USA > Connecticut > Connecticut yesterday and today : 1635-1935 : celebrating three hundred years of progress in the Constitution state > Part 8
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The demand for what we now call substandard insurance did not prove to be as great as had been anticipated and with the limited amount of experi- ence available it was difficult to know how much
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ESTABLISHED 1865
THOMAS W. RUSSELL President from 1876 to 1901
ROBERT W. HUNTINGTON Elected President in 1901
HOME OFFICE BUILDING Built in 1926
16912
CONNECTICUT GENERAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
Connecticut General Life Insurance Company
VIEW OVER BUSHNELL PARK AND ELM STREET, HARTFORD
extra premium should be charged in each case. So expense usually caused by an accident or serious ill- during the first year the Company also began to compete for business on first class risks.
After two years the Company abandoned its orig- inal plan of specializing in substandard insurance and limited its business to first class risks.
For the first few months of the Company's ex- istence, J. M. Niles acted as temporary President. He was succeeded by F. W. Parsons who guided the Company for the next ten years, during the de- pression which followed the Civil War.
In 1876 T. W. Russell became President. At that time insurance in force was a little over $6,500,000. When Robert W. Huntington was elected President in 1901 it had increased to nearly $16,500,000.
In 1905 the Company made a noteworthy step -- the purchase of a Home Office building of its own at 64 Pearl Street. Up to this time space had been rented. The Home Office force including officers and employees totaled thirty-two. During the next twenty years the Company occupied, in addition to its 64 Pearl Street building, space in five other nearby locations. In June, 1926, the Company moved into its present building.
In 1912 the Company organized an accident department. Insurance to compensate for the extra
ness and for the frequent loss of income is fully as necessary for the average person as life insurance.
A group department was established in 1918 through which the Company issues all forms of group insurance including annuities.
The substantial progress made by the Company during recent years is shown by the following figures.
1934 RECORD
Admitted Assets, December 31, 1934
$171,310,376
Policy Reserves and other Liabilities 162,714,263
Contingency Fund 1,250,000
Excess Security to Policyholders 7,346,113
Total Premium Income, 1934 $ 31,368,037
Total Income
41,842,966
Increase in Income
2,324,030
Increase in Assets
8,502,559
New Paid Life Insurance
113,142,320
Life Insurance in force, December 31, 1934 985,861,704
PAYMENTS SINCE ORGANIZATION
To Living Policyholders $113,191,259
To Beneficiaries 107,081,769
$220,273,028
The Company is represented by fifty-five agencies and branch offices located as far south as North Car- olina and as far west as California.
THE HARTFORD STEAM BOILER INSPECTION AND INSURANCE COMPANY ,
1866
Sixty-Eight Years of Service 1935
For sixty-eight years The Hart- ford Steam Boiler Inspection and * Insurance Company has exerted an ASPEC TION important influence for safety in RAN industry by providing a service to reduce accidents to power generating and utilizing equipment and to indemnify when loss occurs. The company takes pride in the fact that, as pioneer in the field of boiler insurance in America, it was the first corporate institution to set up an accident pre- vention service for the safety of human life and property. At first its protection was applied only to steam boilers, but, as the company expanded, its plan of inspection and insurance has been adapted to almost every variety of power apparatus.
The company's inception was a logical outcome of the times. By the middle of the nineteenth century the use of steam was well under way and with the rapid increase in the number of steam boilers came frequent and disastrous explosions threatening life and property. New England's industries were among the earliest to utilize steam power and to experience these disasters. So frequent and close at hand were some of them as to engage the attention of a group of Hartford young men known as the Polytechnic Club, who met at intervals to discuss scientific ques- tions which were of practical utility. In this club were a number of young men who were to become prominent in Hartford's business and industrial life, among them Jeremiah M. Allen, who as president of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and In- surance Company was to have a profound influence on its development. These young men did not join in the theory prevalent at the time that boiler ex- plosions were of mysterious origin. They believed them due to inherent faults or developed weaknesses of construction, or to physical conditions, many of which could be avoided through their timely discovery by those who knew how and where to look for them.
Hartford was even then very definitely insurance minded and was rapidly gaining fame as the home of skilled underwriting. It is not surprising, there- fore, that these debates on the subject of explosion should develop a plan of protection, in which an inspection service to minimize the hazards was sup- ported by a contract of insurance against loss. On this premise The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company was organized in 1866 "to inspect steam boilers and insure the owners against loss or damage arising from boiler explosion."
