may insure against any loss or damage to all kinds of property by the elements including damage by lightning. Approved March i, 1881. HOBART B. BIGELOW. AMENDMENT NO. 9 Changing Date of Annual Meeting Resolved by this Assembly, — Section 1. That the annual meeting of the ^tna Insurance Company for the choice of directors of said company, and for the transaction of other proper business, shall, after the year 1886, be holden on the third Thursday of January in each year, or on such other day in the month of January in each year as shall be appoint«d by the board of directors of said com- pany. Sec. 2. The directors of said company who may be chosen at the annual meeting to be held in June, 1886, shall hold their office until the next annual meet- ing and until others are chosen in their room. Sec. 3. So much of the charter of said company as is inconsistent herewith is hereby repealed. Approved February 24, 1886. HENRY B. HARRISON. [236] APPENDIX I AMENDMENT NO. 10 Number of Directors Resolved by this Assembly,— Section i. That the stockholders of the /Etna Insurance Company may hereafter at the annual meetings of said company choose by ballot from among their number a board consisting of not less than nine nor more than seventeen directors, who shall respectively hold their offices until the succeeding annual meeting and until others are chosen in their places. Sec. 2. So much of the charter of said company as is inconsistent herewith is hereby repealed. Approved March i, 1897. LORRIN A. COOKE. AMENDMENT NO. 11 Ocean Marine Insurance Resolved by this Assembly, That the ^tna Insurance Company may issue policies of insurance against marine disasters upon all kinds of vessels and personal property of every description. Approved March 26, 1907. ROLLIN S. WOODRUFF. AMENDMENT NO. 12 Automobile Insurance Resolved by this Assembly, That the ^Etna Insurance Company may issue policies of insurance against damage to automobiles resulting from fire, from the hazards of transportation and marine navigation, from theft of any of their parts or equipment, and from collision with a stationary or moving object. Approved March 30, 1909. FRANK B. WEEKS, Lieutenant Governor And Acting Governor. AMENDMENT NO. 13 Authorizing Increase of Capital Amending the Charter of the ^tna Insurance Company Resolved by this Assembly, — Section i. That the ^tna Insurance Company is hereby authorized to increase its capital stock, from time to time, from the present amount of five million dollars to any amount or amounts not exceeding, in the aggregate, the sum of ten million dollars. Sec. 2. The shares of each increase of said capital stock as hereby authorized shall be of the par value of one hundred dollars each, and may be issued to the stockholders of the company upon such terms and conditions as the directors, at the time of the respective increases, may deem proper; provided, however, that no such shares shall be issued at less than par. Approved March 21, 1911. SIMEON E. BALDWIN. GENERAL LAWS In addition to the foregoing charter rights of the ^tna Insurance Company, the following authorizations have been assumed by the company, under the laws of the State of Connecticut, namely: Insurance Against Wind Storms, Hail, Lightning, Tornadoes, Leakage of Sprinklers and Explosions CHAPTER 53, SECTION 3510 (LAWS OF 1909) An Act Amending an Act Relating to Insurance Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly con- vened: Section i. Section 3510 of the General Statutes as amended by Chapter 23 of the Public Acts of 1903 is hereby amended by adding after the words "wind [237] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE storms" in the fourth line thereof, the word "hail," so that said section as amended shall read as follows: Insurance companies organized under the laws of this state having power to insure against loss by fire, may make insurance against loss by wind storms, hail, lightning, tornadoes, cyclones, leakage of sprinklers and sprinkler systems installed or maintained for the purpose of protecting against fire, and by explosions whether fire ensues or not; provided the same shall be clearly ex- pressed in the policy, but nothing herein shall be construed to empower such companies to insure against loss or damage to person or property resulting from explosions of steam boilers. Sec. 2. This act shall take effect from its passage. Approved May 13, 1909. FRANK B. WEEKS, Lieutenant Governor And Acting Governor. CHAPTER 13 (LAWS OF 1915) An Act Concerning Marine Insurance Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly con- vened: Section i. Any corporation authorized by law in this state to issue any contracts relating to inland marine and transportation insurance or relating to ocean marine insurance may, as a part of such contracts, make insurance upon vessels, freights, goods, wares, merchandise, specie, bullion, jewelry, profits, commissions, bank notes, bills of exchange, and other evidences of debt, bottomry and respondentia interests, and every insurance pertaining to marine risks of transportation and navigation. Sec. 2. This act shall take eflfect from its passage. Approved March 10, 191 5. MARCUS H. HOLCOMB, Governor. I 238] 1^ APPENDIX II CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE ^TNA INSURANCE COMPANY 1819 April 19. Petition filed with General Assembly of Connecticut for Company's charter. June 5. Charter of Company granted by Legislature and approved by Governor Oliver VVolcott. June 15. First meeting of stockholders at Morgan's Exchange Coffee House, Hartford, and election of directors. First meeting of Directors and election of Thomas K. Brace, President, and Isaac Perkins, Secretary. Offices of Company opened in law office of Isaac Perkins in Morgan's Exchange Coffee House. June 25. Rules and by-laws adopted. July 15. First investment of Company — twenty shares of stock of the United States Bank. First installment of five per cent, cash paid on Company stock. August 14. Theodore Pease, Director, died. August 15. Second installment of five per cent, in cash paid on stock. August 17. First fire insurance policy written by the ^tna — for ^6,000 for Joseph Morgan, a Director, on his Exchange Coffee House, the premium being I45. August 19. Date which the Company had advertised that it would be ready to do business. September 2. Adopted "Book of Instructions" for agents. September 27. Thomas K. Brace resigned as President. Henry L. Ellsworth elected President. October 12. Re-insured risks of Middletown Insurance Company (First known case of re-insurance). December 15. Voted first dividend — six per cent, on ? 15,000 of capital paid in. 1820 February 16. Voted to limit single risks to $10,000 except by unanimous vote of the Directors. May 26. Charter amended to permit Company to write life insurance. 