The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-02-08
otter Creek Mutual Insurance Company.

otter creek mutual insurance company.
Mr.. Editor Il notice in your issue
of January 10Th, under the head of
Mutual Insurance. an article from a
member of the Allen and Otter Creek
Mutual (Jacob Shoenleber) not calcu-
lated to make very favorable inn
preston Of our company. Therefore,
with your permission, desire to set
Mr.. Shoenlcber right, and to correct
any false impressions he may have
made.
While the figures he gives are in the
main, correct, the comparison he
makes between our company and that
of Farm Ridge and Deer Park, is mis-
leading.
Mr.. Shoenleber is familiar with the
| fact that our company has paid for
| two burned houses and their contents;
also "A barn, and four small and partial
losses, amounting in the aggregate to
$l,74O. We infer that the Farm Ridge
and Deer Park Company have been
more fortunate, and met with no loss
cs, hence you see the figures he gives
do not indicate the economy Of one
company or the extravaganza of the
other.
As there are some insinuatiOnS
against the officers Of our cOmpany'
especially the president and secretary,
and, being myself one of those officers,
feel it my duty, and, with your con-
sent, my privilege, to notice the same.
| 1t was not three years ago, as Mr.,
ShOenlehcr says, but on February 18th,
1884, that the directors, after urgent
and repeated solicitations of one of
the surveyors, by mutual consent, and
not at the special call of the president,
met at the Secretary'S Office to pass
upon the applications which had been
taken, and were still in force, com
plant having been made that some
property had been insured at too high
a valuation. If the common sense of
any director was shocked or inSultcd.
it was not manifest at the time, nci-
Their does the record of that meeting
show that the president nor anybody
else proposed to divide the money in
the treasury amongst the directors.
AT a meeting Of the company, Jan
uary 9th, 1885, the president being
absent, and Mr.. NJ. II. Crider acting
president pro tem., a resolution was
passed, allowing the directors $3.50
each, per day, for the time necessarily
spent. Previous to this the directors
had given their time to the company
January 8, 1889, the company at its
annual meeting adopted some new
bylaws and amended some of the
old ones, and as there were a num-
Der of bylaws standing on the secre-
tary's record in the form of resolutions,
which had never been printed and dis
tributed, and as our last edition OF
bylaws had become exhausted, on
motion of A. V. Mitchell. committee
was appointed TO collect and copy our
bylaws, and have sufficient number
printed and distributed among the
members Of the company. The presi-
dent and secretary were appointed
such committee, but there was no col
lision with one another. or with Mr..
Mitchell. or anybody else to secure
their appointment. He further saws
that during the last year 500 was di-
vided among the officers according to
law Jour bylaws. This is all true.
and il was just as lawful by the stat
utes a. by our bylaws, the statutes
giving the company power TO fix the
compensation of the officers. But the
insinuation is that II was eNtravagant.