JEREMIAH M. ALLEN President of "Hartford Steam Boiler" 1867-1903
The company's first president was E. C. Roberts who, however, relinquished his office a few months after the organization was completed. He was suc- ceeded in July, 1867, by Mr. Allen, who was destined successfully to direct the company for more than thirty-five years. Mr. Allen entered the office with unbounded confidence in the value of the pro- tective service his company was prepared to render and an ability to impress others with his views. It was said of him that he "met the flavor of sarcasm with the antidote of pleasantry and toiled on to create a demand which it should be his business to supply."
President Allen's first effort was to secure men well qualified by mechanical and engineering ex- perience and training for the inspection service which was the essential feature of the company's scheme of protection. In this he was successful and to the competence of these early inspectors and the confi- dence they inspired in boiler owners was due a steadily increasing patronage which the company soon enjoyed. The company spent time and money to determine the essentials of safety and in persuading
1866
SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS OF SERVICE
1935
LOUIS F. MIDDLEBROOK Secretary, Who Celebrated His Fiftieth Anniversary ccith the Company in 1935
their adoption by boiler makers and users. It was among the first to advocate laws regulating the use of steam and freely supplied law makers and commissions with information and conclusions de- rived from its own search for standards of safety. So sound were the bases for these standards that many of them are still retained in the laws of states and municipali- ties and are incorporated in the nationally known Boiler Code of the American Society of Mechan- ical Engineers.
As a means for disseminating all this information and for edu- cating boiler users in matters re- lating to their safety, President Allen in the first year of his ad- ministration established a company magazine, which he named from the emblem on the company's seal, "The Locomotive". It was not essentially a medium for ad- vertising the company's activities, for, though it presented the com- pany's views on the safeguarding of equipment, its contents was largely composed of scientific dis- cussions and general matters of interest to steam users. Because it was of this character, it obtained a
wide circulation and had readers not only among the clients of the company, who found in it matters not treated at that time in other publications, but also among those seeking general information on the subjects presented in its pages. "The Locomotive" has continued from the date of its first issue in 1867 to the present time and is be- lieved to be the oldest company periodical in continuous circulation in this country.
It was early realized by The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company's engineers that the best of boilers could be ruined through the use of improper feedwater. Analysis of the water, to determine that it was fit for boiler use, or to prescribe treatment for neutralizing its dangerous qualities, was a necessary part of the care the company gave its clients' boilers, and in 1880 its business had so grown that for this purpose it established its own chemical laboratory, which within a few years had recorded the analyses of waters from every state in the union. This laboratory service has since continued in an ever broadening field of service.
The Encomotive
Vol. I. HARTFORD, CT., NOVEMBER, 1867.
No. 1.
The Locomotive
rankas ted rapariga nos at Wylan nudler the super Ductives were built at them in the intervals Between intribun of Mr. Bsturkett and Mr. Williamt Horthy. 1-14-1940. The firmate have now Jaen Chovn out the show the way of the rollers, having to their qual foi a couple of years, but there is man probability
on the wagen-way. It was at that person that the , derreal fooda wind has les u already stated that Wylan.
wirde mer-hated Forstor plari w wngon .month- 'Interesting charater. Berth its commetom with wheeled. in the way properly belastend is, and set the first stressful los amantes, it claims to In the
HARTFORD STEAM BOILER INSPECTION AND INS, CO.
Stationary, Marine and Locomotive Boilers. -
! after the Air-1, and this . Putty " has regularly rau nu the Weban wapon-way till within these pagar at tout with in the be ality. The Wylatn wagon way years and tow stand- m the ientre ot the village Ar bartektel with a gangr if' Fail- thur im hes ready to get up stralu at a comment's bier.