1821 March 6. Henry L. Ellsworth resigned as President. Thomas K. Brace, first President, again elected. May 29. First individual risk over iio,ooo ($17,000) accepted by Company and written by Stephen Tillinghast, agent at Providence, Rhode Island. [239] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE Tune 28. First fire loss of Company, amounting to ^4,000 on building of Shepherd & Co., at Northampton, Massachusetts. December 22. Established first agency in Canada by appointing Abijah Bigelow agent at Montreal. The ^Etna was the first American fire insurance company to do business in Canada, and was preceded only by one English company and one Canadian company. 1822 March 11. First trip of Company official to adjust losses, when Secretary Perkins visited Norfolk, Virginia, to adjust losses on woolen factory there. June 10. First trip of Company official to appoint agents, when Secretary Perkins made tour of New England states. December 16. Increased capital of Company from ^150,000 to $200,000. 1823 First contested claim for insurance. Company won verdict on ground of fraud. 1825 January 10. Agents of Company in New York state petitioned Legislature to repeal or modify law taxing foreign companies ten per cent, on their business in the state. October 27. William L. Perkins, local agent at Ashford, Connecticut, was ap- pointed first Special Agent of Company and was employed to travel through the southern and central states and establish agencies. December 8. Adopted new rules and schedules of rates prepared by Secretary Perkins. 1826 February 23. Voted to ask Legislature for amendment to charter to permit writing of Inland Marine Insurance. 1827 January 22. Joseph Morgan appointed as Special Agent to investigate business of Company in Canada and settle losses at Quebec. November 19. Appointed committee to devise ways and means to meet losses from big fire at Mobile, Alabama, amounting to over $50,000. November 26. Appointed committee to confer with officials of two other Hartford companies with reference to combating legislation in various states excluding foreign insurance companies and also on the subject of rates. December 13. Adopted new schedule of premium rates. 1828 January 2. Established first General Agency by appointing Jeremiah Van Rensselaer of Canandaigua, New York, as General Agent for Western country and Western New York. June 9. James M. Goodwin elected Secretary to succeed Isaac Perkins. 1829 Elected William W. Ellsworth, later Governor of Connecticut, as first General Counsel for the Company. 1830 Adopted new schedule of premium rates. 1835 April 15. Authorized purchase of lot and buildings west of Treat's (formerly Morgan's) Exchange Coffee House, for new offices for the Company. August 3. Subscribed for three hundred shares of stock in proposed Hartford & New Haven Railroad. [240] APPENDIX II December i6. Great fire in New York City, y^tna's loss only ?io,ooo. Company moved from its offices in Coffee House to new offices at No. 53 State Street. 1836 April 25, Voted to purchase Exchange Coffee House property. 1837 January 30. Voted ^50,000 to settle losses at St. John, New Brunswick. April 24. James M. Goodwin resigned as Secretary. June 8. Simeon L. Loomis elected Secretary. November 6. Director Joseph Morgan authorized to visit St. John, New Bruns- wick, and adjust losses. 1838 June 7. President Brace authorized to make inspection tour of agencies in New York, New England and Canada. April 8. Voted to ask Legislature for amendment to charter to permit writing of inland marine and transportation insurance. May 8. Charter of Company amended as above requested. December 23. Voted to join with other Hartford companies in agreeing upon new schedule of regulations and rates. Principal fire losses of Company during this year were the following: Rich- mond, Virginia, ? 15,000; Stonington, Connecticut, ^24,000; St. John, New Brunswick, $33,500; New York City (Oct.), $45,000, (Dec), ?i 2,000. 1840 Director Joseph Morgan made several trips for the Company as Special Agent. Principal fire losses of company during the year were as follows: Wilmington, N. C., $28,000; New York City, $12,000; Ithaca, N. Y., $11,000; Paterson, N. J., $13,000. 1 841 July 20. Voted to refuse risks on distilleries and theaters. November 12. Subscribed to one hundred shares of stock in contemplated rail- road between Hartford and New Haven. 1842 April 19. Director Joseph Morgan authorized to make extensive trip through south and west and appoint agents. Gurdon S. Hubbard appointed as first agent at Chicago. . .^843 September 5. Voted to begin writing of inland marine and transportation insurance. June 21. Director Joseph Morgan authorized to make tour of inspection of Western country and Canada, and appoint agents. April 16. Subscribed to $2,000 of stock in contemplated railroad between North- ampton and Springfield, Massachusetts. .1S45 July 19. Big New York City fire which threatened life of the Company. Etna's loss $120,000. Thomas A. Alexander, later President of the ^tna, appointed New York City agent to succeed A. G. Hazard. 16 [241] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE December 30. Voted to increase capital stock of Company from ?2oo,ooo to ^250,000. 1846 February 25. Voted to reinsure risks of Memphis Insurance Company of Memphis, Tennessee. Fire at St. Johns, Newfoundland. Etna's loss, 177,000. . 1S47 July 23. Joseph Morgan, Director since 1819, died. 1849 June 7. Voted to increase capital stock of Company from ^250,000 to $300,000. St. Louis fire in this year cost ^Etna ^125,000. 1850 June 6. Legislature granted new amendment to charter to permit Company to engage in the business of life insurance. June 25. New life insurance department organized, although no policies were written until the following year. 1851 Company began writing life insurance. June 5. Eliphalet A. Bulkeley elected Vice-President, and also chairman of Managing Directors of Life Annuity Fund. September 10. A. F. Willmarth elected first Assistant Secretary of the ^tna. He later became Vice-President of the Home Insurance Company. He retired as Assistant Secretary on June 13, 1853. 1852 June 3. Junius Spencer Morgan, son of Joseph Morgan, elected Director of the iEtna. He later went to England and became a partner in the great London banking firm of George S. Peabody & Company, which afterwards was changed to J. S. Morgan & Company. Fire at Montreal, Canada. ^Etna loss ^105,000. Fire at Chillicothe, Ohio, ^tna loss ?i 14,000. 1853 May 28. Company's charter amended separating the Life and Fire Departments of the ^tna and incorporating the life department as a separate corporation under the name of The ^tna Life Insurance Company, with Eliphalet A. Bulkeley as President. June 13. E. A. Bulkeley retired as Vice-President. Edwin G. Ripley was elected Secretary to succeed Simeon L. Loomis. A. F. Wilim.arth retired as Assistant Secretary. September 2. Joseph B. Bennett appointed General Agent of the ^Etna and head of new Western Branch of the Company with headquarters at Cincinnati, Ohio. 1854 June 8. Edwin G. Ripley promoted from Secretary to Vice-President. Thomas A. Alexander, New York City agent, elected Secretary. December i. Voted to increase capital stock from $300,000 to $500,000. . 