USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > King's handbook of Springfield, Massachusetts : a series of monographs, historical and descriptive > Part 27
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petual by Act of June 3, 1856. The following extract from the charter explains the kind of business done : "That, when the sum subscribed by the associates to be insured shall amount to $50,000, said corporation shall then be authorized to insure, for the term of six years, any dwelling-house or other building in the county of Hampden."
By an Act of June 3, 1856, authority was granted to insure in the New- England States and in the State of New York; and by Act of March 17, 1883, "to insure personal property against loss or damage by fire to the extent and in the same manner as they are now authorized by law to insure real estate." The mutual plan aims to provide insurance at cost to the members. That this has been successfully done by this company, the table of the percentage of its dividends returned will show: Five years ending 1838, average dividend 80 per cent; five years ending 1843, average divi- dend 76 per cent ; five years ending 1848, average dividend 80 per cent ; five years ending 1853, average dividend 73 per cent; five years ending 1858, average dividend 86 per cent ; five years ending 1863, average dividend 79 per cent; five years ending 1868, average dividend 86 per cent ; five years ending 1873, average dividend 88 per cent; five years ending 1878, average dividend 75 per cent ; five years ending 1883, average dividend 75 per cent.
In 1849 the company moved into the offices now occupied on the second floor of the old brick building at the south-west corner of Main and Elm Streets. The present officers are : President, Warner C. Sturtevant; secre- tary and treasurer, Frank R. Young; directors, Warner C. Sturtevant, Henry Fuller, Alfred Rowe, Henry S. Lee, James Kirkham, Eliphalet Trask, Henry Morris, Charles L. Shaw, and V. N. Taylor ; auditors, Col. James M. Thomp- son and Charles Marsh. The condition of the company, as shown by the last annual report to the corporation, is as follows : Risks outstanding, Sept. 30, 1882, $3,886,200 ; market value of the assets, $124,502; total liabilities, $30,239; cash surplus over all liabilities, $94,263.
The Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company was incorporated by the legislature of Massachusetts, in the year 1849, with a capital stock of $150,000, and with permission to commence business whenever a third of that sum should be paid in. The persons named in the act of incor- poration were Edmund Freeman, George Dwight, and John L. King; and the first board of directors consisted of Edmund Freeman, Daniel L. Harris, Chester W. Chapin, Marvin Chapin, Andrew Huntington, Edward Southworth, John L. King, Jacob B. Merrick, Albert Morgan, and Waitstill Hastings. These gentlemen, with the exception of Marvin Chapin and Waitstill Hastings, are all dead. Mr. Hastings is not now a stockholder, and Mr. Chapin is the only director who was a member of the original board. The company commenced business in 1851, with Edmund Free- man president, and William Conner secretary. The company was fortu-
SPRINGFIELD FIRE & MARINE INS. CO.
.....-
THE SPRINGFIELD FIRE AND MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY'S BUILDING.
Main and Fort Streets
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nate at the start in the selection of its officers and directors, and in having for stockholders the best and most substantial men of this community. Mr. Conner continued secretary until 1866, when he resigned to take the vice-presidency of a New-York company; and he was succeeded by J. N. Dunham, who held the office for two years, when he resigned, and was suc- ceeded in 1868 by Sanford J. Hall, the present incumbent. Mr. Freeman held the office of president until ill-health compelled him to resign in 1874, and was succeeded by D. R. Smith, who had held the office of vice-president for the preceding six years. Mr. Smith died in 1880, and was succeeded by J. N. Dunham, formerly secretary ; and he continues to hold the office of president. Andrew J. Wright, the present treasurer, became connected with the company as bookkeeper early in 1864, and in 1872 was elected treasurer (which office had previously been combined with that of the secre- tary). The capital stock has been increased from time to time until it is now $1,000,000, and the assets are over $2,500,000. This company stands at the head of all the Massachusetts fire-insurance companies ; having the largest capital, largest assets, greatest amount at risk, and the largest yearly business. Moreover, it stands at the head of all the companies in New England, excepting only some of those at Hartford. It is doing business from Maine to California, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico; having 2,500 agents scattered throughout the United States. It has paid losses of $10,000,000 since its organization. The fact that it passed unshaken through the Chicago fire, though suffering a loss of $ 525,000 ($25,000 greater than its then cash capital), and the Boston fire, paying $250,000, sufficiently attests its financial integrity and vitality ; for many strong companies went down