E.S.C. quarterly

              . . I
T C. Quarterly
VOLUME 6, NO. 4 FALL, 1948
North Carolina Contains Home Offices of Many Large and
Growing Insurance Companies, Particularly in Life Field
One of the fine Home Office Buildings of North Carolina Life Insurance Companies (See inside cover)
PUBLISHED BY
Employment Security Commission of North Carolina
RALEIGH, N. C.
PAGE 82
t c t i t t ! i ' ' '
the e: S: C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
The E. S. C. Quarterly
(Formerly The U.C.C. Quarterly)
Volume 6, Number 4 Fall, 1948
Issued four times a year at Raleigh, N. C, by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioners: Mrs. W. T. Bost, Raleigh; Judge C. E. Cowan,
Morganton; C. A. Fink, Spencer; R. Dave Hall, Belmont;
Marion W. Heiss, Greensboro; Dr. Harry D. Wolf, Chapel
Hill.
State Advisory Council: Capus M. Waynick, Raleigh, Chair-man;
Willard Dowell, Raleigh; H. L. Kiser, Charlotte; Dr.
Thurman D. Kitchin, Wake Forest; Robert F. Phillips, Ashe-ville;
Mrs. Dillard Reynolds, Winston-Salem; Mrs. Emil
Rosenthal, Goldsboro; W. Cedric Stallings, Charlotte.
HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Compensation Division
ERNEST C. McCRACKEN Director
North Carolina State Employment Service Division
M. R. DUNNAGAN Editor
Informational Service Representative
Cover illustrations represent typical North Carolina
industries under the unemployment compensation
program or related activities.
Cover for Fall. 1948—This showplace at Sedgefield, about half-way
between Greensboro and High Point, is the home office
of the Pilot Life Insurance Co., one of the beautiful and im-posing
plants built by life insurance companies in the State.
On the 132-acre tract, 70 acres are in lawn, beautifully land-scaped,
with 60 large English boxbushes, European lindens,
white blossom cherry trees, crepe myrtles, white pine, birch,
hemlock and other varieties of shrubs around the buildings.
All drives are paved. Three buildings, completed in Sep-tember,
1928, are of English type architecture with oversize
Jeffersonian brick, and cast stone trim. One building is 190
x 40 feet, 3% stories high, and two are 125 x 44 feet, 2%
stories high. Inside are large departments with large win-dows.
All trim inside is Minnesota birch, floors are linoleum
and lighting is fluorescent. A pool, lily lined and with about
600 goldfish, 30 x 50 x 2% feet, is in the center of the court.
Sent free upon request to responsible individuals, agencies,
organizations and libraries. Address: E. S. C. Informational
Service, P. O. Box 5S9, Raleigh, N. C.
CONTENTS
Pagic
N. C. Insurance Companies 8 2
Many Big Life Insurance Firms Flourish in State 8 3
Jefferson Standard, Durham Life, Pilot Life, N. C. Mutual Life,
Security Life Trust, Home Security Life, Occidental Life, Imperial
Life, State Capital Life, Southern Life, Pyramid Life, Winston Mu-tual
Life, Coastal Plain Life, Fidelity National Life.
Commissioner Controls Insurance Activity in State 10
By R. F. Adkins
Ten Fire and Casualty Company Home Offices in State __ 101
Hardware Mutual, Carolina Casualty, Blue Ridge, Southern Fidelity
Mutual, Bankers' Fire, Textile Insurance, Old A'orth State, Atlantic
Fire, Piedmont Fire, Southern Fire.
Regulate Fire, Compensation, Auto Insurance Rates __ 111
Fire Insurance, By Landon Hill
Compensation—Automobile, By John F. Fletcher
Companies and Agents Members of N. C. Associations __ 113
N. C. Asso. of Insurance Agents, By S. G. Otstot ; N. C Asso. of
Insurance Women ; N. C. Industrial Insurers Conference ; N. C.
Slate Asso. of Life Underwriters; N. C. Asso. of Mutual Insurance
Agents.
Three Hospital and Medical Associations in State 115
The Hospital Care Association, Inc. ; Hospital Savings Asso. of N.
C, By L'mis M. Connor, Jr.; The State Hospital Asso., Inc.
Fraternal Benefit Funds Operated by Three Groups 119
Independent Farmer Mutual Fire Insurance Groups __ 120
Farmer Mutual Fire Insurance Asso. and 19 Branches __ 123
Basic Coverage in Insurance and other Activities 126
By W. D. Holoman
Many Claimants Fail to Qualify for Benefits 130
By Edith C. Dennis
Note: Articles in this issue, not credited to other (with By-line)
were written (some rewritten by firm representa-tives)
by M. R. Dunnagan, Editor.
N. C. INSURANCE COMPANIES
North Carolina has been a fertile field for the or-ganization
and development of insurance companies,
particularly in the life insurance field. The State
now has 15 companies, 12 of them well established
and remarkably successful. Three are new, but with
bright prospects for very successful operation. In
the State are home offices of a dozen companies gen-erally
placed in the fire and casualty classification,
which includes marine, compensation and other
types. Two fire and casualty companies are now in
the process of organization.
The dozen older and well established life insurance
companies with home office in North Carolina have
made wonderful strides. In the past 50 years many
life insurance companies have been organized in the
State, but most of them have disappeared through
consolidation and absorption. A few have been
liquidated. The result is that the dozen companies
that have been in operation for a decade or more are
classed as among the most substantial and sound
companies in the entire country.
A few figures and comparisons are sufficient to
prove the importance of North Carolina companies
in the life insurance field. Total assets of these com-panies
at the end of 1947 had reached the staggering
sum of $369,037,500. This shows a growth of 230
percent during the ten-year period since the end
of 1937, when total assets were only $111,785,519.
Equally impressive was the increase in insurance
in force of 174 percent, from $755,361,357 at the end
of 1937 to $2,072,927,117 at the end of 1947.
Further evidence that life insurance in North
Carolina is big business for the home companies is
furnished by other consolidated figures. Capital
stock of the home companies, except for the four
mutual companies which do not have capital stock,
amounted to $14,966,071 and the surplus had reach-ed
$30,014,897, both of which is additional protec-tion
for policyholders. Total liabilities, exclusive of
capital and surplus, was thus $322,119,565 at the
end of 1947. At that time total investments of
North Carolina insurance companies amounted to
$283,119,768, largely in Federal, State and other
bonds, stocks, mortgages and loans to policyholders.
During the year 1947 premium income amounted
to $70,040,638, while $21,213,959 was paid last year
to policyholders and beneficiaries. These life insur-ance
companies employed approximately 2500 work-ers
in North Carolina last year, paying them salaries
and wages of approximately $8,172,000, in addition
to amounts paid to large numbers of workers em-ployed
in other states.
These figures, of course, do not include the activi
ties of the dozen fire and casualty companies in the
State, which would increase many of them by large
percentages. Nor do they include the more extensive
operations within this State of the hundreds of life,
fire and casualty companies located in other states
which are licensed to operate in North Carolina and
have large agencies and large numbers of agents do-ing
business in North Carolina.
Particularly in the casualty field, and to a less ex-tent
in the fire insurance field, the great bulk of the
insurance premiums paid for protection by North
Carolina firms and individuals go to companies out-side
the State. That is pointed to by the two fire
and casualty companies now being organized within
the State as a reason for their organization.
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 83
Many Big Life Insurance Firms Flourish in State
North Carolina has proven a prolific field in the
organization and development of insurance com-panies,
particularly in the life field. During the past
50 years many life insurance companies have been
organized in the State, but numbers of them have
been consolidated, absorbed and liquidated. In the
process 15 life insurance companies were in opera-tion
this year, all of them, except three new ones,
having attained remarkable success in the State and
some of them expanded into other states.
Two new companies, organized last year, are
Coastal Plain Life Insurance Co., Rocky Mount, and
Fidelity National Life Insurance Co., Greensboro.
The latter purchased control of the George Wash-ington
Life Insurance Co., Charleston, W. Va., re-cently
and will operate under the George Washing-ton
charter, thus reducing the companies with home
offices in the State to 14. Eleven of the 14 are stock
companies and three are mutual companies, although
several of the stock companies started as mutuals
and later converted to stock companies.
Oldest and one of the strongest of the State com-panies
is the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance
Co., Durham, organized, owned and operated by lead-ing
Negro citizens of Durham and in other cities.
It began business on a shoe-string in 1899 and is ap-proaching
its golden anniversary. The Pilot Life
Insurance Co., Sedgefield, Greensboro, second in age,
had its beginning in 1903, when a firm that had been
in operation since 1890, established an insurance de-partment.
The Imperial Life Insurance Co., Ashe-ville,
was third in the list, starting in 1905 as a
mutual company, but became a stock company in
1920.
Three companies were organized in 1906, but two
of these shifted base after starting in business. The
Durham Life Insurance Co. was organized in Dur-ham
as a mutual company, but moved to Raleigh in
1920 and had become a stock company in 1913. The
Occidental Life Insurance Co., Raleigh, was organ-ized
in Albuquerque, N. Mexico, but in 1926 pulled
up stakes and settled in Raleigh, considered greener
and more luscious territory. The Winston Mutual
Life Insurance Co., Winston-Salem, also Negro own-ed
and operated, organized in 1906.
The Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co., the
State's largest, was organized the next year, 1907,
in Raleigh, and moved to Greensboro in 1912. The
Home Security Life Insurance Co., Durham, was
organized in 1916. In 1920, the Security Life &
Trust Co., Winston-Salem, was organized in Greens-boro
and moved to Winston-Salem in 1924.
In 1927 the Southern Life Insurance Co., Greens-boro,
began operations as the Dixie Mutual Life In-surance
Co. in Raleigh, but moved to Greensboro in
1931 and merged with the Southern Life and Acci-dent
Insurance Co., and, in 1947, changed its name
to Southern Life. Depression born, the Pyramid
Life Insurance Co. was organized in Charlotte in
1929.
Of more modern origin is the State Capital Life
Insurance Co., organized in Raleigh in 1936 and get-ting
ready to move into its new home office building
later this 'year. Two new companies, referred to
above, the Coastal Plain Life Insurance Co., Rocky
Mount, and the Fidelity National Life Insurance Co.,
Greensboro, were organized last year.