Wylon Colliers hợp which the engines win
North of England, wird it was there that foundes
Stopde war's talet worked as enginnon for on this Is for their respective collection. Just an unfor- or eight years Pomaly them with more than a tonale las sult atient may have loved it jolle and wal nhly tico an ban Hành the An I'it and the Hangh stand- Chore Thore, the handvuur mansion of the
alcatel-led us it wa- Jontet nou h cheajar to run wo cod. wok runwant to the north side of the rives
The first team sigagy pae the Atlantic nas now withatt ar the high ansin our Townley, the, made by the "Savannah" from New York to Liver- Bitte , the five startes, the wis quarter, the band, pod, in 1918, she ran from here to Liverand, and
-
with a few partienhit, of Wylain the .1 v Hir of the in the Northern Een When i did not Newcastle olumt .ight uth., and lo - rley to the north bank of the River Tyne Vander lande
|ip: 18kt 1. des id cual ntintially, of'a kind morh prize! in the London Bucket, For heat producing part He's an id . volled, and atr giratly in frequent at quetories, utel at the fractune ut title nurks at En- yrar, conmert. il village with the afquente bank and with the Wy hiệu statim ní the Newrasth and In her from the star, pquining pumping engins Dann jomer to keep the workings clear of water, the of the engines in ne is supposed to be the ring tone las Button & Walt for the North Carlisle Hallway. This bright furnari: Mr flashback was the engineer. Th pany, deres it runs single line of rail for the convenience of the Wylam Colliery, on either .1.le
renatoind tror the adtury id 1.200 gallons uf watts for iniusste, lost are explore of pumping 8,000 gul , hours of wales.
Thrust ofthe to aily comjde tel stone bridge of the Hartford and New Haven Hairoad over the Farto-
Time itun work4 which occupy a prominent posi- ington River, at Winilsur, Conn., is ortr $00,000,
tion in the center of the village, were formerly [ and work will soon be legua ou two more bear Working boy Mexer, He'll, Hautbere, and at one time Berlin,
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, thị- máretruling dwelling was Samgr Stepbra-
Loss or Damage, Hill " and "The Hills, Non loin . pero
ing a liking for all that coffee mel ingars mani FAil.
why . from what he wa- lýmight tato constant rm-
weber than connuen, and Is winthing like five miles in bugth, ruiming along the banks of tlw rivet from
Fown the M.chouud' Unp.iet WYLAM, THE CRADLE OF THE LOCOMOTIVE.
There ite ment maty idlize un Tyne-te that A stroll up and down his streets, for it im bout Krets, and a High Stiret tom, dowes but not | that Lere. What the village in tor-stuy it has always 1-11. except perboje aturing the short funeral when the Mast Furnace and body works were tituly employed
though at the last of times thetr hov, in Ine ti
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Wylan tos birdy mitable ns powering the first full- fully travelhel, Jonathan Fonder, engineruf Wy inm Colliery, rr labl the ungen way in the interval be
Tlw Ung- joint Mamuland says that a tintive of Wiston, Conn. pumped Daun | Treadwell, Invented railway. in 1×10 Mr Troutwilluwpela pal lag.
to bts dlrving ground. This. ar was drawn by hand.
The Chu agu Tribune hints that the commercial wheremany of New York is and we would but that a to w uted shorter Ilne of tramit to the astward might affet it wris-ly. A tulle attention to a pro-
PAGE I OF VOLUME I, NUMBER I, OF "THE LOCOMOTIVE" Oldest Company Magazine in Continuous Publication in the United States
472
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tun yran nges, Faith Mr. Hhm krit and Mr Balos Und
1866
SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS OF SERVICE
1935
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The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company's New and Modern Home Office
President Allen's administration continued until his death on December 28, 1903. It covered a period of more than half of the present life of the company. During that time he justified the theory on which the company's activities were founded, and established an institution of recognized usefulness in its chosen field of steam boiler protection. He prepared well for the broader service which has been perfected to safeguard the motive power of the tremendous industrial expansion since his death.
Under the guidance of Lyman B. Brainerd, president until 1916, Charles S. Blake, president until 1927, and William R. C. Corson, now the executive head of the com- pany, there has been a rapid expansion of business. No longer does the company limit its insurance and methods of inspection to steam boilers alone. It has met the demand for protection against the hazards of the contained energy in modern power producing and utilizing equipment by adapting its principles of accident prevention to these new requirements. While its name, designating its original pur- pose, has not been changed, steam boiler insurance is too limited a term to apply to the broader field of its present activities and the name "engineering insurance" has by universal consent been given to this special class of casualty underwriting. That class of underwriting now insures and protects a wide variety of power machinery, including steam and internal combustion engines, turbines, generators and other electrical equipment, as well as power and heating
boilers, and many other kinds of vessels subject to explosions from the pressure of the gas or liquid they contain.
The growth of the demand for engineering insurance required a parallel expansion of the company's personnel . and of its physical equipment. Not only was its technical staff enlarged, but with broadening experience and compe- tent research into the new problems involved, new methods of inspection procedure were rapidly developed. Its under- writing facilities, too, have grown with the business. Branch offices have been opened wherever the need arose. Today the company maintains sixteen such offices strategically placed in industrial centers.