1857 May 16. Charter amended authorizing increase of capital from $500,000 to $1,500,000, to be paid for out of surplus of Company. [242] APPENDIX II June 23. Stock dividend of $500,000 declared, thus increasing capital from $500,000 to $1,000,000. August 4. Thomas K. Brace resigned as President. Edwin G. Ripley elected President. Thomas A. Alexander elected Vice-President. Thomas K. Brace, Jr., elected Secretary. 1858 Appointed Edward H. Parker of San Francisco as first ^tna agent on the Pacific Coast. December 17. Henry L. Ellsworth, former President of JEtna, died at Fair, haven, Connecticut. 1859 December 27. Voted stock dividend of $500,000, thus increasing capital from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. i860 June 14. Thomas K. Brace, former President of the ^tna, died. 1861 Closed agencies in the South on account of the Civil War. July 3. Thomas K. Brace, Jr., resigned as Secretary. Lucius J. Hendee elected Secretary. 1862 August 26. President Edwin G. Ripley died. Thomas A. Alexander elected President. Henry Z. Pratt elected Vice-President. 1863 August 31. Vice-President Henry Z. Pratt died. October 7. Jonathan Goodwin, Jr., elected Assistant Secretary. 1864 January 15. Charter of Company amended to permit increase of $500,000 in capital stock. February 9. Stockholders voted to increase stock from $1,500,000 to $2,250,000 to be paid for out of surplus and distributed as a stock dividend. 1865 Close of Civil War and re-opening of agencies in the South. October 12. President Thomas A. Alexander resigned on account of ill health, but no action was taken on his resignation. December 15. Jonathan Goodwin, Jr., resigned as Assistant Secretary and later became local agent of the Company at Chicago. 1866 February 4. Voted stock dividend of $750,000, thus increasing capital of Company from $2,250,000 to $3,000,000. March 29. President Thomas A. Alexander died. Lucius J. Hendee elected President. Jotham Goodnow of New Haven, elected Secretary. June 7. Voted to ask Legislature to amend charter to permit increase in capital stock from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 (no action taken by Legislature until 1877). August 15. E. J. Bassett, special agent of Company, visited San Francisco and established Pacific branch of the ^.tna. Fire at Portland, Maine, cost ^tna $170,000. [243] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE 1867 November 30. William B. Clark elected Assistant Secretary. In this year the ^tna moved from its old offices at S3 State Street to new office building on Main Street. Fire this year at Vicksburg, Mississippi, cost Jitna $110,000. 1871 October 8. Great Chicago fire. Etna's loss $3,782,000. November 9. To meet losses of Chicago fire the ALtna. reduced its capital stock to $1,500,000 and then sold $1,500,000 new stock. 1872 November. Great Boston fire. ^Etna's loss $1,604,000. December 30. To meet losses at Boston the Company again reduced its capita. this time to the extent of $1,000,000 and issued new stock to that amount, thus again restoring the capital to $3,000,000. Fire at Chicago, Illinois. Etna's loss $95,000. 1877 . ... February 14. Charter amended authorizing increase of capital from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 and repealing part of Section 6 of original charter limiting voting power of stockholders. 1878 Fire at St. John, New Brunswick. Etna's loss $262,000. 1881 March i. Charter amended authorizing Company to accept risks against loss or damage by fire caused by lightning and other elements of nature. June 2. Voted to increase capital from $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. . 1883 J. Pierpont Morgan, son of Junius Spencer Morgan and grandson of Joseph Morgan, elected Director. He continued to serve until his death in 1913. 1886 February 24. Amended charter to permit change in date of annual meeting from June to third Tuesday of January. 1888 _ September 4. President Lucius J. Hendee died. September 26. Jotham Goodnow elected President. William B. Clark elected Vice-President. Andrew C. Bayne elected Secretary. James F. Dudley and William H. King elected Assistant Secretaries. 1889 February 13. Rescinded resolution adopted in 1841 refusing risks on distilleries, theaters, etc. Voted financial relief for Johnstown flood sufferers. September 25. Voted to re-establish agencies in New Hampshire, from which state, the Company, with many others, had withdrawn four years before. 1890 Divided Western Branch of Company and opened Northwestern Branch with headquarters at Omaha, Nebraska. [244] APPENDIX II 1891 Closed Marine Branch at Buffalo and opened Marine Branch offices at Chicago and New York City. 1892 November 21. President Jotham Goodnow died. November 30. William B. Clark elected President. December 7. Andrew C. Bayne elected Vice-President. James F. Dudley elected Secretary. E. O. Weeks elected Assistant Secretary. Voted to participate in insurance exhibition at World's Fair, Chicago. 1893 June 7. Voted to confine fire business of Company to America and Canada and British-American provinces. September 6. Voted to enter into re-insurance treaty with Munich Re-insurance Company. October 14. Vice-President Andrew C. Bayne died. October 18. James F. Dudley elected Vice-President. William H. King elected Secretary. F. W. Jenness elected Assistant Secretary. 1896 February 19. Authorized purchase of Conklin property on Main Street to provide additional land for new office building. July I. Assistant Secretary F. W. Jenness resigned. March 19. Vice-President James F. Dudley died. E. O. Weeks elected Vice-President. April 7. Henry E. Rees and Alexander C. Adams elected Assistant Secretaries. 1898 April 25. Voted to guarantee salaries and positions of ^tna employees enlisting for service in the War with Spain. Ottawa, Canada, fire. Etna's loss ^198,000. 1 901 Fire at Jacksonville, Florida. Etna's loss 1 168,000. 1902 June 18. Voted to erect new office building. October 31. Vice-President E. O. Weeks died. November 5. Voted to sell /Etna building at 413 Vine Street, Cincinnati. December 3. Approved plans for new office building at Hartford. Dr. C. J. Irvin and Almeron N. Williams elected Assistant Secretaries. ^903 April 24. Rented offices in Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Building pending erection of new /Etna building. 1904 February 7. Great Baltimore fire. Etna's loss $727,000. Fire at Toronto, Canada. Etna's loss 3i 81,000. 1905 Moved into new office building on Main Street (still occupied). [245] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE 1906 April 18. San Francisco earthquake and fire. Etna's net loss $2,983,000. September 10. Board of Directors adopted resolution commending President Clark for wise handling of affairs in connection with San Francisco disaster. 1907 March 26. Charter amended authorizing Company to enter the business of ocean marine insurance. October 14. President Clark reported total losses of San Francisco fire and announced that all losses had been paid and all loans repaid. May 6. William H. King elected Vice-President. Henry E. Rees elected Secretary. Edgar J. Sloan, Guy E. Beardsley and E. S. Allen elected Assistant Secre- taries. 