More details of these strong financial institutions
are given in the articles below.
JEFFERSON STANDARD LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Greensboro, N. C.
The Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co., with
home office in the Jefferson Standard Building,
Greensboro, started business 41 years ago in Ral-eigh,
moved to Greensboro five years later and has
grown into the largest insurance firm in North
Carolina and one of the largest in the entire nation,
its insurance in force now exceeding $800,000,000.
Even when it started the Jefferson Standard was
a big organization for that time, for North Carolina
and in view of the financial conditions which existed
in the State and nation. It was founded and started
by big men, with an initial capitalization of $250,000
and a surplus of like amount, paid in by leading fig-ures
in Raleigh and surrounding area. The firm was
incorporated May 27, 1907, and actually started in
business August 7, 1907, with offices in the Masonic
Temple, second floor.
P. D. Gold, Jr., Greensboro, and Charles W. Gold,
Wilson, brothers, were chief promoters of the organ-ization.
Listed with them as the group applying for
and granted a charter were H. G. Chatfield, Joseph
G. Brown, Col. Charles E. Johnson, H. W. Jackson,
The late Julian Price,
tohose dynamic force and
native ability drove the
Jefferson Standard Life
Insurance Co., Greens-boro,
into the top ranks
among the companies of
the nation. Mr. Price was
with Jefferson Standard
(and an absorbed com-pany)
for Jt l years, loas
president for 27 years
and was chairman of the
board at the time of his
death in an automobile
accident October 25, 19^6.
PAGE 84 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
Thomas B. Womack, all of Raleigh ; and J. C. Hales,
Wilson; Charles Brantley Aycock, later Governor,
Goldsboro, and C. D. Benbow, Greensboro.
Other prominent names linked with the organiza-tion
in its early days in Raleigh were Dr. Albert An-derson,
Col. A. B. Andrews, vice-president of the
Southern Railway Co., for many years; B. S. Jer-man,
president of the Commercial National Bank;
Charles Home, Clayton ; John 0. Ellington, Fayette-ville
; Col. John F. Bruton, Wilson ; A. G. Myers, Gas-tonia,
and Josephus Daniels, an organizer, a stock-holder
until his death January 15, 1948 and one of
the early policyholders.
First officers of the Jefferson Standard were
Joseph G. Brown, president of the Citizens National
Bank, president for five years, until it moved to
Greensboro in 1912; P. D. Gold, Jr., vice-president;
Charles W. Gold, secretary and treasurer, and Dr.
Albert Anderson, medical director.
While still in Raleigh the Jefferson Standard re-insured
the business of the Carolina Life Insurance
Co. and of the Southern Life Insurance Co., the latter
of Fayetteville. Then, in 1912, the Jefferson Stand-ard,
the Security Life and Annuity Co., and the
Greensboro Life Insurance Co., both of Greensboro,
consolidated under the Jefferson Standard's charter.
Then a fight developed among the directors on the
question of moving the home office to Greensboro.
Finally, P. D. Gold, Jr., formerly of Greensboro, cast
the deciding vote and the Jefferson Standard moved
to Greensboro in 1912.
Following the move to Greensboro, most of the
Raleigh officers and directors dropped from the pic-ture
and most of the stockholders sold their stock.
P. D. Gold, Jr., soon got out of the company, but his
brother, Charles W. Gold, remained an official for
many years. In 1913, soon after the move to Greens-boro,
George A. Grimsley, Greensboro, was elected
president of the Jefferson Standard, heading the
company through 1918.
When the Jefferson Standard made its first annual
report, as of the end of 1907, after less than five
months of actual operation, it had insurance in force
of less than $1,000,000. Five years later, when it
moved to Greensboro, it was in splendid financial
condition and had made extensive progress. The
foundation had been laid for a business that was to
develop insurance in force of about $750,000,000 at
the time of its 1947 report and a figure which passed
the $800,000,000 mark last August, the 41st birth
anniversary month.
Consolidation with the Southern Life and Annuity
Co. in 1912 had increased the capital stock from
$250,000 to $350,000. In 1923 the capital was dou-bled
by a 100% stock dividend, to $700,000. In 1926
it was increased to $1,000,000 by a stock dividend of
331/3% and the sale of 666% shares of stock to em-ployees
of the company. Par value of stock, which
had been $50 at the beginning and in 1922 was in-creased
to $100, was reduced in 1938 from $100 to
$10 a share and the capital was increased to $2,000,-
000. By a 100% stock dividend in 1941, the capital
was increased to $4,000,000. And, by a 150% stock
dividend in 1945, the capital stock reached $10,-
000,000.
Present officers of the Jefferson Standard are
Ralph C. Price, president; Joseph M. Bryan, first
vice-president; C. Elmer Leak, executive vice-presi-dent;
Julius C. Smith, vice-president and general
counsel; M. A. White, second vice-president; J. H.
Barrier, vice-president; D. E. Buckner, vice-presi-dent
and actuary ; Dr. H. F. Starr, medical director
;
Carlyle Gee, secretary; H. P. Leak, vice-president
and treasurer ; Karl Ljung, agency manager ; George
K. Cavenaugh, manager, Securities Department.
Ralph B. Coit, actuary, almost from the beginning,
and vice-president for several years, retired June 30.
L. M. Johnson, one of the original employees and
former treasurer, also retired June 30.
Members of the board of directors are Selby An-derson,
Wilson; W. L. Brooks, Charlotte; Shepard
Bryan, Atlanta, Ga.; W. G. Clark, Sr., and W. G.
Clark, Jr., Tarboro; A. G. Myers, Gastonia; J. H.
Barrier, Joseph M. Bryan, Charles W. Causey, C.
Elmer Leak, H. P. Leak, J. Van Lindley, Ralph C.
Price, Pierce C. Rucker, Julius C. Smith, Dr. H. F.
Starr and M. A. White, all of Greensboro. Col. Wil-liam
A. Blair, Winston-Salem, director for many
years, died March 2, 1948.
Key man and guiding and driving force in Jeffer-son
Standard for more than 27 years, serving as
president from 1919 to 1946, was Julian Price, who
had been with the Greensboro Life Insurance Co.
since 1905, and was made vice-president and agency
manager when that firm was consolidated with the
Jefferson Standard in 1912. He had become a solic-itor
and general agent for Greensboro Life in 1905
and was made secretary and agency manager of that
company in 1909.
Mr. Price, native of Virginia, born near Richmond
November 25, 1867, attended public schools and be-gan
his business career as a telegraph operator and
train dispatcher in 1887. He was a traveling sales-man
for the American Tobacco Co. for two years,
until 1905, when he started at the bottom of a busi-ness
he was destined to lead and push to a command-ing
position in the nation's financial and business
life. When he had reached 79 years of age and was
made chairman of the board, with his characteristic
vigor, he announced that he was not being put on
the shelf and would continue to run the Jefferson
Standard, and he did, until his death in an automo-bile
accident October 25, 1946.
A selfmade man in the best sense of the word, Mr.
Price had come up through the scarcity period of
Reconstruction. When he reached the point of au-thority
through his own efforts, he began to display
the man he had produced. When he assumed charge
of production for the Jefferson Standard in 1912,
following consolidation, the assets of the company
were $3,608,860 and the insurance in force amounted
to $37,504,117. Seven years later, when he was
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 85
elected president, in February, 1919, assets were
$9,703,325 and insurance in force amounted to $81,-
644,994. And by the end of 1946, a few months after
his death, assets were $179,290,937 and insurance
in force had exceeded $672,000,000.
Cold figures are impressive, but they do not tell
the complete story of the driving, dynamic and or-ganizing
genius of Julian Price. He gathered around
him able and loyal executives and officials. He en-tered
into the full life of his city, his state and his
nation. Important business and civic positions he
held make a long list. He was president of the At-lantic
and Yadkin Railway, a director of the Moores-ville
Mills and Southeastern Cottons, Inc., president
of the Federal Home Loan Bank in Winston-Salem,
first chairman of the N. C. Salary and Wage Com-mission,
a trustee of the N. C. A. & T. College,
Greensboro, a member of many civic, patriotic and
social organizations.
In 1940, Mr. Price was elected president of the
American Life Convention, served as chairman of
the Association of Life Insurance Presidents and
was a director of the Institute of Life Insurance.
Mr. Price was a member and reached high positions
in several Masonic bodies and was a 33rd degree
Mason. He was a past potentate and life member
of Oasis Temple of the Shrine and a life member of
the Elks, and held membership and high positions
in numerous other organizations.
His son and successor as president of Jefferson
Standard was brought up in the company. Ralph
Clay Price, a native of Greensobro and approaching
his 47th anniversary, was educated at the University
of North Carolina and at Harvard Business School.
He started his insurance work as an agent, later be-came
superintendent of agencies, was elected vice-president,
became executive vice-president in 1944
and in 1946 succeeded his father as president of the
company. Mr. and Mrs. Julian Price had one daughter,
now Mrs. Joseph McKinley Bryan, wife of the first
vice-president of the company.
While Jefferson Standard, like other insurance
companies, has had its ups and downs, lean years
during depression and wars, it has maintained a re-markable
growth throughout most of its 41 years
of operation.
During the flush period of 1922, the company
started its magnificent 17 story home office building
at the corner of Elm and Market Street, Greensboro,
and occupied it the next year. Jefferson Standard
owns Pilot Life Insurance Co., also Greensboro, the
controlling interests in the Security National Bank,
Greensboro, the Jefferson Standard Broadcasting
Co., which operates Radio Station WBT in Char-lotte,
one of the two largest broadcasting companies
in the state, and owns the controlling interest in
Radio Station WBIG in Greensboro.
Starting as a North Carolina company, Jefferson
Standard has spread out over the years until it now
has representatives and agencies in hundreds of
cities in 30 states, the District of Columbia and Porto
Rico. At the end of 1947, it had 310,644 policies in
force amounting to $747,501,522. Of these policies,
92,439, amounting to $217,467,867, were in North
Carolina.
