Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-01-04
DRYDEN AND
PRUDENTIAL
A Brief History Of the Growth Of
the Insurance Company and
How II Was Done.

~iS"u z SoiiACu the germ OF an idea
which was destined to bring him
riches and power. And his future
was to be shared by al title group of
Newark men who needed no other gift
from fortune than faith in this
stranger and his idea.
Dryden's origin was very humble.
He was born in a little hamlet called
Temple, Maine, where the local
papers occasionally refer to him as
Temples honored SON. When he
was seven his family moved to Wor-
cester, Massachusetts, where in the
old city directories his father is
times set down as dread pedler" and
occasionally as "machinist." Dryden
himself, between terms at school,
worked at the machinist trade, and
was only diverted from following it
as his life work by a suddenly aroused
ambition to emulate a wealthy school
mate who had gone to Yale.
On leaving college young Dryden
sought employment with a life insur-
ance company. In that employment
he spent his next ten years. 1t
yielded a none too generous living for
himself and his recently acquired
family, but it gave hi ma bent of
mind, a drift of thought which was
to furnish fertile and congenial soil
for his great idea, when it should
come to him.
Dryden came to Newark because it
was a factory town with a large popu-
lation of wage-earners, and to New
Jersey because it had an amiable
legislature.
The charter that he wanted Dryden
first tried to get from New York.
IF you care for a brief history of
the company" said Mr.. Dryden be-
fore an investigating committee, 81
will give it-why happened to come
to New Jersey with this enterprise.
/. . | was a resident of New
York. l procured a special
charter from the legislature of New
York. Governor Hoffman, then gov
ernor of New York, vetoed that on
the ground that all the powers desired
were conferred under the general law.
He having thus vetoed that
charter, | came to New Jersey"
Mr.. Dryden had got his charter.
Then began the long, discouraging
search for capital to back his enter
prise.
Senator Dryden, addressing an in
vestigating committee last summer,
Cnnln fI9nftrntnC1x ia cnaatfxtN ~ /
ously of his insurance company as
without parallel in the whole range
of philathropic or charitable enter
prises." He presented a less altruis-
tic side of it thirty years ago when he
was trying to persuade hard-fisted
it. He went to the men in Newark
who owned factories. He pointed out
that their laborers were a thriftless
class. When the laborers fell sick or
died, the employer was called on very
often for a subscription to help pay
Dryden said he had a plan which
would do away with this heavy drain
on employers pockets. He recited
statistics which showed the large pro-
portion of pauper burials.
To quote a sketch printed in the
Newark Standard" of that year, the
leading manufacturers and merchants
in the city had been daily called
upon for subscriptions to bury the
poor or furnish aid in sickness or dis
tress." To relieve themselves of this
constant annoyance and expense, MI.
Dryden proposed to these Heading
manufacturers and merchants that
they should help him to organize a
society which should collect from
every laborer three or five or ten
cents a week, and in return give to
that laborer, in case of sickness, a
small sum per week, and. in case of
death, the cost of burial. To the
work Of organizing this society Dry
den undertook to contribute the en-
mad industry in which he was
rich; from the merchants and manu-
facturers he begged that in which he
was very poor, ready cash.
1t was after Dryden had thought
and dwelt upon his plan for several
years that he came to Newark. The
Newark men of money turned a chilly
ear to him. There are men in New
ark today, ending their lives as small
sh%opkeepers, who had the chance
who, by risking a few hundred dol
lars to back the plan of a strange and
young man, might have
ended their lives as millionaires.
Two discouraging years were spent
n appeals to Newark men of money
before Dryden had the minimum sum
IN which he reckoned it safe to begin
business-five thousand nine hun
lred dollars. That is probably some
hing less than a weeks income for
Mr.. Dryden now. For months Dry
len was the entire Office force, and
lis Office was an ill-lighted basement
At first he drew no salary at
III; during 1876 his salary was 500
month, for the next two years it
vas $3.50 a month.
Mr.. Dryden worked early and late.
\ card in the Newark papers an
bounced that he would keep the Office