For many years the company's home office was in rented quarters in the old Aetna Life Insurance Company's build- ing on Main Street. In 1907, however, it acquired the building and property at 56 Prospect Street, formerly oc- cupied by the Travelers Insurance Company. At that loca- tion its home office still remains. But in 1932 it replaced the old building with the present fine, modern, fireproof structure which is designed, arranged and equipped to meet conveniently the requirements of the company's activities.
The success of the company in the field of engineering insurance has stimulated others to enter it. At present in th's country twenty-two companies are engaged in writing boiler or machinery insurance, or both. However, The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company continues to occupy a place of prominent leadership, and
1731.
1866
SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS OF SERVICE
1935
of all engineering insurance premiums in the United States approximately one-half are annually paid for policies in this company.
"Hartford Steam Boiler's" insurance writings in 1934 more than quadrupled those of 1904, and present assets are more than four times those of that year. Furthermore, the company's surplus to policyholders, particularly in the last few years, has approached, and today exceeds, a figure equal to half of the corporation's total assets. It has been this sound financing, as much as any one thing, which has permitted a sterling quality of service in underwriting and inspections throughout both boom and depression years.
During the first third of the twentieth century the work of the company and its leaders has been complicated by the World war and at times by severe strains on the economic stability of the country. How The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company has coped with these difficulties is perhaps best illustrated by its published evi- dences of financial strength as shown in the table below:
Year Premiums Written
Assets
Surplus to Policyholders $1,510,366.39
1904 $1,261,056.17
1914 1,548,625.49
$3,412,544.93 5,659,573.50 3,179,727.77
1924 4,078,945.58
6,739,355.04
1934 5,867,443.42
13,455,862.17 17,873,053.33
9,130,345.16
The achievements of The Hartford Steam Boiler In- spection and Insurance Company have contributed to the reputation and progress of Connecticut's Insurance City, Hartford. With steadfast purpose, this pioneer company has received nation-wide recognition for its protection of power equipment, and at the same time has added lustre to the prominence of a commonwealth from which so many worthwhile things have emanated in the 300 years of its history.
WILLIAM R. C. CORSON President and Treasurer
THE HARTFORD STEAM BOILER INSPECTION AND INSURANCE COMPANY
Board of Directors
Officers WILLIAM R. C. CORSON,
President and Treasurer
E. SIDNEY BERRY, Vice President
C. C. GARDINER, Vice President
MORGAN B. BRAINARD, President Aetna Life Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn.
CHARLES P. COOLEY, Chairman Board of Trustees, Society for Savings, Hartford, Conn.
HORACE B. CHENEY, Manchester, Conn.
D. NEWTON BARNEY, Vice President, The Hartford Electric Light Co., Hartford, Conn.
JOSEPH R. ENSIGN. President. The Ensign- Bickford Co., Simsbury, Conn.
EDWARD MILLIGAN, President, The Phoenix Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn.
WILLIAM R. C. CORSON, President and Treas- urer.
SAMUEL M. STONE, President, Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg. Co., Hartford, Conn.
SAMUEL. FERGUSON, Chairman Board of Direc- tors, The Hartford Electric Light Co., Hartford, Conn.
HION, JOHN IT. TRUMBULL, President. The Trumbull Electric Mfg. Co., Plainville, Conn.
CURTISS C. GARDINER, Vice President.
JAMES L. THOMSON, Vice President, Terry Steam Turbine Co., Hartford, Conn.
PHILIP B. GALE, Chairman Board of Direc- tors. Standard Screw Co., Hartford, Conn.
JOHN J. GRAHAM, Vice President
LUCIUS F. ROBINSON, Attorney, Hartford, Conn.
JOHN O. ENDERS, Chairman Executive Com- mittee, Hartford National Bank and Trust Co., Hartford, Conn.
J. J. GRAHAM, Vice President
DALE F. REESE, Vice President
L. F. MIDDLEBROOK, Secretary HALSEY STEVENS, Assistant Secretary
H. F. DART, Assistant Secretary
C. EDGAR BLAKE, Assistant Treasurer
*17+1
I795-THE MUTUAL ASSURANCE COMPANY OF NORWICH - 1935 Connecticut's Oldest Insurance Company
The Old Leffingwell House. First insured by the Mutual Assurance Company of Norwich in 1795. It has been continuously insured by the same company ever since.