In its home office and seven North Carolina branch
offices, Jefferson Standard has a total of 517 em-ployes
with an annual payroll of $1,266,000. In
addition, it has 243 agents in the state who received
commissions, salaries and other compensation of
$795,000 in 1947.
The financial statement as of December 31, 1947,
showed that among the nearly $200,000,000 in assets,
the company had mortgage loans of $86,621,832, of
which $6,257,732 were in North Carolina. Bonds
owned by the company amounted to $62,080,669, of
which $36,068,470 were in U. S. Government bonds
and $6,396,926 were in bonds of North Carolina gov-ernmental
units and industries. Stock investments
amount to $17,152,765, of which $8,807,490 were
investments in North Carolina stocks. Real estate
owned by the company amounted to $9,544,105, of
which $4,343,604 was owned in North Carolina. In
loans to policyholders secured by cash value of poli-cies,
the company had $12,804,544.
In its liabilities of $176,357,286, policy reserves
amounted to $149,626,539. The Jefferson Standard
RALPH B. COIT WAS GREEN
INSURANCE FIRM EXAMINER
Ralph B. Coit, for more than 30 years actuary for the
Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co. in Greensboro and for
several years vice-president, retiring last June 30, readily
admits that he has not always known all there is to know
about insurance and insurance companies.
Mr. Coit, who operated as an accountant and actuary in
New York City for a period and took a fling for a few years
in Texas, came to Raleigh soon after the turn of the century
as actuary for North Carolina Insurance Department while
Col. James R. Young, first State Insurance Commissioner,
was still holding that office.
The Jefferson Standard had been organized in Raleigh in
1907, and it was not long after that date that the Insurance
Department began its examinations of insurance companies,
a few of which were operating in the State about that time.
Colonel Young and Mr. Coit talked it over and both admitted
that they knew very little about examining the books of
insurance companies.
Then they hit upon a plan. They were sure that the South
Carolina Insurance Commissioner was familiar with such
examinations, so they invited the South Carolina executive
to join them in the examination of Jefferson Standard. He
accepted readily.
When the South Carolina commissioner arrived and had
met Colonel Young and Mr. Coit, he told them he was very
glad to join them in the examination of the local insurance
company, since he had never had any experience in such
examinations and wanted to find out how the examination
was conducted. And, wasn't that a pretty kettle of fish?
However, the three officials went to the Jefferson Stand-ard's
home office, just as nervous as novices could be in
undertaking a big task. But they were not alone in that.
Mr. Coit reports that the Jefferson Standard folks were ner-vous,
too. Their records had not been examined before.
They asked the examining officers to wait for a while. Then,
they went into action, straightening up little odds and ends
that might not look good to examiners. Affairs of the com-pany
were in good shape, Mr. Coit reports.
And, as an aftermath, Mr. Coit was hired by Jefferson
Standard as its actuary, going with the company to Greens-boro
when it moved to that city from Raleigh in 1912. And,
too, he was a vital cog in the Jefferson Standard wheel until
his retirement June 30, 1948.
PAGE 86 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
has total surplus funds as additional protection for
policyholders of $23,500,000, including $10,000,000
of capital stock, $12,000,000 in surplus unassigned
and $1,500,000 in contingency reserves.
During 1947, the total income amounted to $38,-
118,499.32, while total disbursements amounted to
$18,638,885.02. Premium income last year amounted
to $6,876,880.02 from North Carolina and $18,097,-
582.50 from outside the state. Payments to policy-holders
in 1947 amounted to $8,664,444, of which
$3,860,311 was paid to living policyholders. Of the
total, $2,748,988.30 was paid to policyholders in
North Carolina and $5,915,455.96 went to policy-holders
outside the state. Also net reserves of pol-icyholders
increased in 1947 by $5,318,543.05 for
those in North Carolina, and $10,251,378.81 for those
living outside the state.
Citizens of North Carolina join with the officials
and employees in pride and satisfaction that an or-ganization
such as the Jefferson Standard Life In-surance
Co. has been built up within the state.
Jefferson Standard's modern 11-story fireproof home office
building, 115 x 186 feet, contains about 185,000 square feet of
office space. It is made of structural steel, granite, concrete,
terra cotta and brick, ivith marble lobby and wainscoting and
interior of finished mahogany.
DURHAM LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Raleigh, N. C.
The Durham Life Insurance Co., occupying sev-eral
floors of its modern new Insurance Building,
Fayetteville and Davie Streets, in Raleigh, has de-veloped
into one of the State's largest life insurance
companies from a very modest beginning on Decem-ber
4, 1906, in Durham as the Durham Mutual Pro-tective
Association.
The launching of the organization was unpreten-tious,
a group of native North Carolinians forming
the association. The organizers were both salesmen
and officers, and operations were limited to Durham
and nearby communities. This humble start was
valuable in that it resulted in a foundation dedicated
to personal policyowner service with both conserva-tive
and progressive operation and management.
The goal of the organizers was to build an insurance
company which would deserve a reputation for serv-ice
and dependability, and it was on this premise
that they adopted the slogan "We Protect The Fam-ily."
In March, 1912, the name was changed to the
Durham Mutual Life Insurance Co. and during the
following year the business was incorporated as the
Durham Life Insurance Co. The first officers were
A. M. Moize, president; C. B. Hall, vice-president;
Silas B. Coley, secretary; and J. R. Weatherspoon,
treasurer. The original stock subscribers were
these officers and E. N. Moize, Dr. E. H. Bowling,
D. L. Cozart, A. J. Mims, Jesse Bishop, C. E. Thomas
and W. H. Byrd.
In 1913, the company reinsured the business of
the Catawba Mutual Life and Health Insurance Co.
of Gastonia, and in 1914, the business of the Dixie
Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Asheville. In 1916,
the business of the Progressive Mutual Life Insur-ance
Co. of Raleigh was reinsured, and at that time,
Mr. Coley, who had since left the Durham Life and
organized the Progressive Mutual and was then its
president, was elected president of the Durham Life,
a position which he still holds. In 1921 the business
of the Royal Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Wilming-ton
was reinsured and in 1930 the Durham Life pur-chased
the Business Men's Life Insurance Co. of
Greensboro.
Due to many advantages offered in the capital city
of North Carolina, officials of the Durham Life In-surance
Co. decided to move its home office from
Durham to Raleigh, and the move was made in 1920.
After renting office space for a time, the company
purchased the old Pullen Building at the corner of
Fayetteville and Davie Streets. This purchase was
made with the thought that it would serve as tem-porary
home office quarters and that some day the
company would build on this site a home office struc-ture
that would serve the present and future needs
of the company.
As a result of this dream and plan, the Durham Life
completed and occupied its new building in 1942.
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 87
The building is one of the most modern and com-plete
office structures in the South, and is as near
fire proof in construction as possible. The building-is
17 stories in height, with a base width of 112 feet
and extends 210 feet through the entire block. The
material is Indiana limestone with marble trim and
terrazo floors. The entire building has fluorescent
lighting and is fully air conditioned.
When the present Durham Life Insurance Co. was
incorporated in 1913, the amount of insurance in
force was less than $1,000,000 and all policy con-tracts
were on the weekly premium or industrial
plan. At that time the company started a gradual
and steady expansion program, establishing agency
service offices in all the principal cities and towns of
North Carolina and later expanding to South Caro-lina.
It is now doing likewise in the State of Vir-ginia.
In this expansion program it has added to its
modern industrial contracts all up-to-date types of
Ordinary Life and Endowment Contracts, thereby
enabling it to take care of the protection needs of
every member of the family.
In the three states in which it operates, the Dur-ham
Life has 18 district offices, considerably more
than 100 detached agency offices and more than 500
trained field representatives equipped and ready to
meet any types of protection problem of the people
within its territory.
Both in insurance in force and in financial
strength, the Durham Life Insurance Co. has experi-enced
steady and substantial growth. Today it has
capital stock of $1,000,000, more than 99 per cent
of which is owned in North Carolina, and at the end
of 1947 it had 592,683 policyowners with insurance
in force of $175,344,803. Its financial statement at
the end of 1947 showed total admitted assets of ap-proximately
$24,000,000 with total liabilities, exclus-ive
of capital stock and surplus, of approximately
$19,500,000. The ratio is $1.22 of assets for each
$1.00 of liabilities.
This 1947 report shows a net premium income of
$4,947,000 in North Carolina and $1,654,000 from
outside the State, a total of $6,601,000. Total dis-bursements
last year amounted to $4,123,000. In
1947 payments to policyowners amounted to $1,162,-
000 and in addition $2,588,000 in reserve was placed
to the credit of policyowners as required by law.
Among its investments, the Durham Life Insurance
Co. owns approximatelwy $13,000,000 in bonds of
which $10,850,000 are U. S. Government bonds. In-vestments
in stocks exceed $1,600,000 and mortgages
amount to more than $2,000,000. It also owns the
stock of WPTF Radio Co., which operates Radio
Station WPTF, one of the two 50,000 watt stations
in North Carolina.
The growth of the company in recent years has
been sound and substantial. Since 1940, policies in
force have increased by more than 225,000 and the
amount of insurance in force has increased by more
than $100,000,000.
Present officers of the company are S. B. Coley,
president; C. G. Coley, C. B. Hall, A. J. Mims, F. P.
Coley, vice-presidents; E. T. Burr, vice-president
and actuary ; R. F. Harward, vice-president in charge
of the Industrial Department; D. L. Cozart, secre-tary;
J. R. Weatherspoon, treasurer; I. O. Brady,
general counsel ; H. D. Coley, agency manager ; How-ell
DeBerry, comptroller; R. E. Marshall, assistant
actuary; Jesse Bishop and W. C. Cozart, assistant
secretaries; C. H. Andrews, assistant secretary in
charge of Underwriting Department; A. L. Mims,
assistant secretary, assistant in charge of Under-writing
Department ; P. T. Stone, assistant secretary
in charge of Purchasing Department; T. A. Up-church,
assistant treasurer in charge of Mortgage
Loan Department.
The directors of the Durham Life Insurance Co.,
different from the plan of operation of most big cor-porations,
are all employees of the company. They
are S. B. Coley, C. G. Coley, E. T. Burr, C. B. Hall,
A. J. Mims, R. F. Harward, D. L. Cozart, Jesse Bish-op
and J. R. Weatherspoon.