with those disasters. . The income of the company for the year 1883 was over $1,500,000. The company has built up its immense business in its own quiet way, with the utmost conservativeness, without pressing, and without any attempt to crowd out competitors. It has avoided every at- tempt to get business on any other than remunerative basis, and has taken care to invest its assets so that they could be immediately utilized in case of need. Its management has been successful in getting as agents men who were respected in their respective localities, and has retained them as long as possible. In Eastern Massachusetts, for example, the representatives in Boston have been Reed & Brother for nearly 30 years; the office being over a quarter of a century in the historic Old State House at head of State Street. It is the only local joint-stock fire-insurance company, and has, like the Massachusetts Mutual Life, been of inestimable value to Springfield, in providing trustworthy indemnity, in making the city known to the business men all over the country, and in bringing here a great amount of capital. Its directors have always comprised men recognized as being among those foremost in business standing. At present, the board includes J. N. Dun-
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ham, Marvin Chapin, William Birnie, C. L. Covell, Frederick H. Harris, N. A. Leonard, William H. Haile, Azariah B. Harris, Sereno Gaylord of Chicopee, H. E. Russell of New York, and Marshall Field of Chicago. The company for many years has had its offices at the corner of Main and Fort Streets, in its own brick building called the "Fort Block," by reason of its occupying the site of the old Pynchon house and fort (illustrated on p. 15). In the early history of the company, some very large dividends were paid to its stockholders ; although it always aimed to keep a large surplus for contingencies, such as the Portland, Chicago, and Boston fires. The stockholders at the time of the Chicago fire were assessed 65 per cent, and at the Boston fire 30 per cent; but, notwithstanding these disasters, the company was never so large or prosperous as to-day. A Massachusetts law now limits the cash dividends of fire-insurance companies to 10 per cent annually. This is an excellent law, - good for the assured and well for the company, as it tends to increase its assets and add to its solidity. The " Springfield " has always paid all just claims in full, and has a list of stock- holders who have great faith in its future ; and it is constantly increasing its premium receipts.
The Massachusetts Mutual Life-Insurance Company was organized in 1851, by a few of Springfield's citizens, who, with very little notion of the size the business was destined to reach, still had the idea that a local insti- tution might supply the life-insurance that was wanted by their fellow- townsmen. It was chartered by special Act of Legislature in May, 1851, and began to issue policies in the following August. The original guar- anty capital stock was divided into shares of $100 each, and taken by some thirty different persons, several of whom mortgaged their homesteads for the purpose. The early records of the company give some curious hints of how little its founders knew of the nature or the size of the structure they had begun. After accepting their charter, they appointed a committee of two "to visit Boston and other places, to collect information on the subject of in- surance." And the directors from time to time authorized such venturesome things as the borrowing of $400, and the engaging of a clerk to assist the secretary in doing the necessary office-work, which he had before done alone.
The Hon. Caleb Rice was the first president of the company; and for nearly 22 years he served it as president and treasurer, with a faithfulness that became enthusiasm and an integrity absolutely unquestioned. He was a prominent citizen in various ways, was chosen first mayor I of the city, and had a promptness and decision of character that fitted well with the title of " Colonel," by which he was commonly known. At his death, in March, 1873, vice-president Ephraim W. Bond was chosen president and treasurer, and still fills those offices.
I See p. 34.
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For nearly as long a term was the secretaryship filled by F. B. Bacon, who had no small hand in the work of building up the company. He served from 1851 until February, 1870; when, having been stricken with the illness that terminated his life in the following year, he was succeeded by Charles McLean Knox, who had been one of the company's general agents. Mr. Knox was promoted to the vice-presidency in March, 1873; at which time Avery J. Smith, assistant secretary, was made secretary. Mr. Smith con- tinued in the office for eight years, and was followed by John A. Hall, who was elected Feb. 1, 1881, and is the present incumbent.
The vice-president since January, 1874, has been Henry Fuller, jun., who has been connected with the company from the beginning; and the com- pany's actuaries have been James Weir Mason from 1869 to 1872, and Oscar B. Ireland since that time. M. V. B. Edgerly, the second vice-president and manager, is a well-known and long-experienced life-insurance officer.