N November 26, 1793 oc- curred the greatest fire which Norwich had ever experi- enced. The conflagration was a serious one for these times and the shops and dwellings which were destroyed constituted a total loss of about $40,000 on which there was no insurance.
This disaster, so painfully illustrating the inefficiency of the fire engines and the total losses to which property owners were liable, was the direct cause of the founding of the Mutual Assurance Com- pany of Norwich at a meeting on Decem- ber 29, 1794. Some months later the members of the company petitioned "the Honourable General Assembly now sit- ting in Hartford," for an act of incor- poration "for the purpose of rendering any future loss which may happen to them by fire, as light as possible to in- dividuals sustaining such loss" and for the purpose of mutually insuring each other. The request was granted the second Thursday in May, 1795, and by this act of incorporation the Mutual Insurance Company of Norwich became the earliest incorporated body of its kind in Con- necticut.
The first policy of the company, issued February 16, 1795, was as follows:
NORWICH MUTUAL ASSURANCE COMPANY
For Insuring Buildings from Loss by Fire No. I
THIS POLICY Witnesseth: That Christopher Le ffingwell having become, and by these presents be- coming a Member of the MUTUAL
ASSURANCE COMPANY of the city of Norwich, pursuant to a Deed of Settle- ment, bearing the date of the fifteenth Day of December, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-four. And for and in Consideration of the Sum of Five Dollars & Twenty-five Cents in hand paid by the said Christopher Leffingwell to the Treasurer of the said Assurance Company, being the Amount of Premium for the insuring the Sum of One Thousand and fifty Dollars unto the said Christopher
ORIGINAL OFFICERS DR. JOSHUA LATHROP, Chairman ZACHARIAH HUNTINGTON, Secretary
Directors
GENERAL EBENEZER HUNTINGTON
JOSEPH HOWLAND
DANIEL, COIT
THOMAS FANNING
SAMUEL DEWITT
COLONEL JOSHUA HUNTINGTON
LEVI HUNTINGTON
COLONEL CHRISTOPHER LEFFINGWELL
PRESENT OFFICERS HAROLD P. HULL, Secretary and Treasurer
Directors
CHARLES R. BUTTS SHEPARD B. PALMER FRANK D. SI VIN
Leffingwell, his Heirs, Executors, Admin- istrators, and Assigns, upon the Dwelling House in which he now lives, Situated on the west side of the main street in Norwich, two stories high, forty three feet front and Forty three feet wide, Built of wood, the Chimney therein being also included, as recorded in the register book of the Treasurer of said Assurance Company, Letter A, Page Ist, during the term of one year from the date hereof; the said Policy commencing the 16th Day of February instant, and ending on the 16th Day of February next. commencing and ending at 12 o'clock at noon.
This policy was signed by Zach. Hunt- ington, secretary, and by Ebenezer Hunt- ington and Jacob DeWitt, directors, and insured three-fourths of the estimated fourteen hundred dollar valuation of the house, the premium being at the rate of one-half of one per cent. This insurance, which has never lapsed, still protects the old dwelling near Harland's corner, Nor- wich Town.
The company early "voted that on every principal building, in each policy insured, there shall be a badge, in a conspicuous place, in front of the build- ing, with the words 'Mutual Assurance' ingraved, painted, or plated thereon, to- gether with the No. of the building agreeably to the number of the policy by which the same is insured."
For many years and until a compara- tively recent time these quaint tokens embellished many local habitations, par- ticularly those at Norwich Town, but have now generally disappeared. One may yet be seen, however, over the front door of the home of the Ladies Gilman. Its presence is something of a mystery, as its number, 203, corresponds with that of a policy issued September 6, 1797, in the sum of $450 to John French on "his dwelling house improved by himself situated in New London, on the west side of the road leading from the church to Green's brick house."
For many years the amount set aside by the company for the payment of losses and dividends was $6,666.67. The assets at the close of the year 1865 were $8,979.95; they are now $23,572.67. Annual meetings are held in January and since the company is purely mutual, the dividends then declared are devoted to the payment of premiums. While taking excellent care of its old clients by con- tinuing their policies at one quarter of one per cent, the company has declined new business during the past twenty-nine years.
475]>
HARTFORD COUNTY
MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE CO.
Founded 1831
"For a symbol, the Com- pany adopted that (shown above) which is traceable back to llertford, England. from the neighborhood of which the Reverend Samuel Stone of the llooker party had come ... It represents a hart crossing a ford." Charles W. Burpee, A CENTURY IN HARTFORD.
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