Practically all the chief officials of the company
are North Carolina farm boys. President Coley was
Ultra modern is the home office of the Durham Life Insur-ance
Co., 11 stories high, 112 x 210 feet base, of Indiana lime-stone,
marble trim and terrao floors. The entire building is
air conditioned and has fluorescent lighting.
PAGE 88 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
born on a farm in Wake County September 7, 1880.
As a young man he went to Durham and worked for
a time for the American Tobacco Co. prior to organ-ization
of the Durham Life. Mr. Coley has been
active in many civic and patriotic organizations. He
was one of the organizers of the Citizens Associa-tion
of North Carolina, served a term as its president
and has since been treasurer of this association.
Secretary Cozart is a Granville County farm boy,
born July 23, 1882. He was in the wholesale grocery
business in Roxboro before joining the Durham Life
in 1913.
Treasurer Weatherspoon was born on a Durham
County farm May 7, 1881. He was in the fire in-surance
and banking business prior to his associa-tion
with the company.
Vice-president and actuary Burr came to the Dur-ham
Life from the North Carolina Insurance De-partment,
where he was actuary. He is a native
of Danville, Virginia, and his early insurance experi-ence
was with the Life Insurance Company of Vir-ginia.
The Durham Life is proud of its part in the great
contribution that the institution of life insurance
has made and is continuing to make toward the finan-cial
security of the American home. During its
years of operation it has paid to policyowners and
beneficiaries $19,627,868.78, much of which has gone
to living policyowners, and in addition has to the
credit of present policyowners legal reserves amount-ing
to $18,428,900.
The entire organization is devoting its full efforts
to a continuance of the best possible insurance serv-ice
for its policyowners.
PILOT LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Greensboro, N. C.
Pilot Life Insurance Co., Sedgefield, Greensboro,
founded in 1903, is the oldest legal reserve basis
North Carolina insurance company and one of the
oldest in the entire South. And as its officers claim,
it is "the largest life insurance company in the
country"—country in this respect meaning rural
area since it is 10 miles from the center of Greens-boro.
Actually Pilot Life had its origin in 1890 when
the Worth-Wharton Real Estate and Investment Co.
became a real estate and rental collection business
with a paid-in capital of $25,000 in a single ground-floor
office about 12 feet wide and 20 feet long. The
entire staff included a combination bookkeeper-ste-nographer-
file clerk. This location was on South
Elm Street near what was known as "Court Square."
It was just across the street from the drugstore
where William Sidney Porter, later to become im-mortal
as O. Henry, clerked for his uncle, drew
cartoons of local celebrities and decided that he
wanted to become a writer.
In 1893 the company's name was changed to South-ern
Loan and Trust Co., and the new offices in the
first company-erected building were occupied. In
1899 a five-story office building was erected to take
care of the growing business. This building was
occupied until 1928 when the company moved to its
present location at Sedgefield on the Greensboro-
High Point Highway.
The Southern Loan and Trust Co. charter was
amended on July 1, 1903, to permit writing life in-surance
on the old line legal reserve basis, and a life
insurance department was established. This actually
was the beginning of the life insurance phase of the
company's operation. During its first month the
new department issued 18 policies or a total of
$39,500. Policy No. 1 was on the life of R. G. Vaughn,
prominent Greensboro citizen, and the original pol-icy
was placed in the cornerstone of the company's
present home office building.
The company's name was changed again on Feb-ruary
1, 1905, to Southern Life and Trust Co., when
it was considered advisable to create separate cor-porations
to handle the several enterprises of the
company other than its life insurance and trust
business.
For several important reasons the name of the
company was changed again in 1924 to Pilot Life
Insurance Co. One of the chief reasons was that
30 other insurance companies had at this time
"south" or "southern" as a part of their name and
also that the company had disposed of its trust de-partment.
The new name was taken from Pilot
Mountain, located about 40 miles from Greensboro,
which, as a symbol of strength and solidarity had
long been incorporated in the company's trademark.
Already the company had been widely known as "The
Pilot Company." Legend reveals that the Indians
gave the mountain its name, "Jomeokee"—The Pilot,
because it was a sure landmark rising abruptly 2400
feet above them.
A. W. McAlister, one of the founders and vice
presidents, was manager of the insurance depart
ment from the time of its organization and became
president of the former Southern Life and Trust Co
on January 26, 1909, a position he held until 1931.
Emry C. Green served as president from 1934 to
1946.
O. F. Stafford, formerly president of the Gate City
Life Insurance Co., Greensboro, was elected presi
dent of Pilot Life in January, 1946, soon after the
Pilot Life and Gate City Life were merged. Start-ing
as an agent, he has worked in nearly every posi-tion
in the field and in the home office. His wide
experience in every phase of the life insurance busi-ness
makes him one of the best known and most
capable insurance executives in the State. J. M
Waddell, executive vice-president, is considered one
of the ablest executives in the insurance field. He
joined Pilot Life as agency manager in 1933, was
made vice-president in 1940, and elected to the board
of directors in January, 1944. He became executive
vice-president in 1945.
The merging of the Pilot Life and the Gate City
both successful North Carolina companies, extend-
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 89
ed types of insurance contracts written by the con-solidated
company. The Pilot Life had been engaged
in writing ordinary and industrial insurance, and
the Gate City in addition had been operating for sev-eral
years in the group life and group hospital fields.
Today Pilot is one of the largest multiple line com-panies
in the South.
Members of the Board of Directors of Pilot Life
are: Ralph C. Price, president of Jefferson Stand-ard
Life Insurance Co., chairman of the board; C.
H. Benson, J. M. Bryan, M. G. Follin, Jr., T. H. Lind,
0. F. Stafford, J. M. Waddell, and C. R. Wharton,
all of Greensboro, and L. Lee Gravely, Rocky Mount.
Officers are : O. F. Stafford, president; J. M. Wad-dell,
executive vice-president; C. H. Benson, vice-president
and actuary ; M. G. Follin, Jr., W. B. Clem-ent
and J. F. Freeman, vice-presidents ; C. R. Whar-ton,
vice-president and general counsel; T. H. Lind,
vice-president and treasurer; Rufus White, agency
manager ; L. L. McAlister, secretary ; Dr. J. L. Cook,
medical director; F. C. Willis, auditor; G. V. Mc-
Neill, assistant treasurer and Manager Mortgage
Loan Department; I. C. Crawford and H. C. Beeson,
assistant treasurers ; L. A. Crawford and S. E. Tate,
assistant secretaries; M. U. Makely, assistant act-uary;
W. D. Tharin, assistant manager, Mortgage
Loan Department.
Total admitted assets of Pilot Life amounted to
$57,701,870.21 on December 31, 1947, including
$20,019,808.06 in U. S. Government bonds; $398,-
161.32 in State, county, and municipal bonds; $3,-
146,706.89 in public utility, industrial, and other
bonds; $3,948,471.75 in preferred and common
stocks; $22,583,591.79 in first mortgage loans; $1,-
969,421.04 in real estate; $2,856,071.70 in loans to
policyholders ; and $1,221,674.29 in cash.
Liability of the company on December 31, 1947,
amounted to $50,701,870.21, and total surplus funds
and additional protection to policyholders amounted
to $7,000,000, including contingency reserve of
$250,000, capital stock of $1,000,000, and unassigned
surplus of $5,750,000. Pilot Life had $407,415,552
in insurance in force on December 31, 1947, of which
$54,121,180 represents the gain in 1947. On August
31, 1948, total insurance in force had increased to
over $433,000,000. Assets of the company increased
$6,939,929 in 1947, and in that year the premium in-come
reached the new record of $12,215,463.56. Dur-ing
the year the company's interest return on invest-ed
assets increased to 3.30 percent.
During its 45 years of operation, Pilot Life has
paid to beneficiaries and living policyholders a grand
total of $47,161,600, and the 1947 payments amount-ed
to $3,703,741.32. During the past year the com-pany
has begun operation in the states of Alabama.
Louisiana and Mississippi, raising their territory to
eleven states and the District of Columbia.
Not the least of Pilot Life Insurance Co.'s assets is
its beautiful rural home at Sedgefield. The three
attractive buildings form a quadrangle in a highly
landscaped area embracing 131 acres. One of the
most attractive features of this suburban develop-ment
is the cafeteria operated by the company for
its employees on a cost basis. Most of the employees
live in Greensboro and commute by private car and
bus to this rural retreat.
Pilot Life has approximately 750 employees in its
home office and in the field in North Carolina who
have an annual payroll of approximately $1,750,000.
NORTH CAROLINA MUTUAL LIFE
INSURANCE CO.
Durham, N. C.
The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co.,
home office in the Mutual Building, 114 West Par-rish
Street, Durham, has come a long way from
scratch, often over rough roads, to approach its
golden anniversary as the largest Negro insurance
company in the nation and, therefore, in the world.
On that eventful October 20, 1898, when the idea
to organize a company for the purpose of providing
health and death benefits for its members took form,
there were gathered with John Merrick: Dr. A. M.
Moore, P. W. Dawkins, D. T. Watson, W. G. Pearson,
E. A. Johnson and Dr. J. E. Shepard.
The charter for the newly organized company was
drawn by Attorney T. O. Fuller, State legislator, and
on February 28, 1899, it was incorporated as a mu-tual
assessment association by a special act of the
General Assembly of North Carolina. The organ-ization
commenced business April 1, 1899, under
the name of North Carolina Mutual and Provident
Association with John Merrick, president; Dr. A. M.
Moore, treasurer, and D. T. Watson, secretary-man-ager,
all deceased.
During the first year of operation, five of the seven
organizers became discouraged and withdrew from
the organization. The company was then reorganiz-ed
with John Merrick as president, A. M. Moore as
secretary-treasurer and C. C. Spaulding as general
manager. Mr. Spaulding had joined the organiza-tion
as local agent a few months after the company
began business. When he became general manager,
his duties included managing the office, cleaning up
the office, traveling for the company and doing its
clerical work.