This record shows a remarkably small number of changes ; and, even of these, a considerable proportion were merely promotions in natural order, a state of things, that, it has been remarked, "speaks volumes for the integrity of the men chosen to the positions of trust, and also of the care and fidelity with which the directors of the company discharged the duties of selection." The following list of directors shows a group of men who have fairly earned the positions of trust for which they have been chosen : Ephraim W. Bond, Henry Fuller, jun., Gideon Wells, Warner C. Sturtevant, James Kirkham, D. P. Crocker, Homer Foot, Julius H. Appleton, Lewis J. Powers, Henry S. Lee, Nelson C. Newell, Alfred Lambert, John A. Hall, all of Springfield ; William A. Tower and F. A. Brooks of Boston; William Bross. of Chicago, Ill .; William McGeorge of Philadelphia, Penn .; H. S. Wal- bridge of Toledo, O .; G. W. Bentley of New London, Conn .; C. W. Stanley, P. C. Cheney, M. V. B. Edgerly, and George B. Chandler, of Manchester, N.H .; George C. Kimball of Grand Rapids, Mich .; James M. Warner of Albany, N.Y .; Martin A. Knapp of Syracuse, N.Y .; John R. Redfield of Hartford, Conn .; Remington Vernam and John F. Anderson of New York; and John K. Marshall of Brookline, Mass.
The office of the company was in rented rooms in Foot's Block from 1851 until early in 1868, when it was removed to the company's own hand- some and well-known building on Main Street. The next move was a sudden one; for on the evening of Feb. 5, 1873, a fire broke out in the lower part of the building (which was rented for mercantile purposes), and raged all night, destroying all the rear and much of the front part of the structure. The company's safes, and most of its books and papers, were preserved ; and business was transacted, with but little interruption, in temporary quarters in the Hampden House Block on Court Street. By December of the same year the company's own building had been rebuilt, re-arranged, and im-
DEMAREST.N.Y
THE MASSACHUSETTS MUTUAL LIFE-INSURANCE CO.'S BUILDING On Main Street.
.
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proved, under the supervision of George Hathorne, the New-York architect. and its own offices were re-occupied. The lofty brown-stone front and iron mansard roof form a handsome and conspicuous feature of the street ; while the Masonic lodges and other organizations that occupy the floors over the company's offices, and the stores that are on the ground floor, make the inside of the building familiar to a great number of people.
It will probably be a surprise to many, even of its neighbors, to know that the business of the Massachusetts Mutual at the home office gives constant employment to three officers and fifteen clerks, besides janitor, real-estate man, and the local agency force ; while, in nearly all the Northern States it has a force of agents at work securing new business. But when it is remembered that accounts have to be kept with over 14,000 separate policies ; that perhaps a tenth as many cease, and a sixth as many new ones are added, in a year; that some $7,000,000 are to be kept safely invested and accounted for ; and that 19 separate State departments have to be furnished with an elaborate annual statement of the company's affairs, -it will be seen that there is plenty of work for all.
If we look into the business that is the mainspring and motive power of this institution, we find much that is interesting and gratifying to its friends. When the company had been three years in operation, the whole number of policies in force was 502, insuring $720,780 ; and the accumulations, not including the guaranty capital, amounted to $16,704.79. Yet, even in that little time, it had paid death-claims on 14 policies, amounting to $12,150, and so illustrated the nature of the good work it had begun. At the end of the year 1883, the thirty-second annual report showed 14,313 policies in force, insuring $32,860,164, and gross assets of $7,588,727.32; while the payments for death - claims, since the foundation of the company, had amounted to $6,189,178.65, and for matured endowment policies to $920,890 more.
To realize the amount of good thus done by what may be called a great collecting and distributing agency, one should be familiar with the circum- stances of those to whom claims are paid, and realize in how large a pro- portion of cases the insurance money is the principal part of what is left for the heirs, and how generally it is true that neither the premiums paid to the company, nor the interest they have earned, would have had any visible existence in a man's estate if he had invested or spent his money in any other way. The interest account of the Massachusetts Mutual for the 32 years shows earnings of over $5,000,000 : it is not easy to believe that more than a small portion of this would have been earned by the same principal if it had not been applied by its owners to the purchase of life-insurance.