1908 April 12. Fire at Chelsea, Massachusetts. ^Etna loss 55165,640. ^909 January 13. William F. Whittelsey elected Marine Assistant Secretary. January I4. Voted to embark in business of ocean marine insurance. March 30. Charter amended to permit Company to write automobile insurance. November 22. Voted to increase capital from $4,000,000 to $5,000,000. 1911 March 11. Charter amended to permit increase in capital from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000. 1912 January 25. William F. Whittelsey elected Marine Secretary. February 16. Vice-President William H. King died. April 24. Henry E. Rees and Almeron N. Williams elected Vice-Presidents. Edgar J. Sloan elected Secretary. Ralph B. Ives elected Assistant Secretary. 1913 March 31. Death of J. Pierpont Morgan, Director, at Rome. '914 January 28. Election ot J. P. Morgan, Jr., as Director, he being the fourth genera- tion of Morgans to serve on the iEtna directorate. 1915 June 14. Rearranged treaty with Munich Reinsurance Company because of the Great War. 1916 January i. President Clark announced beginning of the ^tna Fire Under- writers' Agency. July 10. Voted to continue salaries and hold positions for ^Etna employees who enlisted (account of threatened war with Mexico). 1917 January 31. William F. Whittelsey elected Marine Vice-President. Raymond E. Stronach elected Marine Secretary. April 16. Voted authority to officers to issue policies against hazards of war, such as explosions, etc. June 20. Voted contribution to Red Cross. December i. Officers and Directors gave dinner in celebration of President Clark's fiftieth anniversary as an officer of the ^tna. I 246] APPENDIX II December lo. Adopted resolution notifying i'Ktna employees called to military or naval service of the United States that their salaries would be continued and places held for them. 1918 January 26. Voted to change Directors' meetings from Monday to Saturday on account of national "Goalless Mondays." May 2. Voted contribution to Red Cross. November 11. Voted contribution for United War Work campaign. Vote of gratitude to /Etna employees who served in the military or naval forces of the United States or Canada during the Great War. 1919 June 5. One Hundredth Anniversary of signing of the /i^tna Insurance Company's Charter. June 15. One Hundredth Anniversary of the organization of the /tltna Insurance Company. 247 APPENDIX III ORIGINAL STOCKHOLDERS OF THE .ETNA INSURANCE COMPANY, 1819 Name Number Shares Eliphalet Averill, 50 Chester and W. Andross, ... 8 Thomas K. Brace, .... 69 Judah Bliss, 50 Horace Barber, 20 Horace Belden, 10 Frederick Bange, 43 Olmsted Bulkley, 7 Charles Babcock, 12 Nathaniel Bunce, 12 Thomas Belden, 50 Elisha B. Cook, 5 Elisha Colt, 10 Merrit W. Chapin, 10 Jesse Charlton, 5 H. and S. Chaffee, 12 Elisha and William Dodd, ... 13 David Deming, 5 Henry L. Ellsworth, 40 Timothy Ellsworth, 12 Eli Ely, 12 Asa Farwell, 8 Edmund Fowler, 10 Edmund Freeman, 5 James M. Goodwin, 20 Alva Oilman, 12 Thomas D. Gordon, 12 Joseph B. Gilbert, 12 Daniel Gillett, Jr., 10 Erastus Graves, 30 Hall and Green, 30 Joel Holkins, 30 John Hall, 30 John Hcmpsted, 5 Joseph Harris, 5 Henry Kilbourn, 62 John Kelsey, 10 Sam and William Kellogg, ... 10 Gaius Lyman, 50 Name Number Shares Heman Laflin, 10 John Mather, 10 Return S. Mather, 10 Denison Morgan, 10 Joseph Morgan, 12 Nathan Morgan, 12 Dwell Morgan, 20 Ralph R. Phelps, 5 Caleb Pond, 56 Theodore Pease & Co., .... 10 Daniel Pitkin, 10 Joseph Pratt, 50 Isaac Perkins, 10 Wanton Ransom, 12 Riley and Brown, 50 Benjamin and M. Stebbins, ... 20 Jesse Savage, 20 Luther Savage, 12 Asahel Saunders, 12 Henry Seymour, 10 Spencer and Oilman, . . . . lo Levi Stewart, 8 Griffin Stedman, 19 Henry Shepard, 12 Israel Shepard, 12 Charles Sheldon, 10 Elisha Shepard, 12 Christopher Saunders & Co., . . 39 George Smith, 12 Normand Smith, 12 Samuel Tudor, Jr., 50 Deodat Woodbridge, 10 Lemuel White, 12 Thomas Williams, 10 Ward Woodbridge, 50 Elijah White, 20 Thomas S. Williams, 20 John Waburton, 6 Eunice White, Jr., 9 [248] APPENDIX IV DIRECTORS OF THE ^TNA INSURANCE COMPANY FROM 1819 TO 1919 It is a curious coincidence that the ^tna Insurance Company had had exactly one hundred Directors in the one hundred years of its life when it celebrated its Centennial Anniversary in June, 1919. Of these, twenty-five had served for twenty-five years or longer. The following list contains the names and terms of service of all Directors of the Company from 1819 to 1919. The dates opposite their names indicate the years in which they were first and last elected, except in the case of those now serving. Thomas K. Brace, 1 819-1 860 Thomas Belden, 1819-1841 Samuel Tudor, Jr., 1819-1861 Henry Kilbourne, 1819-184I Eliphalet Averill, 1819-1820 Henry Seymour, 1819-1821 Griffin Stedman, 1819-1846 Gaius Lyman, 1819-1821 Judah Bliss, 1819-1821 Caleb Pond 1 819-1820 Nathaniel Bunce, 1819-1820 Joseph Morgan, 1 819-1847 Jeremiah Brown, 1 819-1820 Elisha Dodd, 18 19-1840 Theodore Pease, 1819- Charles Babcock, 1819-1828 Henry L. Ellsworth, 1819-1836 James M. Goodwin, 1819-1836 Christopher Saunders, 1820-1829 Isaac Perkins, 1 820-1 827 Jesse Savage, 1821-1843 Joseph B. Gilbert, 1821,1827-1829 Joseph L. Pratt, 1821-1851 George Beach, 1821 -1837 Nathan Morgan, 1821-1824 Thomas S. Williams, 1822-1825 Oliver D. Cook, 1825,1828-1832 Stephen Spencer, 1826-1 840 D. F. Mercer, 1826-1827 James Thomas, 1828-1849 Dennison Morgan, 1828-1835 Dudley Buck, 1830- Haynes L. Porter, 1830- Elisha Peck, 1831-1842 Daniel Burgess, 1 831 -1840 [249] ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF FIRE INSURANCE Ward Woodbridge, Joseph Church, Horatio Alden, Ebenezer Seeley, Silas B. Hamilton, Frederick Tyler, Robert Buell, Samuel Boughton, Whitehead I. Cornell, Miles A. Turtle, Ezra White, Jr., John L. Boswell, Ebenezer Flower, Eliphalet A. Bulkeley, Roland Mather, Edwin G. Ripley, Samuel S. Ward, Henry Z. Pratt, Austin Dunham, John W. Seymour, Junius S. Morgan, Gustavus F. Davis, Drayton Hillyer, Thomas A. Alexander, Walter Keney, Charles H. Brainard, William F. Tuttle, George Roberts, Thomas K. Brace, Jr., Ernstus Collins, Edwin G. Morgan, Lucius J. Hendee, Francis B. Cooley, William R. Cone, Henry E. Russell, Nathaniel Shipman, Asa S. Porter, A. C. Dunham, James A. Smith, Jr., Morgan G. Bulkeley, Alva Oatman, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas O. Enders, Atwood Collins, Jotham Goodnow, William B. Clark, Francis Goodwin, Nelson HoUister, Andrew C. Bayne, Charles E. Gross, James F. Dudley, James H. Knight, George H. Day, E. O. Weeks, [250] 833- 834- 837- 838- 839- 841- 841- 841- 842- 842- 843- 844- 845- 846- 847- 847- 847- 848- 850- 851- 852- 853- 854- 854- 855- 857- 859- 861- 861- 863- 864- 866- 867- 870- 872- 876- 877- 878- 880- 880- 883- 883- 884- 884- 889- 889- 890- 890- 892- 893- 894- 895- 896- 898- 856 875 838 845 850 854 882 846 844 858 847 854 866 871 896 862 879 863 876 8C2 853 896 908 865 889 888 895 877 869 879 904 889 893 906 883 917 896 883 913 894 892 897 893 897 907 902 APPENDIX IV Charles P. Cooley, ^905" Arthur L. Shipman, ^907 William H. King, 1908-1912 Charles L. Spencer, ^^°^',„,A Lyman B. Brainerd, 1909-1916 Charles A. Goodwin, ^909- Henrv E. Rees, ^913" A. N.' Williams, ^913" J. P. Morgan, Jr., ;9i4- Horace B. Cheney, ^91?