During the first year of its operation, one of the
first men to whom a policy had been sold, died sud-denly
after paying the first premium. This death
claim was for $40 and the organization did not have
money enough to pay it. The three officers, Mer-rick,
Moore and Spaulding, met to consider the case.
They realized that if the claim was not paid they
might just as well close up shop. So they dug into
their pockets and paid the $40. From that time on,
business was much easier to get.
A valuable godfather to the new organization,
himself an astute business man, was Washington
Duke. Mr. Duke laid the foundation for the Amer-ican
Tobacco Co., which his sons, James B. and B.
N. Duke, organized and developed into one of the
PAGE 90 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
largest manufacturing firms in the country. When
Washington Duke dropped into Merrick's barber
shop for his morning shave, Merrick would present
to him problems bothering the officers of the new
company. Mr. Duke gave them advice which they
always followed and which always proved sound.
Not only did the advice given help the young organ-ization
over many of its toughest spots, it also proved
instrumental to a large degree in shaping the policies
of the institution.
Mr. Spaulding, who has shaped the destinies and
planned the growth of the company, almost from its
beginning, readily admits that while he was solicit-ing
business, he frequently made short trips and had
to depend upon first premiums from policies sold to
pay his way back home.
The first office of the company was located in Dr.
Moore's office on Main Street near where the Dur-ham
County Court House now stands. The present
home office building is a modern up-to-date build-ing
which the company owns. During the first year
of operation, from April 1 to the end of 1899, the
company collected only $395.50.
The company began business on the Mutual As-sessment
Plan. In 1905, it began writing ordinary
business to the amount of $500. Spaulding took
policy number one which he still carries. Its first
examination by the State Insurance Department
came in 1909, the year the Insurance Department
was set up, and its report says "everything was
found in tact." The charter was amended in 1913
and the company began doing business on the old
line legal reserve basis. The change to its present
name was made in 1919.
The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. in
1904 took over several small South Carolina com-panies.
These companies were absorbed because the
State of South Carolina then required a deposit of
$10,000 for any such company doing business in the
State and these small companies were not able to
meet this requirement. Raising the required $10,000
to qualify in the State of South Carolina presented
another problem that had to be solved. With the
spirit of sacrifice that had from the beginning char-acterized
the promoters, Merrick, Moore and Spauld-ing
hypothecated their personal holdings with a
local banking institution and with the $10,000 in
hand, journeyed en masse to South Carolina to pre-sent
personally the $10,000 check to the Insurance
Department. During the 19 years up to 1920, the
company established agencies in nine states and the
District of Columbia, including: Georgia, Virginia,
Maryland, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Flor-ida,
Alabama and Oklahoma.
During the period of 1906 to 1932, the North Caro-lina
Mutual Life Insurance Co. absorbed a dozen
other Negro insurance companies, largely in North
and South Carolina. These included : Peoples Benev-olent
& Relief Association, Charlotte ; Capital Benev-olent
Association, Columbia, S. C. ; Winston Indus-trial
Association, Winston-Salem; Family Rescue
Fraternal & Beneficial Society, Baltimore, Md. ; Afro-
American Mutual Life Insurance Co., Rock Hill, S.
C. ; Toilers Mutual Life Insurance Co., Tarboro
;
Provident Relief Association, Washington, D. C. ; In-ternational
Life Insurance Co., Reidsville; Eagle Life
Insurance Co., Raleigh, and King Mutual Life In-surance
Co., Edenton.
The World War period, specifically from 1914 to
1920, witnessed the most remarkable growth in the
history of the company. The premium income dur-ing
that period increased more than 300% from
$358,311 to $1,324,541. The company's agents in
1920 produced $13,680,424 in new and revived ordi-nary
business and $9,660,842 in new and revived in-dustrial
insurance. On January 1, 1927, the com-pany
entered upon a program of retrenchment and
concentration and transferred its business in Flor-ida,
Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma, amount-ing
to approximately $10,000,000 to other life in-surance
companies, withdrawing from those four
states in order to intensify its operations in Alabama,
Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,
Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
In spite of the fact that about 25% of its busi-ness
had been transferred to other companies at the
beginning of 1927, including assets of more than
$500,000 and more than $10,000,000 in business, the
company during the two years that followed gained
$3,000,000 in insurance in force and closed the year
with more than $38,000,000 in insurance in force.
Following the death of the first president, John
Merrick, on August 6, 1919, Dr. A. M. Moore served
as second president until his death on April 29, 1923.
Other executives who died in the service of the in-stitution
and who at the time of their death held
important positions were: J. M. Avery, vice-presi-dent-
secretary; W. D. Hill, assistant secretary, and
R. L. McDougald, vice-president.
Present officers and directors of the company are
:
C. C. Spaulding, president and chairman of the
board ; W. J. Kennedy, Jr., vice-president and secre-tary;
E. R. Merrick, vice-president and treasurer;
G. W. Cox, vice-president and agency director; Dr.
Clyde Donnell, vice-president and medical director;
A. T. Spaulding, vice-president, actuary and comp-troller
; M. A. Goins, assistant secretary, all of Dur-ham
; A. J. Clement, Sr., district manager, Charles-ton,
S. C. ; D. C. Deans, vice president-associate
agency director, Richmond, Va. ; J. L. Wheeler, vice-president-
assistant agency director, Atlanta, Ga.
;
W. H. Harvey, district manager, Columbia, S. C,
and A. E. Spears, district manager, Charlotte.
Other officers include: Mrs. B. A. J. Whitted,
cashier; J. W. Goodloe, assistant secretary-office
manager; Aaron Day, Jr., assistant secretary-man-ager
Ordinary Department ; J. S. Hughson, assistant
to treasurer ; D. B. Martin, assistant agency director
;
C. C. Spaulding, Jr., attorney-assistant treasurer;
Mrs. V. G. Turner, assistant treasurer ; W. A. Clem-ent,
assistant to agency director ; N. H. Bennett, as-sistant
actuary. Other home office administrative
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 91
personnel include: R. C. Foreman, chief auditor,
branch offices; B. W. Kennedy, claims supervisor;
W. E. Williams, statistician, and J. J. Henderson,
manager controller's department.
These individuals, through efficiency and hard
work, came up through the ranks and earned the
positions they now hold, many of them having been
with the institution from 10 to over 40 years.
Key man and moving spirit in the North Carolina
Mutual Life Insurance Co. from its beginning has
been C. C. Spaulding, who started with the company
during its first year as agent and office manager and
in 1923 became its third president.
Mr. Spaulding, a native of Columbus County, was
a cotton farmer until he was grown. Then, against
the advice of friends, he moved to Durham and took
a job as dishwasher at a small hotel at $10 a month.
When the opportunity came to become an insurance
agent, he seized it and through sheer ability, char-acter
and efficiency, moved upward until he became
president of the largest Negro insurance company in
the world. He displays in his high executive position
the same qualities that caused him to leave the cot-ton
farm and leave the dishwashing job. He is still
a man of the people, solid, efficient and kind. Spauld-ing
has been dubbed "cooperation" because of his
ability to get along with all types of people.
Long gone is the element of showmanship, which
he and his two associates, Merrick and Moore, con-sidered
essential to a new business. The three wore
the highest white stiff collars they could find. They
felt that this would impress the people of their im-portance.
A picture of the trio hangs on the wall
in the home office conveying an air of importance.
They succeeded in impressing the public. Without
capital or experience, but with character and effi-ciency,
they laid the foundation for a truly great
business enterprise.
Among the qualities of C. C. Spaulding is his abil-ity
to gather round him men of ability and integrity.
As is the case in few other large enterprises, every
member of the board of directors of the company is
a working employee of the company. The future wel-fare
of the company's employees has not been over-looked.
The employee's retirement program that
safeguards the well-being of every employee, reflects
commendable foresight and consideration on the part
of the management. As a direct benefit derived from
the retirement program, every employee, during his
or her productive years, can look forward to the
time of retirement with confidence and with a feel-ing
of security, knowing financial provisions have
been made for future years under a group annuity
contract with one of the outstanding life companies
in the group annuity field.
The ability and efficiency of the administrative
staff of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance
Co. have been responsible for the splendid record
made through the years. At the end of 1947, the
company had $130,787,958 insurance in force. Its
assets had reached $19,902,804.97, which includes
$14,517,941.93 in stocks and bonds, $14,190,881.93
in government, state, municipal and corporation
bonds; $2,601,582.57 in mortgage loans; $716,924.31
in loans on policies, and $670,049.20 in real estate,
including the home office valued at $340,395.34. In
addition to $15,507,527.95 in reserves for policy-holders
which represents 80% of the company's
assets, and the other usual reserves, the company
has surplus and other unassigned funds of $2,813,-
974.67. Payments to policyholders during 1947
amounted to $1,850,072 which brings the total pay-ments
of policyholders in its 49 years of operation
to $28,504,601, an enviable record which gives North
Carolina Mutual a strong position among the life
insurance companies of the country.
Further evidence of the company's substantial con-dition,
is the fact that it has $119.80 in assets for
every $100 of liability. This and other assets, tangi-ble
and intangible, including able and experienced
personnel, are sufficient grounds for predicting ex-pansion
and extension of the service of the North
Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. in future years.
SECURITY LIFE & TRUST CO.
Winston-Salem, N. C.
The Security Life and Trust Co., 1281 West Fourth
Street, Winston-Salem, has developed into the upper
fourth in size among the 400 greatest companies in
America in the 28 years since it organized and start-ed
business in 1920.
This company was founded in Greensboro by
George A. Grimsley, who had many years of success-ful
life insurance and business experience. He had
served as president of the Jefferson Standard Life
Insurance Co. in Greensboro for many years and
had engaged in other successful business enterprises.
He was the first president of the Security Life and
Trust Co. Associated with Mr. Grimsley in found-ing
the company was C. Collins Taylor, an outstand-ing
business executive, who became first vice-presi-dent
and agency manager.
After operating successfully in Greensboro for
four years, the company moved its home office to
Winston-Salem, and in 1932 purchased a palatial
residence on West Fourth Street and built extensive
additions which makes it an ideal home office.