The laws of Massachusetts, no less than the disposition of the managers of this company, have favored conservative methods of doing business, and
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an economical expenditure of money. The companies chartered by the State have been few; but not one of them has failed, and their members have had the protection of law to a greater extent than any other class of insured persons in the country. The celebrated non-forfeiture law of the State, that went into effect April 1, 1861, provided that the lapsing policy- holder, the one on whom the disappointments and hardships of the busi- ness had fallen, should receive a return for what the company had gained by his membership, in the form of an extension of the time during which his full amount of insurance should be in force and valid; and a great many thousands of dollars have been paid, and will hereafter be paid, by the mere force of that law, after the failure of the insured to pay his stipulated dues. The law that took the place of this, with reference to policies issued after 1880, was for the same general purpose, but gave the return in the form of a smaller amount of insurance, good for the whole time covered by the original policy, and allowed the insurer in some cases to collect the sur- render value of his policy in cash. It also revised the mathematical basis of the law, and adapted it to more modern theories, and more modern forms of business. It can hardly be doubted, that, the more widely the nature of the Massachusetts laws becomes understood, the greater will be the demand for insurance in Massachusetts companies ; for it is only to the members of Massachusetts companies, wherever they may live, that the protective laws above described apply; residents of this State who are insured in other State companies are not, as is sometimes supposed, included in their provisions.
It is a matter of no small gratification to those interested in the Massa- chusetts Mutual, that during the years 1880, '81, '82, and '83, it did over 34 per cent of all the business done in this State by the five Massachusetts companies, when it insured $4,254,155 out of a total of $12,472, 134; and that in each of those years its total receipts were handsomely ahead of that of either of the four other companies.
The Hampden Mutual Fire-Insurance Company was organized at the close of the year 1883, to insure, "against loss or damage by fire or light- ning, manufacturers', city, and village property, real and personal." The charter received on Jan. 1, 1884, bears these names as incorporators : Stephen C. Warriner, William Patton, A. N. Mayo, Emerson Wight, E. W. Ladd, Gurdon Bill, James Abbe, Edwin D. Metcalf, W. C. Newell, W. H. Wilkinson, and Benjamin Weaver. The officers chosen are Emer- son Wight, president ; Gurdon Bill, vice-president ; P. P. Kellogg, treasurer ; John R. Hixon, secretary. It has secured the $500,000 of insurance requisite under the State statutes, and has entered the field of the mutual fire-insur- ance companies. It will probably enjoy that long-lived and prosperous career for which Springfield institutions, and especially her insurance-com- panies, have become so widely and so justly noted.
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The Springfield Board of Underwriters was organized in January, 1883. It was started by the "New-England Exchange" of Boston, which, by means of the combined experience of leading underwriters, advises and con- trols this and other local boards, and assists them intelligently to fix rates on the numerous kinds of insurable property. The board is in fair opera- tion, and maintains the fixed rates, although they have been somewhat advanced. Regular meetings are held monthly, for adjusting rates and fur- thering insurance interests. Almost all the large and conservative com- panies are represented in the board. The officers are : Joseph C. Pynchon, president; S. C. Warriner, vice-president; F. A. Judd, secretary and treasurer.
Agencies of life and fire insurance companies are as numerous here as anywhere ; the leading fire-companies regarding Springfield as a very desi- rable place in which to take risks, and the life-companies knowing that a thriving and prudent community like this is one in which much effort can profitably be spent to secure patrons. For these reasons, as well as the all- powerful one that business is here to be had, there are many agents, repre- senting many companies, and putting forward their utmost energy and ability.
Co-operative Life-Insurance and Mutual-Benefit Associations have made inroads into this community ; but, as societies offering their peculiar class of protection can hardly be recognized as legitimate life-insurance companies, they will be found noticed in the chapters on "The Sociability of the City," and "The Charities and Hospitals," where they seem most appropriately to belong.
y W Was on
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Merchants and Manufacturers.
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF NOTEWORTHY FACTORIES AND MER- CANTILE ESTABLISHMENTS.