- JohnL.Way, '9i«- 251] APPENDIX V OFFICERS OF THE ^TNA INSURANCE COMPANY FROM 1819 TO 1919 AND THEIR TERMS OF SERVICE PRESIDENTS Thomas K. Brace, June 15, 1 819, to September 27, 1819, Henry L. Ellsworth, September 27, 1819, to March 6, 1821. Thomas K. Brace, March 6, 1821, to August 4, 1857. E. G. Ripley, August 4, 1857, t^o August 26, 1862. Thomas A. Alexander, September 10, 1862, to April 29, 1866. Lucius J. Hendee, March 4, 1866, to September 4, 1888. Jotham Goodnow, September 26, 1888, to November 21, 1892. William B. Clark. November 30, 1892, to date. VICE-PRESIDENTS E. A. Bulkeley, June 5, 1851, to June 13, 1853. Edwin G. Ripley, June 8, 1854, to August 4, 1857. Thomas A. Alexander, August 4, 1857, to September 10, 1862. Henry Z. Pratt, September 10, 1862, to August 31, 1863. William B. Clark, September 26, 1888, to November 30, 1892. Andrew C. Bayne, December 7, 1892, to October 14, 1893. James F. Dudley, October 18, 1893, to March 19, 1897. E. O. Weeks, April 7, 1897, to October 31, 1902. W. H. King, May 6, 1907, to February 16, 191 2. Henry E. Rees, April 24, 191 2, to date. A. N. Williams, April 24, 191 2, to date. MARINE VICE-PRESIDENT William F. Whittelsey, January 31, 191 7, to date. SECRETARIES Isaac Perkins, June 15, 18 19, to June 9, 1828. James M. Goodwin, June 9, 1828, to May i, 1837. Simeon L. Loomis, May i, 1837, to June 13, 1853. Edwin G. Ripley, June 13, 1853, to June 8, 1854. Thomas A. Alexander, June 8, 1854, to August 4, 1857. Thomas K. Brace, Jr., August 4, 1857, to July 3, 1861. Lucius J. Hendee, July 3, 1861, to March 4, 1866. Jotham Goodnow, April 18, 1866, to September 26, 1888. Andrew C. Bayne, September 26, 1888, to December 7, 1892. James F. Dudley, December 7, 1892, to October 18, 1893. William H. King, October 18, 1893, to May 6, 1907, Henry E. Rees, May 6, 1907, to April 24, 191 2. Edgar J. Sloan, April 24, 1912, to date. [252] APPENDIX V MARINE SECRETARIES William F. Whittelsey, January 25, 1912, to January 31, 1917. R. E. Stronach, January 31, 1917, to date. ASSISTANT SECRETARIES James b. Dudley, September 26, 1888, to December 7, 1892 William H. King, September 26, 1888, to October 18, 1893, E. O. Weeks, December 7, 1892, to April 7, 1897. F. W. Jenness, October 18, 1893, to July i, 1896. A. C. Adams, April 7, 1897, to April 7, 1907. Henry E. Rees, April 17, 1897, to May 6, 1907. C. J. Irvin, December 3, 1902, to June 12, 1905. A. N. Williams, December 3, 1902, to April 24, 1912. Edgar J. Sloan, May 6, 1907, to April 24, 191 2. E. S. Allen, May 6, 1907, to date. Guy E. Beardsley, May 6, 1907, to date. Ralph B. Ives, April 24, 191 2, to date. MARINE ASSISTANT SECRETARIES William F. Whittelsey, January 13, 1908, to January 25, 1912. 1^53] APPENDIX VI LOSSES PAID BY THE ^TNA INSURANCE COMPANY IN ONE HUNDRED YEARS During its first century of existence the ^tna Insurance Company has paid out over ^178,000,000 in losses. Of this amount more than ^156,000,000 represents payments for fire losses, the difference being for marine, automobile and other risks. There were no losses until 1821, two years after the Company was organized. The following table shows the losses of the ^tna by years for the first ttn years and for each decade thereafter: LOSSES Years 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829-38 1839-48 1849-58 1859-68 1869-78 1879-88 1889-98 1899-08 "1909-18 Totals Grand Total, 1174,703,814. Fire Marine, etc. 4,032 5,333 4,071 21,843 22,695 41,639 59,622 104,349 986,207 2,608,598 $ 95,154 7,196,408 745,096 11,064,996 1,429,410 23,817,791 1,598,718 12,524,289 716,232 19,046,981 1,104,285 30,526,204 2,074,217 48,166,027 10,739,617 156,201,085 118,502,729 * To December 31, 1918. The total losses paid from December 31, 1918, to June 15, 1919, are in excess of ^3,000,000, bringing the grand total of loss pay- ments for the century to more than ^178,000,000. [254] INDEX Adams, Alexander C, assistant secretary, •31 iEtna Insurance Company, act to incor- porate, 31, 32 adds a Life Insurance department, 93 applies for permission to do inland marine and navigation business, 63, 81 at outbreak of the Rebellion, loi capital stock, how secured, 53 capital stock, increased, 61, 89, 99, 105, 108, 121, 143 capital stock, reduced, 117, 120 Charter, with amendments. Appendix I, 231-238 Directors of, 1819 to 1919, Appendix IV, 249 first advertisement of, 34 first agents, 46, 155, 166, 167 first Canadian agent, 160 first crisis in affairs, 65 first Directors, 35, 36, 37, 38 first disputed claim, 59, 60 first insurance watch, 47 first investment of capital, 41 first loss, 55 first manual for agents, 45 first office of, 40 first policy, 42 first quarter-century, 83 first reinsurance, 46 first seal, 38 first six months' business, 48 first special agent, 158 first stockholders. Appendix III, 248 first subscriptions to its capital, 34 in the Great War, 220-223 limit of risk $10,000, 51 losses paid, 1819 to 1919, Appendix VI, 254 Marine Department, 210-217 moves to 53 State Street, 76 to 670 Main Street, 108 to new building, 136 Northwestern Branch, 183, 184, 187 officials of, 1819 to 1919, Appendix V, 252 Pacific Branch, 188-197 past and present of the Company, 224-230 policy on Yale College, 63 reinsures Middletown Insurance Com- pany, 46 terms of subscription to the stock of, 33 Western Branch, 176-187 ^tna Life Insurance Company, 93 African Colonization Society, 20 Agents established over wide territory, 58, 59 Agents, the Company's, 149-175 Alabama, first jEtna agent in, 166 Albany, New York, first ^tna agent, 156, 157, 166 Alden, Horatio, agent Augusta, Georgia, 166 Algiers, war with, 19 Alexander, James A., New York City Agent, 120 Manager (1872), 173 Alexander, 'Thomas A., 107, 120, 171, 173, 202 New York City Agent (1845), 87, 172 Secretary (1854), 97 Vice-President (18571, 100, 104 President (1862), 104 death (1866), 106 Allen, Edwin S., assistant secretary, 141, 142 America, first Savings Bank in, 19 American Agency System, 175 "Amicable Contributionship," London (1696), 8 Anthracite coal, first used, 22 Anti-compact laws, 203-205 Arabic, loss of the (1915), 221 Ashford, Connecticut, first ^tna agent, 156 Augusta, Georgia, first JEtna. agent, 166 Averill, Augustin, agent Cheraw, S. C. (1821), 167, 172 Avenll, Eliphalet, Director, 36, 37, 69 Babcock, Charles, Director, 36, 38 on Lafayette Committee, 63 Baldwin, Herman, agent, Richmond, Va., 164 Baltimore, first ^tna agent, 166 great fire of 1904, 137 Bang, Frederick, second policy-holder, 42 Bank, first savings bank in America, 19 Bank of the United States, 19, 21, 41, 65 Barbon, Nicholas, first insurer in England, 6 Bassett, E. J., 113, 114, 115, 116, 127, 189 General Agent, 165, 188 Bates, Isaac C, Agent, Northampton, Mass., 156 Battle of Lake Erie, 21 Bayne, A. C, Secretary (1888), 125 Vice-President (1892), 128 death (1893), 130 Beals, Thomas, Agent, 156 Beardsley, Guy E., Assistant Secretary (1907), 141-143 Beardsley & Beardsley, agents, Hartford, 167 Beckley, Orin, Agent, 156 Belden, Thomas, Director, 37 Bennett, F. C, General Agent Western Branch, 178, 182, 185 Bennett, Joseph B., General Agent Western Branch, 154, 167, 168, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 202 Bigelow, Abijah, first Canadian Agent, 160 Bliss, Judah, Director, 37 Blount, Sir John, 11 Boardman, George C, General Agent Pacific Branch, 190, 191, 193, 194 [255] INDEX Boat building, 24 Boston, Massachusetts, first jEtna agent, 166 Boston fire (1872), 119 Boswell, John L., Director, 93 Botsford & Bairs, 169 Bowers, Osborne & Co., agents New Orleans (1823), 166 Brace, Jonathan, 29 Brace, Thomas K., 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 43, 49. 