The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-20
Thirty Years. History Of Insurance in Mas
"a sachusptts. a" ..tI '.

block in Summer street aud the publication
OF the list of insurers who had issued policies
upon the property lost and endangered by
which it appears that but small proportion
OF the Insurers had availed themselves of
the accommodations of Boston Offices, suggests
comparison between the state of insurance
business In our city now and thirty years
ago, when there was far less Boston property
at risk of either fire or marine than there is in
1865. ..r...r...# ..#..t HHf
'In 1887 there were twenty-nine stock in
surance companies in Boston, with an aggre-
gate capital of 81 450 600. Some of these
took fire and marine risks indinsrently; others
were devoted exclusively to one branch or the
other. AS a remipiscence of the time, and to
show how many have weathered the storms of
losses by Sea and land since that time, list
OF them is auhjoined. They were the Ameri-
can, a tlqndc, Atlas, Boston, Boyllton, Fire
and Marine, Columbian, Flrsmen's, Fishing,
Franklin, Hope, Manufacturers, Ma5saohu-
setts Fire and Marine, Mercantile Marine, Mer-
chants, National, Neptune, New England
Marine, Ocean, Protection, Suffolk, fremont
United States, Warren and Washington, also
the Boston Marine, Commonwealth, Globe
Fire and Marine, India Fire and Marine aud
Pacific. ..
'The year 1887 is pointed out even al this
time, as the great year of commercial and
manufacturing disaster which not only ex-
tended over our whole country, but was
severely felt through failures and suspensions
ia other continents. In that year the five in
stitutOns which are last in the above list, dis
appeared from State street, with more or less
loss to alfconcerned in them, went into liqui-
dation, and have not been heard from since
Their united stocks amounted to 81, 100 600.
Years Of business depression are said to tell
heavily against the prosperity of in
surance Offices. A shrewd but in
dignant underwater once declared that
he could take the books of any well regulated
insurance company, and by their various losses
mark out what were favorable and what were
nnfavorable seasons for trade, commerce, and
manufactures. The casual observer may not
be able to see the analogy between dullness in
trade and destruction by fire, but the fact lies
among the traditions OF insurance officers,
where it is believed that there is more danger
toproperty whenit is unremunerative; and that
losing manufactures, whether OF dear cloth or
cheap bread, are exceedingly combustible
when their owners are getting out of pocket
by them.
'In 1887 there were also nineteen Massa-
chusetts insurance offices out of Boston, the
whole capital of which was 81, 96j, 600. OF
these, five were in Salem, which held the
largest insurance capital next to Boston; thres
Were in New Bedtord two each in Lynn,
Marblehead and Nantucket; and Gloucester,
Springfield, Fairhaven, Plymouth, and Pro-
vincetown, one each The list compares sngu-
larly with that of the offices now established
in various portions of the State and their nu-
merous agencies The greatest change of all
change as melancholy as it is memorable-is
that of the island and town of Nantucket,
which then supported her two Offices, aud had
also large risks in Boston, New Bedford, Salem,
New York, etc. Then she was noted through
out the world for her whaling enter
prise; a hundred sail of vessels would
sometimes lie at her Wharves, and her
immense warehouses were filled with
oily products, drawn from the depths
of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
Her people were rich anil her business enor-
NOUS considering her isolated position. Now
Nantucket harbor has been destroyed for all
but light draft commerce by the action of the
sea; her wharves are rotting to the waters
edge; Der great warehouses are empty or have
been dsmantled and carried away. Grass
grows rank in her once busy streets, and her
resident population has been reduced one half
or more, the greater proportion of those left
being women, of the proportion of which to
the sterner sex we have the most eXtravagant
accounts. Desolation is written on the once
renowned island of the ocean. But this is a
digression.
EIn 1S40 there were twenty-five stock in
surance offices in Boston-capital $5, 10000,
and there were nineteen companies out of the
city-capital 81, 765, 900.
SIN lS50the Boston Offices numbered eighteen
capital $4 956, 875 and there were but twelve
companies in other cities and towns of the
State, with a capital of 81 $50, 600.
"In 1860 there were twenty stock insurance
companies i'll Boston-capital So, 100000, and
sixteen companies out OF the city-capital
81 ,4O3, 900.
''In 1868 the Boston stock companies are
the American, Boston, BOylstOn, Firemen's,
Franklin, Hide and Leather, Independent,
Mercantile Marine, National, Neptune and
Washington, each of $500, 900 capital; the
City Fire, Eliot, Hope, fremont, North Ameri-
can, Prescott and Shoe and Leather, of 5000, 900
each; the Manufacturers, of $400, 900; aud the
Merchants, of $500, 600; being twenty in all.
The aggregate stock capital of Boston is
IS, 100000, or nearly $4,000 900 less than in
| 1887. The loss is, however, made up by the
immense number of agencies of companies
chartered in other States and countries, and of
mutual insurance companies Thus the State
insurance report for 1868 gives list of eighty
one foreign fire and marine offices doing bust
ness in Massachusetts,, mostly in Boston.
| There are also siXty-three mutual Offices in
this State; of which fifty. one are fire. eight
are marine and four are fire and marine.
"Some of these foreign agencies do an
immense business in State street. One OF
them, of New York, with its immense capital
and profits, is most formidable rival to the
J city stock insurance companies. BY the terms
of their charters the Massachusetts, insurance
companies can only take 10 per cent. of their
capital on any one risk, which restricts the
larger portion of the offices to risk of $50, 600,
while their New York rivals, unrestrained by
law, can issue policy ten times as large, or
equal to their whole single caTital, and even
a. e.