In Winston-Salem, the Security Life and Trust
Co. received new blood among its officers and direc-tors
from many of the leading industrial and busi-ness
men located in the Twin City and throughout
the State. Mr. Grimsley continued as president
until 1932 when he was elected chairman of the
board of directors, a position he held until his death.
He was succeeded as president by Dr. Fred M. Hanes,
who had been medical director since 1923 and a mem-ber
of the board of directors since 1930. Dr. Hanes
was elected chairman of the board of directors in
1935, serving as chairman until his death in 1946,
while assistant dean of the Medical School of Duke
University.
PAGE 92 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY. FALL, 1948
Egbert L. Davis, a man with wide executive and
sales experience with the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
and connected with the Security Life and Trust Co.
for many years, was elected executive vice-president
in 1933. In 1935 he was elected president and treas-urer
of the company.
Other officers of the company are Tully D. Blair,
vice-president and agency manager; W. Grady
Southern, vice-president; S. L. Booke, vice-president
and actuary ; R. Grady Wilmoth, assistant treasurer
;
Harry W. Lewis and J. M. Hodgin, assistant secre-taries;
A. C. Adams, assistant actuary; Dr. S. W.
Hurdle, medical consultant ; Dr. John P. Davis, med-ical
director ; and Womble, Carlyle, Martin and Sand-ridge,
general counsel.
The board of directors, consisting of some of the
most prominent industrial and business leaders in
Winston-Salem and elsewhere in the State, includes
:
Robert M. Hanes, S. Clay Williams, Egbert L. Davis,
P. H. Hanes, Thurmond Chatham, Tully D. Blair, C.
T. Leinbach, B. S. Womble, S. L. Booke, W. Grady
Southern, Robert W. Gorrell and A. H. Bahnson, all
of Winston-Salem; J. Sam White, Mebane; Millard
F. Jones, Rocky Mount; J. Raymond Smith, Mt.
Airy; D. Hiclen Ramsey, Asheville; Leo H. Harvey,
Kinston; W. Frank Dowd, Jr., Charlotte; and W. Y.
Preyer, Greensboro.
Capital stock of the Security Life and Trust Co. is
$500,000, increased in 1944 from $400,000 by the
issuance of a 25 percent stock dividend. During the
past decade, it has made the remarkable record of
leading all other North Carolina insurance companies
in the production of ordinary life insurance in seven
out of the ten years, and in 1947 it led any other
North Carolina company to the extent of 20 per cent.
In its 28 years of operation, Security Life and Trust
Co. has distributed approximately $15,000,000 to
policyholders, much of it to beneficiaries still living.
An unusually large expansion of the business of
the Security Life and Trust Co. is shown by the
BBliilillp
llliiliiiiillf
comparison of figures in its statement as of Decem-ber
31, 1947, with those of ten years ago. Assets in
that period have increased almost four-fold, from
$5,076,647 in 1937 to $18,959,331 last year. In 1937,
the company had 26,557 policyholders with total in-surance
in force of $43,398,111 as compared with
74,849 policyholders in 1947 with insurance amount-ing
to $172,009,902.
Total income in 1947 amounted to $5,178,448.
Total disbursements in 1947 amounted to $2,823,816,
of which $1,085,802 was payments of claims to pol-icyholders,
and of this $452,690 was paid on claims
of policyholders in North Carolina.
Approximately 90 per cent of the stock of the
Security Life and Trust Co. is owned by 263 resi-dents
of North Carolina. Of the investments in
stocks, $491,320.58 was in North Carolina corpora-tions
and $1,519,444.55 was in corporations outside
of the State.
Security Life had $7,079,948.59 invested in U. S.
Government bonds and $204,500 invested in bonds
issued in the State of North Carolina. Approxi-mately
75 per cent of the mortgage loans, involving
783 loans, amounting to $5,044,177, are made on
North Carolina property and 382 mortgage loans,
involving loans of $1,819,158, represents the amount
outside of the State.
The Security Life and Trust Co., in addition to
the paid-up capital of $500,000, has in its surplus
and contingency funds $905,625.66, which is addi-tional
protection to the policyholders over and above
its legal requirements. This company has weath-ered
all storms, depressions, wars and high prices,
and has come through with flying colors. These con-ditions
and the experience and loyalty of its staff of
men and women, which includes 700 individuals in
its home office and in the field, indicates greater
expansion which its officers anticipate in future
years.
Entirely adequate is the Home Office of Security Life & Trust
Co., formerly a palatial residence, renovated
and with wings added.
HOME SECURITY LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Durham, N. C.
The Home Security Life Insurance Co., with the
Home Office at 111 Corcoran Street, Durham, organ-ized
in 1916 and almost wiped out by the influenza
epidemic two years later, has developed into one of
the largest and strongest insurance companies now
operating in North Carolina. Organizers of the
company were A. M. and E. N. Moize, both of Dur-ham,
who about a decade before had organized the
Durham Life Insurance Co., which moved to Raleigh
about that time, and the late George Watts, tobac-conist
and financier of Durham.
The charter of the corporation was secured June,
1916, and the company was started a month later.
For some time after its organization, the company
occupied one room in the Trust Building and had
two women as the only full-time employees. The
paid-in capital stock was $50,000 and the company
had a surplus of $10,000.
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 93
The first officers were A. M. Moize, president; E.
N. Moize, vice-president ; J. M. Alexander, secretary,
and T. C. Worth, treasurer. They and George Watts
and later his son-in-law, John Sprunt Hill, composed
the board of directors.
After the company had been in operation for only
two years, the influenza epidemic struck in Durham,
as well as elsewhere, in 1918 and wiped out the earn-ings,
the surplus and the capital stock. At that time
John Sprunt Hill received the controlling interest
of the firm from George Watts and was able to re-finance
the new company and put it back on its feet.
Since that time it has experienced remarkable
growth.
Indicative of the growth of the company since
December 1, 1920, when the surplus was only $29.05,
the capital stock in 1928 was increased to $100,000,
of which $40,000 was in stock dividends and $10,000
in a new stock issue. Again in 1940 a 100 percent
stock dividend was declared, increasing the capital
to $200,000, and in 1941 the capital stock was again
doubled to $400,000, of which 90 percent was in a
stock dividend and $20,000 was in a new stock issue.
Again in 1946, stock dividend of 25 percent was
declared ,increasing the capital to $500,000. All of
these stock dividends were in addition to dividends
paid to stockholders almost every year since 1920.
After operating for eight or ten years in two or
three offices in the Trust Building, the Home Secur-ity
Life Insurance Co. moved into offices in the
Masonic Building. In 1938, when John Sprunt Hill
completed the building which he named "111 Corco-ran
Street Building," but which is generally referred
to as the Hill Building, the company moved into this
building and at present occupies about 8,800 square
feet of floor space on the sixth floor and part of the
fifth floor. In August, 1934, President Moize died
and George Watts Hill, son of the major stockholder
of the company and owner of the building it occupies,
was elected president. In 1938, Mr. Hill was made
chairman of the board and Bascom Baynes was pro-moted
to president.
Mr. Baynes, who finished at Oak Ridge Institute
in 1911, took a job as bookkeeper for the Odell Hard-ware
Co. in Greensboro and moved up to vice-presi-dent
and general manager of the firm. In 1927, he
resigned and bought an interest in the Greensboro
Life Insurance Co., of which he became vice-presi-dent,
and in 1930, was elected president. In 1933,
the Greensboro Life merged with the Home Security
in Durham and Mr. Baynes joined the new firm as
agency supervisor. Mr. Baynes was elected execu-tive
vice-president in 1936 and two years later be-came
president.
During the ten years of Mr. Baynes' presidency,
the Home Security Life Insurance Co. made its most
spectacular gains. The assets increased from $2,-
000,000 to $12,500,000 and the insurance in force
increased from $35,000,000 to approximately $108,-
500,000. The firm now has a staff of 397 with a
payroll in excess of $1,200,000 a year.
Home Security Life Insurance Co. occupies two floors of "III
Corcoran Street", better known as the Hill Building, owned by
the principal owners of the insurance company.
G. W. Munford, prior to that time with the North
Carolina Department of Insurance, joined the firm
in 1925 as secretary and in 1934 was promoted to
vice-president, assisting in agency organization and
in public relations. On January 1, 1948, he retired.
In 1929, F. B. Dilts, of the .State Insurance Depart-ment,
joined the Home Security Life Insurance Co.
as its first actuary and served as such until January
1, 1947, when he retired. He was succeeded as act-uary
by D. P. Morris who came to the company from
a position as actuary with the London Life Insurance
Co. in Ontario, Canada.
Present officers are : George Watts Hill, chairman
of the board ; Bascom Baynes, president ; J. M. Bates,
actuary ; K. B. Robertson, vice-president and agency
director; C. C. Hamlet, secretary; Waiter Sledge,
treasurer ; W. W. Sledge, general counsel ; H. B. Bel-vin,
controller; R. A. Ross, M.D., medical director;
Lois Belvin, assistant secretary; J. Elliott Irvine,
investment officer.
Directors of the corporation are : John Sprunt Hill,
George Watts Hill, Bascom Baynes, G. W. Munford,
W. W. Sledge, Dr. R. A. Ross, Walter Sledge and
Dr. C. A. Adams.
The Home Security Life Insurance Co. has a sur-plus
of $1,307,884.38. Included in assets are invest-ments
of $6,284,421.73 in bonds, $411,383,101.08 in
mortgages and $782,019.16 in stocks, all in North
Carolina, in addition to its capital stock of $500,000
owned by twenty North Carolina stockholders. Dur-ing
its period of operation it has paid $279,789.68 to
policyholders and has increased its net reserves for
policyholders to $1,561,803. The Home Security Life
Insurance Co. is another shining example of how
PAGE 94 THE £. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
North Carolina's money and North Carolina's brains
can build a successful financial institution, devoted
entirely to North Carolina's interest.
Further evidence of the soundness and stability of
the Home Security Life Insurance Co. is given by
Dunne's Insurance Report. In its 1947 analysis it
gives this company a rating of A-Plus (Excellent).