54. 57, 59. 66, 67, 78, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 96, 99, 100, 104, 224, 226, 228, 229 first President, 36 resigns, 36 signature, 50 second President, 54, 66, 78 death (i860), 99 Brace, Thomas K., Jr., Secretary (1857), 100, 103, 107 death (1870), 100 Brainard, Charles H., Director, 226 Breeding, William H., General Agent Pacific Branch, 195, 196 Brown, Jeremiah, Director, 38 Buell, Robert, Director, 93, 226 Bulkeley, Eliphalet A., 92, 93, 94, 226 Vice-President (1850). 93 President .(Etna Life Insurance Co., 94 Bulkeley, Hon. Morgan G., President ^tna Life Insurance Company, 94. 226 Bunce, Nathaniel, Director, 38 California, first .i^tna agent in, 166 Canada, 159-162 first .(Etna agent in, 59, 160 first American Company in, 160 Canandaigua, New York, first JEtna agent, 156, 163 Canned goods, first, 22 Capital stock, increased, 61, 89, 99, 105, 108, 121, 143 reduced, 117, 120 authorized, 143 Carter, James H., agent at Cincinnati, 168 Caution in proceeding, 57 Charter, the original with amendments, Appendi.K I, 231-238 petition for, 31, 32 Cheney, H. B., Director, 227 Cheraw, South Carolina, first .(Etna agent, .167 . . Chicago, Illinois, first JEtna agent, 166, 169 Chicago a "Wooden City" (1842), 168-169 Chicago Fire (1871), 112 first claim paid, 115 losses promptly paid, 194 Chillicothe fire (1852), 95 Chronological history of the .(Etna, Appendix II, 239-248 Church, Joseph, Director, 226 Cincinnati, Ohio, first .(Etna agent, 163 Clark, William B., 109, 126, 127, 130, 133, 134. 135. 136. 137. 140. 141. 144. 145. 146, 147, 148, 174, 184, 185, 186, 192, 193. 194. 195. 213, 220, 226, 229, 230 Assistant Secretary (1867), 108, 113 Secretary of Phoenix, 1 10 Vice-President (1888), 125, 128 President (1892), 128-148, 192-197 Clay, Henry, 18, 20 Cleveland, Ohio, first ^tna agent, 163, 166 Coast Survey begun, 22 Coffee House an institution, 26 Cohen, Isaac, agent Savannah, Georgia, 172 Cole, Henry S., agent Detroit, 163, 166 Collins, Atwood, Director, 236 Colt, Ezekiel R., agent, 156 Colt, Ezra, town clerk, 49 Columbian Insurance Co. of New York, 13 Company lived through many conflagra- tions, 137 Company's records, 57 Connecticut, early underwriting in, 14 first .(Etna agent, 156, 158, 166 oldest insurance company in, 15 Connecticut legislation, first, 206 Converse, Alexander B., agent, 156 Cooley, Charles P., Diiector, 227 Cooley, Francis B., Director, 226 Coolidge, Charles D., agent Boston, 166 Cotton mill, erection of first, 22 Country produce marketed, 22 Courant, Hartford, 32 Cowles, Samuel, agent Cleveland, 163, 166 Crittenden, John J., 21 Crosby, James, agent ZanesviUe, Ohio, 1 63 Curd, Richard, agent Macon, Georgia, 102 Daingerfield, H. A., agent Natchez, Missis- sippi, 166 Davis, Gustavus F., Director, 226 Day, Isaac F., 116 Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Hartford, 30 Deaf mutes, first school for in U. S., 22 Detroit, Michigan, first ./Etna agent, 163, 166 Development of the U. S., 22 Dickenson, Edward, agent New York City (1826), 166 Dickinson, Leonard A., agent Hartford, 166, 167 Dickerson, Philemon, agent Paterson, N. J., (1821) 166 Directors, i8ig to 1919, Appendix IV, 249 Directors' banquet, 73 Distilleries, prohibited risks in 1841, 82 District of Columbia, first ./Etna agent, 166 Dividends, first, 49 second and third, 52 special, 77, 91 Dodd, Elisha, Director, 31 Dorr, Captain E. P., marine agent, Buffalo, 212 Drake, John B., first claim paid in Chicago fire, 115 Dudley, James F., Assistant Secretary (1888), 125 Secretary (1892), 129 Vice-President (1893), 130, 213 death (1897), 130 Dunham, Austin, Director, 226 Dunham, A. C, Director, 226 Durbrow, Harry, Marine Assistant General Agent, Pacific Branch, 196 Eagle Bank of Providence, stock sold, 66 Eagle Fire Insurance Co. of New York, 13 Ellsworth, Henry L., 42, 44, 54, 63. 66 second President, 44 death, 45 director, 66 [256] INDEX Ellsworth, Oliver, 44 Ellsworth, William W., 44. 45 Ely, John, Jr., aRcnt Albany, 156, 166 Empress of Ireland, wreck of the (1914)1 215 "Era of Good Feeling," 20 Gross, Charles E., Director and General Counsel, 135, 136, 226, 227 Guide to Fire Insurance (Bennett), 154 Culfliiht, loss of the (1915). 222 Gunther, Count Anton, 5 Fayetteville, N. C, first JEtnn agent, 166 Firebricks first made, 56 Fire department equipments, 48 Fire Insurance, ancient, 3, 4 "Fire Office," London (1680), 6 Fireplaces and stoves, 57 Fitzhugh, Samuel H., agent Wheeling, W. Va., 167 Flint, O. T., Marine Agent, Buffalo, 212 "Foreign" Companies, taxed, 75 Franklin, Benjamin, 13 "Friendly Society," London, 7 Gadsden, James S., Chicago agent, 113, 170, 186, 212 Gale, Stephen F., 169 Gallagher, Thomas E., General Agent Western Branch, Chicago, 144, 184, 185, 186, 187, 212 Gas-lighting, first, 22 General Agents, first, 163. i75 Georgia, first JEtna. agent, 166 Goodenough, Asa, 27 Goodman, Timothy S., agent Cincinnati, Ohio, 163, 167 Goodman, William, Cincinnati, Ohio, 163, 168 Goodnow, Jotham, Secretary (1866), 107, III President (1888), 124, 125 death (1892), 127 Goodwin, Charles A., Director, 71, 227 Goodwin, Rev. Dr. Francis, Director, 71, 135. 136, 146, 226, 227 Goodwin, James, 71, 90 Goodwin, James M., 38, 52. 63, 68, 71, 74. 76, 78, 103, 164, 200 on Lafayette Committee, 63 Secretary, 71 resigns (1837), 78 Goodwin, Jonathan, Jr., Chicago agent (1871), 98, 113, 120, 165, 170 Great fires at Baltimore, 137 Boston, 119 Chillicothe, 95 Chicago, 112 Jacksonville, 133 London, 5 Montreal, 95 Ottawa, 133 Portland, 123 Rochester, 137 St. John, N. B., 123 St. Johns, N. F., 89 St. Louis, 91 San Francisco, 138 Toronto, 137 Vicksburg, 123 Great Lakes, marine risks on, 212 Great War, during the, 220-223 Greenfield, Mass., first jEtna agent, 155, 166 Gregory, Attorney General, 21 Griswold & Follett, agents Burlington, Vermont, 156 Halifax, N. S., first iEtna agent, 161 Hall, George W., agent Brattleboro, Ver- mont, 156 Hall & Green, agents Rockingham, Vt., 156, 167 Hamilton, S. B., special agent, 165 "Hand-in-Hand Company," London, 8 Philadelphia, 13 Harford, W. B., Assistant General Agent, 184, 187 Hartford Convention of 18 14, 18 Hartford Fire Insurance Company, 15, 47 Hartford newspapers, 25 Hartford population, 25 Hartford trade, 23-25 Hartford and New Haven Insurance Company, 15 . ^ • Hayes, Henry, agent Cincinnati, Ohio, 168 Hazard, Augustus G., agent New York City, 87, 172 . Hendee, Lucius J., 103, 107, 114, 117. 