S PRINGFIELD has much to boast of in all her historical, educational, religious, social, and other matters, as has been shown in the preceding chapters ; but her greatest pride is to be taken in her numerous and varied industries. These have been her great strength in the past, and are her chief hope for the future. The city is so admirably situated on the Con- necticut River, and so abundantly traversed by railroads, and is also so com- pletely hemmed in by large and fertile agricultural sections, that it is not surprising that earnest and skilful manufacturers have located their estab- lishments in this place, to secure, besides the advantages of delightful and healthy homes, excellent raw materials, thorough water-supply, and unsur- passed shipping facilities. The Connecticut River on the western shore, and Mill River running through the city, have always offered advantages of water for manufacturing and transportation. The city has consequently long been recognized as the seat of several great and famous manufacturing establishments, whose products are sold in all parts of the world; and it is some of these, in conjunction with many others of lesser fame, that this chapter will endeavor briefly to describe. It must be borne in mind that this chapter aims to describe only a few of the hundreds of establishments in this city. Those that are selected will serve to indicate the variety of the local industries; this great variety being one of the strongest possible assur- ances a city can possess against any widespread or violent check to its com- mercial prosperity. Within the city limits are made hundreds and hundreds of articles which look for their ultimate use or consumption in every quarter of the globe. This foreign commercial intercourse has had its effect in mak- ing Springfield a beautiful inland city, with many institutions and customs of a cosmopolitan character. The establishments described hereafter are recognized by the citizens as prominent among those to whom is due very much of the city's thrift at the present time.
The Wason Car-Manufacturing Company - the largest car-works in New England - is at Brightwood, just north of the heart of the city. No manufactory in Springfield has become more world-famed ; and none has, during the past twenty years, handled so much money. The Wason Com-
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pany has built cars for almost every important railroad in the United States, and has also supplied railroads of other countries. Many of the contracts taken for home and foreign governments have been very extensive, among which was one from the Egyptian government, finished in 1860; $300,000 being received for the work. In 1869 seventy-five coaches were turned out of these workshops for the Central Pacific Railroad Company, which, with 2,600 freight-cars constructed about the same time, represented in value $1,700,000. This company has furnished the Central Railroad of New Jersey, since the year 1862, over 240 coaches (passenger, baggage, mail, and express cars), the total value of which has amounted to over $1,500,000. This is probably the largest number of coaches ever constructed for one railroad-company by one concern. On the Ist of March, 1884, ten passen- ger-coaches will be completed for the Ferro Carril del Sur railroad of Chili, South America, some of which have exteriors of solid mahogany.
The Wason works were established in 1845, by Thomas W. and Charles Wason, and were carried on in a small way until 1851, when Thomas W. Wason became sole owner. From that time, under his management, the works increased rapidly ; and in 1853 a company, with a capital of $20,000, was formed; and in 1862 the Wason Manufacturing Company was incorpo- rated, with an increased capital of $150,000. This was afterward increased to $300,000. Thomas W. Wason was the first president. From a small shed, which was too small in which to manufacture the first freight-car, the works were at times added to, until they included a large brick manufactory on Lyman Street, which, in time, became too small. Then a sixteen-acre tract of land at Brightwood was selected, and the extensive works of to-day were erected. The property is bounded by Plainfield and Fairfield Streets, and Birnie and Wason Avenues. The transfer was made in 1873; and since that time a flourishing little village has sprung up at Brightwood, the place having derived its name from the residence in that vicinity built by Dr. J. G. Holland as his home, and now occupied by George C. Fisk. The founder of the business, Thomas W. Wason, died in 1870; and his successor as president has been George C. Fisk, who began in the workshops, and has been connected with the Wason Company from its earliest days. He is thoroughly a self-made man, and prides himself upon the fact that his busi- ness success is due entirely to personal efforts; but he never forgets Mr. Wason's kindly aid. Mr. Fisk is thoroughly familiar with the smallest details of the workshops, as well as counting-room and business depart- ments. As truly said by one of his business associates, "he carries the Wason Manufacturing Company in the palm of his hand." Henry S. Hyde is treasurer of the company. He is a son-in-law of Mr. Wason, and repre- sents a large portion of the company's stock. He is recognized as one of the most thorough business men and successful financial managers in the
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