It further shows that the assets for each $100.00 of
liabilities for twenty of the largest insurance com-panies
in the country average $106.88; whereas,
Home Security's average is $116.24; the increase in
assets for the same twenty largest companies aver-ages
6.98 percent, and the Home Security average
is 23.04 percent; the increase in insurance in force
for these twenty largest companies averages 9.83
percent in contrast to Home Security's increase of
16.64 percent ; the increase in surplus of these twenty
companies is an average of 7.18 per cent as compared
with Home Security's increase of 44.61 percent.
LIFE INSURANCE CO. STOCK
RESEMBLED WHITE ELEPHANT
The Home Security Life Insurance Co., Durham, one of
the strongest and among the larger life insurance companies
in North Carolina, has not always been strong. You can
take the word of John Sprunt Hill, its principal owner for
many years, for that statement. In fact, Mr. Hill tells an
interesting story about its beginning years.
The organizers were A. M. and E. N. Moize, but they were
backed by George Watts, wealthy tobacconist and financier
of Durham, who bought half the stock in the organization.
The firm had capital stock of $50,000 and a paid-in surplus
of $10,000. Mr. Hill had been issued a small slice of the
stock as a fee for drawing up the papers of incorporation,
as he recalls, and to keep a majority of the stock in the
family. Mr. Hill was the son-in-law of Mr. Watts.
The company had been organized in 1916 and was doing
very well. Then, two years later the influenza epidemic
struck. It struck Durham hard and it struck the Home
Security Life much harder. In just a short time so many
of the company's policyholders had died, that it took all of
the surplus and all of the capital to pay death claims, and
that was not enough to pay all claims. The company was
a few hundred dollars below surface level.
Then, one day, Mr. Hill relates, his father-in-law, Mr.
Watts, came into his office with a batch of papers in his
hand. He admitted to Mr. Hill that he was "whipped" and
looked it. He related that the company, flat broke and in
debt, had him licked. He had had enough of it.
"Here," he said to Mr. Hill, "take this stock. You can
have it, all of it, as a gift."
Mr. Hill hesitated to look a gift horse in the mouth, but
admits that his father-in-law's present of $25,000 in stock
of the Home Security Life looked like a white elephant to
him. However, he accepted the stock, thanked his father-in-
law and then set about doing some tall financing. He was
able to pull a string or two which permitted paying off the
remaining claims.
Further actions placed the company on its feet and by
December 31, 19 20, it showed the very surprising surplus of
$29.05. Since that time it has paid dividends almost every
year and has increased its capital stock from $50,000 to
$500,000, practically all of which was in stock dividends.
The company has assets of $12,500,000, a surplus of $1,308,-
00 0, and insurance in force amounting to approximately
$108,500,000.
George Watts Hill, son of the recipient and grandson and
namesake of the donor of the stock in the Home Security
Life Insurance Co. 30 years ago, is chairman of the board
of directors.
OCCIDENTAL LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Raleigh, N. C.
The Occidental Life Insurance Co., with home
offices in the Professional Building, Raleigh, pre-sents
probably what is the only example in the his-tory
of the United States in which a life insurance
company organized and operated in one state, picked
up and moved, lock, stock, and barrel, to another
state. This move constituted a reversal of Horace
Greeley's advice to "go west." This trek of around
3,000 miles brought the West to the East.
Occidental Life Insurance Co., organized in Albu-querque,
New Mexico, in 1906, operated in that state
for 20 years. Realizing the advantage of locating
in an area of greater concentration of population,
Occidental's officials, led by A. B. McMillen, who
had become president in 1912, reviewed various lo-cations
in the East. North Carolina is only one-third
the size of New Mexico, but has ten times the
population. In 1926, in view of the population ad-vantages
and industrial advancements, North Caro-lina
was chosen as the location for the company.
Raleigh was selected as the city which had been
most favorably recommended.
Just about the time the tremendous task of trans-porting
the company, which included its key person-nel,
3,000 miles to North Carolina was completed,
Mr. McMillen died, and Laurence F. Lee, who had
been vice-president and general counsel from the
beginning, was elected president.
Mr. Lee had served as general counsel for several
banking firms and for Occidental in Albuquerque.
He became president of American Life Convention
for the 1944-45 term. Currently, Mr. Lee is a mem-ber
of the Board of Directors of the U. S. Chamber
of Commerce, a member of both the Jacksonville,
Florida, and Raleigh Chambers of Commerce, the
Florida State Chamber of Commerce, the Association
of Life Insurance Counsel, a member of Rotary, a
director of the American Service Bureau, and a mem-ber
of President Truman's Loyalty Review Board of
the Civil Service Commission.
In 1934, Occidental Life Insurance Co. purchased
the Peninsular Life Insurance Co. of Jacksonville,
Florida, and Mr. Lee became president of this com-pany,
also.
Meantime, W. H. Trentman joined Occidental in
1930, as director of agencies, after an extensive ex-perience
in life insurance in New Mexico. In 1934,
Mr. Trentman was elected vice-president, and in
1943 was made executive vice-president.
Officials of the company, in addition to President
Lee and Executive Vice-President Trentman, are:
W. L. Noneman, vice-president; C. E. Hyre, secre-tary
and treasurer; C. R. Morris, assistant secre-tary;
Fred B. Hart, assistant treasurer; Dr. V. S.
Caviness, medical director; H. A. Davis, manager,
Claims Department ; Micou F. Browne, agency direc-tor;
R. H. Britton, director of training; R. S. Wil-liamson,
director, Advertising and Sales Promo-tion.
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 95
Directors of the company include Mr. Lee, P. C.
Rodey, Mr. Trentman, Mr. Hyre, Mr. Noneman,
George P. Geoghegan, Jr., Mrs. F. 0. McMillen, wid-ow
of the former president ; Willis Smith, and J. M.
Woolery, the latter elected July 29, to succeed the
late Richard S. Busbee.
Occidental, which writes ordinary life insurance,
has recorded a remarkably consistent growth during
its 42 years of operation, and has experienced its
most satisfactory progress during the past few years.
At the end of 1947, Occidental had $71,873,368 in
insurance in force, a gain of $8,443,085 during the
year of 1947. At that time, its assets had reached
$12,990,737.14, a gain of $1,004,113.14 in 1947.
Occidental, in contradiction of the old adage that
"one must die to win" produces figures to show that
while only $6,221,825 had been paid to beneficiaries
following the death of the insured, $8,000,530, or 72
percent, had been paid to living policyholders. This
means that $14,222,355 had been paid out by Occi-dental
since its beginning.
As a further indication of value of insurance to
the living, Occidental provides insurance of many
different types—plans for parents in the education
of their children, for retiring mortgages on their
homes, for savings within the reach of the individ-ual,
for retirement income, and for endowment in
cash at a certain age. A large percentage of the
benefits paid out by Occidental are now being used
for educational, retirement, and endowment pur-poses.
In keeping with the ideals of the founders of Occi-dental,
all of its assets are invested in projects vital
to the economy of the country. These include Fed-eral,
State, and municipal bonds, mortgages, and
investments in important financial activities of the
nation. As indicative of the growth of Occidental,
its number of policyholders increased from 15,630
in 1937 to 36,058 in 1947; the insurance in force
increased in the same period from less than $27,000,-
000 to almost $72,000,000, and its assets increased
from $5,690,000 to almost $13,000,000.
Of the nearly $13,000,000 in liabilities, Occidental
has in its capital stock and surplus funds, $1,301,-
427.90 as additional protection for its stockholders.
Among its assets are $4,107,104.05 in first mortgage
loans, $6,907,940.92 in stocks and bonds, and $909,-
629.34 in loans to its policyholders against their
reserves held by the company.
Partial vieio of Industrial Department Clerical Section of
Imperial Life Insurance Co., Asheville.
IMPERIAL LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Asheville, N. C.
The Imperial Life Insurance Co., 50 College Street,
Asheville, was organized and started business in
1905 as the Imperial Mutual Life and Health Insur-ance
Co. As of January 1, 1920, the company was
incorporated and its name changed to the present
name.
At the beginning, the company handled only health
and accident insurance, but in 1912, industrial life
insurance was added and in 1919, the company began
writing ordinary life contracts. In 1932, the com-pany
discontinued health and accident and has since
devoted itself to ordinary life and industrial life
contracts. For several years, the business was lo-cated
in rented quarters on Patton Avenue, but in
1925, it erected a modern three-story building on
College Street, which it has since occupied.
Important figures in organizing the company were
:
Gay Green, a prominent industrial and financial
leader with large property holdings at Asheville and
in western North Carolina ; J. Pink Starnes, who died
in 1914; A. W. Ek and J. N. Jarrett. Mr. Green
was elected president and still holds that position.
J. Warlick was elected the first treasurer, a position
he still holds. A. W. Ek was secretary until his
death in October, 1942, at which time Treasurer
Warlick was made secretary and treasurer. J. N.
Jarrett was the first vice-president, serving until
1941, a place which was not filled after that date.
O. E. Starnes was elected vice-president in 1920, a
position he still occupies.
Present directors are Gay Green, O. E, Starnes,
J. Warlick, K. W. Partin, and W. H. Starnes. Mem-bers
of the executive committee are Gay Green, O. E.
Starnes and J. Warlick.
O. E. Starnes, vice-president, literally grew up
with the company. He was the son of J. Pink Starnes,
one of the organizers, and started work with the
firm in 1908, three years after it was organized. He
is manager of the Mortgage Loan Department. L. T.
New has been general manager of the company for
the past three years. He started as agent in Wil-mington
in 1915 and was agency supervisor and
located in Greensboro from 1927 to 1935, when he
was transferred to the home office as agency direc-tor.
Other important officials in the home office are
:
John Ehle, manager of the Ordinary Department;
W. H. Starnes, manager of the Printing Depart-ment,
and Charles E. Starnes, home office manager.
The Imperial Life Insurance Co. has been unusual-ly
successful, enlarging and extending its activities
gradually during the first 40 years. Its growth has
been spectacular during the last three or four years.
PAGE 96 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
At the beginning of its stock company activities, the
capital was $50,000 with authority to increase to
$100,000. This increase was made in 1924 with a
100 percent stock dividend. In 1936, with another
100 percent dividend, the capital was increased to
$200,000. During the 43 years of operation, in addi-tion
to its $150,000 in stock dividends, the company
had declared cash dividends totaling $465,000.