121. 123, 124, 171, 181 Secretary (1861), 103 President (1866), 107 death (1888), 123 Hilliard, J. C, Special Agent, 113, 127, 165 Hillyer, Drayton, Director, 226 Hine, C. C, Special Agent, 165 Hubbard, _ Gurdon S., agent Chicago, Illinois, 166, 169 Hubbard & Hunt, agents Chicago, Illinois, 170 Illinois, first ^Etna agent, 166 Imlay, William H., 76 Indiana, first .^tna agent, 166 Inland Marine, 211-213 Insane, Retreat for the, Hartford, 30 Insurance agent, his field, etc., 150-155 Insurance displaces pension system, 20 Insurance Magazine, 74 Insurance, primitive, 3 Irvin, Dr. C. J., Assistant Secretary, 133- 135 Ives, Ralph B., Assistant Secretary, 144, 187 Jacksonville, great fire of 1900, 133 Jenness, F. W., Assistant Secretary, 130 Jewell, Marshall, 114 Keeler, N. E., General Agent Western Branch, 184-186 Kellogg, Samuel, Jr., third policy-holder, 42 Kellogg, Secretary, no Keney, Walter, Director, 226 Kentucky, first ^Etna agent, 166 Kerosene oil, first used, 56 Key, Francis S., 18 Kilbourne, Henry, Director, 37 on Lafayette Committee, 63 Kimball, Leonard, agent Baltimore, Mary- land, 166 17 [257] INDEX Kimberley, Anson, agent Darien, Georgia, 172 King, Seth, 126 King, William H., Assistant Secretary, 126 Secretary, 130, 136 Kirkpatrick, A. M. M., Chief Agent Canada, 162 Knickerbocker Fire Insurance Co., of New York, 13 Knight, James H., Director, 135, 136, 227 Kohtz, Louis O., Assistant General Agent, Western Branch, 144, 170, 186, 212 Lafayette's visit to Hartford in 1824, 62 Lake Erie, Battle of, 21 Law Makers and Insurance, 198-206 Letters of Secretary Perkins to agents, 51 Letter books, old, 49 Life insurance department, 92, 93, 94 Lightning Insurance, 123 Livingston, E. L., Marine Assistant General Agent, Pacific Branch, 196 "Lloyds," 209 "Lombard House," London, 9 London, great fire of, 5 Loomis, Simeon L., Secretary, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 96, 103, 109, no, 154, 169, 199, 200, 210, 211 letters, 79, 83, 88 Lord, Samuel, agent, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 166 Losses, only two cents up to May 1821, 55 Losses, heavy in early years, 81 Losses paid, Appendix VI, 254 Louisiana, first ^tna agent, 166 Lusilania, loss of the (1915), 221 Lyman, Gaius, Director, 37 on Lafayette Committee, 63 McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury, 21 Magill, Robert H., General Agent Pacific Branch, 189 Maine, first JEtna agent, 166 Manton, Salma, agent Savannah, Georgia, 172 Maps, Sanborn System of, 98 Marine risks, great variety in, 219 Marine Underwriting, 207-219 ancient instances of, 207, 209 Maryland, first .^tna agent, 166 Massachusetts, first JS.\,na. agent, 166 legislation, 199 Matches, first used, 56 Mather, Roland, Director, 226 May, Thomas, agent Richmond, Virginia, 167 Merchants Bank of New York, 65 Michigan, first /Etna agent, 166 Middletown Fire Insurance Company, 15 reinsures in the Mtna., 46 Miscellaneous forms of Insurance, 218 Mississippi, first ./Etna agent, 166 Missouri, first .(Etna agent, 166 Mitchell, Donald G., 28 Mitchell, Walter, Secretary Hartford Fire Insurance Company, 28 Mobile, great fire at, 65 losses at, 67 Monroe Doctrine, origin of, 19 Monroe, James, President, 19 Montreal fire, 95 Morgan, David, 27 Morgan, Isaac, 27 Morgan, John, 27 Morgan, Jonathan, 27 Morgan, Joseph, Director, 26, 27, 42, 64, 67. 70, 72, 73. 74. 77. 90. 95. 121. 146. 165, 226 trips, 64, 70-72 death, 90 Morgan, Junius S., Director, 26, 90, 95, 121 J. Pierpont, 27, 121, 144, 145, 226 J. P., Jr., 122, 145, 227 Morgan, Lucy, 71, 90 Morgan, Miles, 27 Morgan, Nathaniel, 27 Morgan's Exchange Coffee House, 26, 27 Morris, Benjamin W., architect, 136 Morrison, Edwin C, General Agent Pacific Branch, 191, 192, 195 Muldon, Thomas, agent Mobile, Alabama, 171 Mutual Assurance, Philadelphia, 13 New Haven, 15 Mutual Insurance Company of New York, 13 Mutual Insurance Company of Norwich, Connecticut, 15 National Board of Fire Underwriters, 68, 118, 1 19 New building of the JEtna., 136 New England democracy, 24 New England in 1819, 22-25 New Hampshire, first Mtna. agent, 166 New Haven, 22 New Haven Fire Insurance Company, 16 New Jersey, first J&tna agent, 166 New London, 22 New York, first JS,\n& agent, 166 New York City, first .(Etna agent, i66, 172 great fire of 1835, 75 of 1839, 81 of 1845, 85 payment of losses, 87 New York Insurance Company, 13 New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R. Co., stock subscribed for, 77 Niles* Weekly Register, 43 North, John G., agent at New Haven, Connecticut, 63 North Carolina, first Mina. agent, 46, 156, 166 Northwestern Branch, 175, 183, 184, 187 Norwich Fire Insurance Company, 15 Ocean steamship, first, 22 O'Brien, E. G., agent Toronto, Canada, 162 Officers of the JEina. i8i9to 191 9, Appendix V, 252 Ohio, first .lEtna agent, 166 legislation, 200 Ottawa, great fire of 1900, 133 Overall's Insurance Company, London, 12 Pacific Branch, 188-197 Pardee, W. I., special agent, 165 Parker, E. H., agent San Francisco, Cali- fornia, 166, 189 [258] INDEX Parmalee, H. J., superintendent marine insurance, N. Y., 212 Pasco, Henry L., agent Chicago, Illinois, 113 special agent, 165, 170 Past and Present, 224-230 Patent leather, first made, 22 Peace Society, the first, 22 Pease, Theodore, Director, 38, 42 Peasley, J. C, agent Burlington, Iowa, 83 Peck, Everard, agent at Rochester, New York, 156 Pennsylvania, first ^tna agent, 167 Pension system, 20 Perkins, Frederick, 69 Perkins, Isaac, 30, 34, 36, 40, 41, 43, 45, 48, 49. 50, 51. 52. 53. 56, 57. 58. 59. 62, 65, 66, 69, 70, 79, 103, 154 first secretary, 36 instructions to agents, 160 resigns, 69 visits agencies, 58, 59 death, 69 Perkins, Simon, agent at Warren, Ohio, 163 Perkins, Thomas C, 69 Perkins, William L., first special agent, 156, 158, 166 Perry, Commodore Oliver Hazard, 21 Pewabic, wreck of the, 216 Phelps, Humphrey, agent New York City, '72 . ... "Philadelphia Contributionship," 12, 13 Phoenix Bank, Hartford, investment in stock, 41, 65 Phoenix Fire of London, 7, 162 Phoenix Insurance Company of Hartford, 96, 109 "Phoenix Office," London, 7 Pioneer of Underwriting, 154 Policy, first issued by .^tna, 42 Policy, origin of term, 4 Pond, Caleb, Director, 37 Poor, Moses, agent Washington, D. C, 166 Porcelain manufacture, first, 22 Portland, great fire of 1866, 123 Postage, early, 50 Potter, Charles W., Assistant General Agent, 184 Povey, Charles, insurance pioneer, 9 Pratt, Henry Z., 93, 125 Vice-President, 104 Pratt, Joseph L., Director, 226 Prohibited risks, 82 Prohibition, 21, 25 Proof of Loss, first blank introduced, 98 Protection Insurance Company of Hartford, 68. 