Milford chronicle., 1952-03-21
2OOth Anniversary
Dinner Planned For
Delaware, March 25


Delaware participation in the
2O0th Anniversary of mutual insur-
ance, March 25, will be highlighted
in Philadelphia at a special bicen-
tennial dinner.
Wilfrid L. Coates Jr., secretary
of the New Castle Mutual Insur-
ance Co., Wilmington, said Della
ware will have a special table at
the national dinner in Philadelphia
where more than 900 executives
and agents from mutual fire and
casualty insurance companies of
The nation are expected to attend.
Owen j. Roberts, former Justice
of the U. S. Supreme Court, will be
the principal speaker.
'"The nations oldest mutual in
surance company was organized In
Philadelphia. on March 25, 1852.
Benjamin Franklin, who played a
major part in it's formation was
one of the original directors, ,"
Coates said.
That company - "The Philadel-
phia COntributionship for the In
surance of Houses from Loss by
Fire'-is the fOrerunner of tOday's
$50 mutual fire and casualty in
surance companies. About 100
persons subscribed to the Deed
Settlement under which the Con-
tributiOnship was organized.
Mutual fire and casualty COM
panies now have more than
20,O00,OOO policyhoiders," Coates
said. 'They paid an estimated
$1,500,000,00O in premiums during
I 1851 for protection amounting to
hundreds of billions of dollars"
During 1850, the last year for
which complete statistics are
available. the seven Delaware
mutual fire insurance companies
had over 14O million dollars of in
surance in force. They received
total premiums of only $1,617, ,53S
for their protection.
1t was 1921 before mutual insur-
ance protection moved from the
cities to the farms, In that year a
group of New Jersey farmers, OBJ
Jecting that exorbitant rates were
being charged by existing insur-
ance companies, formed their own
This was the first farm mutual fire
insurance company.
Pioneers carried the mutual in
surance story westward and the
history of the farm fire mutuals
closely parallels that of our ma
tiOn's expansion. There are about
1900 such companies today.
"a farm mutual, the Farmers
Mutual Fire Insurance Company Oi
the State of Delaware, Wilmington
hears the distinction Of being the
oldest Delaware mutual company.
Coates said. "It was organized il
1889 and in 1851. it's 18TH year
had $4O,153,O5S of insurance il
force"
Franklin also fOstered loss pre-
ventiOn by requiring that al
houses insured be inspected at reg
ular intervals and obvious fire
hazards removed.
This principal has been carried
B.. on and expanded by mutual fire
and casualty insurance companies
which hayc extensive safety pro
grams for farms, highways. fac
tories and homes. Under the mutu
al insurance concept, all savings
resulting from these programs ar,
returned to policyhOldeT-Owners.
The growth of casualty com
panies was greatly accelerated il
the first half of this century b!
passage of wOrkmen's compensa
ton laws and development of auto
mobiles and highways.
A complete bOOk-length histOr!
of mutual insurance in the United
States will be published sometime
in April and will be distributed t
Delaware colleges. universities ant
libraries by the state 200th Ami
Versary Committee.
In vhrxy cold Waofbpr, II iS difiOul