177 Providence-Washington Fire Insurance Company, 13 Puritan customs, 25 Quebec Fire Assurance Company, 162 Rand, Daniel, agent at Middletown, Connecticut, 156 Ratchford, E. D. W., agent, 161 Rate-cutting in New York, 74 Rate-fixing, 204 Rates, increased, 70 Rees, Ebenezer S., agent Darien, Georgia, 172 Rees, Henry E., 131, 172, 193, 205, 227 Assistant Secretary (1897), 131 Secretary (1907), 131 Vice-President (1912), 131 Rhode Island, first i^tna agent, 167 Richards, Mark, agent Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, 167 Richmond, Virginia, great fire at (1839), 81 Ripley, Edwin G., 93, 96, 97, 100, loi, 104, 176, 188 Secretary (1853), 96 Vice-President (1854), 96 President (1857), 100, loi death (1862), 103 Ripley, Franklin, agent Greenfield, Massa- chusetts, 155, 166 Ripley, Philip, 96 Risk of $17,000, largest to 1821, 54 Risks, classified, loi Risks, limit of, 51 good and bad, 83 River craft non-insurable, 211 Robins, Ephraim, General Agent Protection Insurance Company, Cincinnati, 177 Robins, Gurdon, agent Fayetteville, North Carolina, 46, 156, 166 Robins, W. B., agent Cincinnati, 168 Rochester, great fire of 1904, 137 Rolling mill, erection of first, 22 Russell & Ziegler, agents New York City, 173 St. John, New Brunswick, great fire, 81, 123 St. Johns, New Foundland, great fire of 1846, 89 St. Louis fire of 1849, 91 "Safe" of the Company, 28, 51 Salamander Society of New York, 74 Salary of President for first six months, 57 Sanborn System of maps, 98 Sanderson, Arthur G., Assistant General Agent Pacific Branch, 192, 195 Sanford, Peleg, early insurer in Hartford. 14 Sanford. Thaddeus, agent at Mobile, Alabama, 65, 159, 166 San Francisco, earthquake and fire of 1906, 138 first .i^tna agent, 166, 189 prompt settlement of losses by .i^tna, 194 Saunders, Christian, agent at St. Louis, Missouri, 166 Sawyer, Nathaniel, agent Chillicothe, Ohio, 163, 168 School for deaf-mutes, first in U. S., 22 Schools, district, 24 Seldon, Edward, agent Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, 167 "Selling Letters" by Secretary Perkins, 51. 62 Seminole War, 19 Sering, John, agent Washington, Indiana, 163, 166 Settlement of claims (1822), 59, 60 Sewing machine invented, 22 Seymour, Henry, Director, 37 Shipman, Arthur L., Director, 227 Shipman, Elias, New Haven insurer, 14, 15 Shipman, Nathaniel, Director, 226 Skinner, Roger L., agent New Haven, 156 Slavery, 20 [259] INDEX in. Sloan, Edgar J., Assistant Secretary (1907). 141, 142 Secretary, 144, 162 Smith, James, agent, 163 Society for Savings, Hartford, 30 South Carolina, first ^tna agent, 167 Southern Agencies, closed, 103 South Sea Bubble, 1 1 Spanish Influenza, 21 Spanish War, 132 Special dividends, 91 Spencer, Charles L., Director, 227 Spencer, George W., General Agent Pacific Branch, 191, 194 Spencer, Stephen, Director, 66 Steam power, first used in manufactunng, 22 Starr, Frank Farnsworth, Genealogist, 72 Starr, John L., agent, 161 State Bank, Albany, 199 Stagg, Henry, agent, 168 Steamship, first ocean, 22 Stedman, Griffin, Director, 37 Steel-plate engraving invented, 22 Stereotype plate, first, 22 Stewart, David R., agent, 161 Stockholders, the original. Appendix 248 Stoddard, J. N., agent Plymouth, Massa- chusetts, 199 Stonington, Connecticut, fire at, 81 Stoves vs. fireplaces, 57 Street cars, first in Hartford, 71 Stronach, R. E., Marine Secretary, 214 "Sun" Fire Office, London, 9 Surplus decided on, 67 Talbot. Bird & Co., agents New York City, 173 . . • 4. . Taxation, oppressive in various states, 200-209 Terry, Nathaniel, 15 Theaters, prohibited risks, 82 Thom, Isaac, agent Louisville, 163, 166 Thomas W. Lawson, wreck of the, 216 Tillinghast, Stephen, agent Providence, Rhode Island, 156, 167 Toronto, great fire of 1904, I37 Town-meeting, 24 Townsend, George E., Assistant General Agent, Pacific Branch, 196 Treat, Selah, 70 Tudor, Samuel, Jr., Director, 37 Tuttle, Miles A., Director, 93 Tuttle, William F., Director, 226 Underwriter, origin of term, 4 United States Bank, reorganization of, 21 Valued policy legislation, 202-203 Van Buren, Martin, ^tna policy-holder, 157 Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah, first General Agent, 74, 163 Vermont, first ^tna agent, 167 Vicksburg, great fire of 1867, 123 Virginia, antagonism to foreign companies, 201 first .(Etna agent, 167 Wadsworth, Daniel, early insurer in Hart- ford, 14 Walton, John, agent, 161 War Clause, 103 War of 1812, 17, 18 Ward, Lauriston, agent Saco, Maine, 166 Ward, Samuel S., Director, 226 Watkinson, David, 29 Way, John L., Director, 227 Webster, Noah, 45 Weeks, Egbert O., Assistant Secretary, 129, 130, 131, 212 Vice-President, 129 death, 129, 213, 214 Welles, Alfred, 95 West Virginia, first .(Etna agent, 167 West India Islands, 23 West Indian trade, 23 Western agents, 176 Western Branch, 97, 144, 162, 168, 170, 171, 176-187 White House, burning of, 18 Whittelsey, Roger, agent, 156 Whittelsey, W. F., Marine Assistant Sec- retary, 2 13 Marine Secretary, 214, 221 Marine Vice-President, 196, 214 Williams, A. A., Special Agent, 165 WiUiams, Almeron N., Assistant Secretary (1902), 133 Vice-President (1912). i.34. 227 Williams, Andrew N., agent, 159 Williams, Thomas S., 42, 45 Willmarth, A. F., Assistant Secretary, 97 Special Agent, 165 Winning of the West, 176-187 Wood, Joseph, agent, 156 Woodbridge, Ward, 29 Wyman, William H., General Agent, 183- 187 [260] ADDENDA Since this History was put in type Henry E. Rees, our Vice-President, has died. The following minute was adopted by the Board of Directors at a regular meeting on the r2th day of May, 1919: Henry E. Rees, a Vice-President and Director of this Company, died May 8, 1919, after a long illness which he bore with extreme fortitude and patience. Mr. Rees was in the employ of this Company for thirty years, having been appointed a Special Agent for the Southern Field in 1889. He was so familiar with the business of the South, and filled the position so acceptably, he was called to the Home Office of the Company and elected Assistant Secretary on April 7, 1897. He was elected Secretary May 6, 1907, and on April 24, 1912, was elected a Vice-President, and at the following Annual Meeting, January 29, 1913, was elected a Director of the Company. An able underwriter and a good citizen, he took a keen interest in the affairs of the business, and for two years was President of the Eastern Union, and at the time of his decease was President of the Southeastern Underwriters Association. He was active in the important work of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, being on the Executive Committee for a number of years, and for a time its Chairman. He was devoted to his business, and the interests of the j^tna were his chief delight. In Church, Sunday -School and religious matters generally he was deeply interested. His influence was always for that which was good. We shall miss his cheerful presence, and most deeply deplore his departure from our midst. We extend to his family our most sincere sympathy. Attest: &rrrrtarg T- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY A fee of 3c per day is charged for this book which was withdrawn on the last date stamped below. lm-7,'64(E6972) UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY -^ AA 000 571 815 i PLEA^^'cl DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARD Z"" ^1 1 ^ 3 s ■-^1 rt «= r^ "^ I—* V ZL o — ^:z^ y^Cj I — = '" 5 -=^ 1^ A < o3 cd V ^^ / \1 =^ ^ • v.>_^ * <* on "^(yojiivDJO-^ University Research Library * I ^ 3> 1 --^ ' < O J -1 8 ■0 ( ' 1 1 > > , 1 ,- 9' I ' .^ J / <->»„/ A25G13