The Imperial Life Insurance Co., at the end of
1947, had total admitted assets of $12,040,111, in-cluding
$6,985,202 in bonds, $3,497,527 in first mort-gages
and $179,865 in selected stocks. Last year,
the total income was $4,131,185, including net pre-mium
income of $3,584,945. During the year, total
disbursements were $2,257,522, of which $531,546
was in payment to policyholders. In 1947, the net
reserves for policyholders increased in the amount
of $1,474,109.
In the decade from 1937 to 1947, the assets of the
Imperial Life Insurance Co. increased five-fold, from
$2,500,000 to slightly more than $12,000,000. Insur-ance
in force increased almost fourfold, from $26,-
944,749 to $96,058,790. In that period, ordinary life
increased from 7,271 policies to 22,219 policies, the
amount increasing from $7,711,160 in 1937 to $25,-
958,112 in 1947. In that same period, industrial
policies increased from 120,971, amounting to $19,-
233,589 to 239,371 policies, amounting to $70,100,-
678.
The Imperial Life Insurance Co. operates exclus-ively
in North Carolina and covers the entire State
with 24 district offices in all of the larger communi-ties.
In the field and home office, it has a force of
more than 500 workers and the annual payroll is
approximately $1,500,000. Although located in the
mountain metropolis of Asheville and covering the
mountain area closely, Imperial Life has extended
its activities into all sections of the State and the
remarkable expansion experienced during the past
few years is indicative of still further extension of
its activities in the years to come.
STATE CAPITAL LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Raleigh, N. C.
The State Capital Life Insurance Co., Wachovia
Bank Building, Raleigh, although less than 12 years
old, has developed since it was chartered July 29,
1936, and started business two months later, into
one of the soundest insurance firms in the State and
is just now erecting a modern building to take care
of its future expansion.
State Capital Life started out modestly enough
with a paid in capital stock of $100,000, with a sur-plus
of $50,000 and a contingency reserve of $50,-
000. Its small office space in the Wachovia Bank
Building increased until it now occupies all of the
fifth floor and part of the fourth floor of this build-ing
and the third floor of the Raleigh Industrial Bank
Building.
A modern office building is now in process of con-struction
as a home for the company on Hillsboro
Street, at the corner of Gardner Street, just across
Hillsboro from N. C. State College. The building
will be 100 x 100 feet in size, with full basement and
three floors above ground, on a lot 180 x 150 feet,
which will allow erection of additional building as
space is required. The company also owns a lot back
of the site which will be used for parking space, thus
eliminating the requirement for parking on congest-ed
Hillsboro Street. Plans for the new building in-clude
the installation of a cafeteria on the third
floor for use of the employees, as well as a library
and an auditorium to be used in connection with the
school to be operated in training new personnel.
State Capital Life Insurance Co. writes life insur-ance
policies of all forms, including ordinary, indus-trial,
bank loan, building and loan, group life and
hospitalization, and a special school bus policy which
is sold direct to the counties of the State covering
children riding in school buses.
On its original capital stock of $100,000 the State
Capital Life Insurance Co. declared a 50 percent
stock dividend in 1944 and issued $15,000 in addi-tional
stock, thus increasing the capital stock to
$165,000. Again in 1946 the capital stock was in-creased
to $250,000 and $120,000 was added to the
surplus in order to provide for expansion, including
extending operations into South Carolina and Geor-gia.
A group of prominent and successful business and
financial leaders in North Carolina and one from
South Carolina were among the original promoters
of the organization of the State Capital Life Insur-ance
Co. These included Wade S. Dunbar, Laurin-burg;
E. H. Evans, Laurinburg; J. P. Gibbons, Ham-let
; Robert M. Hanes, Winston-Salem ; R. H. Liver-more,
Pembroke ; Thomas O'Berry, Goldsboro ; Ed-win
Pate, Laurinburg; and Julian H. Scarborough,
Columbia, S. C.
State Capital Life Insurance Co. is erecting this modem
three-story and basement building on Hillsboro Street, oppo-site
State College. It is 100 x 100 feet with adequate space for
enlargement. It will be occupied by the end of the year.
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 97
Irving F. Hall, of Raleigh, was elected 1o head the
new insurance firm. Mr. Hall had served for several
years as executive vice-president of the Atlantic
Joint Stock Land Bank and the Greensboro Joint
Stock Land Bank, both here in Raleigh. Upon the
death of former Governor Angus W. McLean in
1934, Mr. Hall was elected president of the Joint
Stock Land Banks and continued in that position
until these and other Joint Stock Land Banks were
liquidated by Act of Congress, starting in 1933.
Officers of the company, all of Raleigh, in addi-tion
to President Hall, include: H. C. Gerald, vice-president
; W. E. Simmons, vice-president and agency
manager ; H. F. Ledford, secretary ; James MacN.
Duff, assistant secretary; Thomas W. Alexander,
treasurer ; John C. Bertram, actuary ; Dr. Hubert B.
Haywood, medical director; Arch T. Allen, general
counsel ; Graham F. Trott, manager, Bank Loan De-partment;
John T. Simpson, manager, Building and
Loan Department ; and H. W. Clody, manager, Group
Department.
Present members of the board of directors, an ex-pansion
of the original group, include : Messrs. Dun-bar,
Evans, Gibbons, Hanes, Livermore, O'Berry,
Pate, Scarborough, and H. A. Easley, Rocky Mount,
Irving F. Hall, Raleigh, Dr. Hubert B. Haywood,
Raleigh, J. E. Johnson, Lumberton, Philip R. Whit-ley,
Wendell, J. Wallace Winborne, Raleigh, and Wm.
P. Baskin, Bishopville, S. C.
Indicative of growth of the State Capital Life In-surance
Co. is the increase in number of policies
from 16,508 in 1937, when the company was slightly
more than a year old, to 124,309 at the end of 1947.
In the same period the insurance in force increased
from $5,428,000 to $57,377,920, while the assets in-creased
from $145,922 to $3,073,227.72 last Decem-ber.
The net surplus and capital stock was $432,-
739.65. Investments include more than $200,000 in
stocks, $687,000 in mortgages, largely in North Caro-lina,
almost $1,002,925 in bonds, of which $310,000
is in U. S. bonds, and cash more than $800,000.
SOUTHERN LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Greensboro, N. C.
The Southern Life Insurance Co., Southern Life
Building, 330 South Greene Street, Greensboro, was
organized in Raleigh in 1927 under the name of the
Dixie Life Insurance Co., moved to Greensboro in
1931 and merged with the Southern Life and Acci-dent
Insurance Co. in 1932, changing its name to
Southern Dixie Life Insurance Co. In 1947, the
name was changed to Southern Life Insurance Co.
Principal organizer of Dixie Life in Raleigh was
A. J. Fletcher, lawyer and prominent business man
of Raleigh. When Dixie Life moved to Greensboro,
W. L. Carter, Sr., native of South Carolina, in life
insurance work since 1902, became president and
has continued in that capacity since that time.
Mr. Carter was one of the organizers of the Gate
City Life Insurance Co. in Greensboro in 1908 and
/'Bte-m
|| j
Modern Home Office of the Southern Life Insurance Co. con-taining
about 80,000 square feet of floor space on a lot 120 x
300, extending through the block.
was its secretary and treasurer for 18 years. That
company later merged with the Pilot Life Insurance
Co. Also, Mr. Carter organized the Fidelity Life
Insurance Co. in Spartanburg, S. C, in 1929. This
company was merged in 1930 with the Peninsular Life
Insurance Co., of Jacksonville, Florida, of which
Laurence F. Lee, president of the Occidental Life
Insurance Co., of Raleigh, has been president for
several years.
The Southern Life Insurance Co. handles all forms
of ordinary life and industrial life insurance and
has made steady progress in all departments. It
employs 75 workers in the home office and in its
agencies located in all of the principal centers of
North Carolina. For several years it had its offices
in the Jefferson Building, but in 1947, purchased its
own building, a three story structure with full base-ment
at the corner of South Greene and Exchange
Streets. The lot is about 120 x 300 feet, extending
entirely through the block and the building contains
approximately 30,000 square feet. The company
now uses the first and second floors and parts of the
basement, renting the top floor and part of the
basement floor for other purposes, including agencies
of the Federal Government.
Present officers of the company are : W. L. Carter,
Sr., president; W. L. Carter, Jr., vice-president; T.
C. Collins, secretary-treasurer ; J. L. Wooten, assist-ant
secretary-treasurer, and W. R. Wail, actuary.
Directors include : the two Carters and Mr. Collins
and A. J. Fletcher, Raleigh, and Charles T. Hagen,
Jr., Greensboro. Mr. Collins, secretary-treasurer,
had several years of experience as district manager
for the Southern Life and Accident Co. in Winston-
Salem, where he was also manager for the Southern
Life Insurance Co. before he became secretary-treas-urer
in 1935.
The Southern Life Insurance Co., believing in its
own activities, provides free hospitalization insur-ance
for its members with six months or more of
service, which started October 1, 1947. As of July
PAGE 98 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
1, 1948, the company also started giving its em-ployees
group life insurance after one year of service
and old age retirement benefits starting after age
60 or 65, the amount depending upon the length of
service and average income earned.
Starting with paid-in capital stock of $26,000, the
Southern Life Insurance Co. increased its capital in
1945 to $156,000 and has an additional contingent
reserve of $300,000. The net surplus at the end of
1947 was $930,279.84.
Total admitted assets of the Southern Life Insur-ance
Co. had reached $4,558,587.35 at the end of
1947, an increase of twenty-fold over the $229,559.21
in 1937. At the end of 1947, the company had 257,-
852 policies in force with an aggregate of $59,815,-
342.00 in insurance in force, an increase from 55,686
policies, with insurance in force of $8,344,932 a dec-ade
before. Investments of the company include
$92,167.50 in stocks, $3,050,049.77 in 571 first mort-gages
and $981,482.72 in bonds, including $345,000
in U. S. Government bonds.
During the year 1947, the net premium income of
the company was $2,636,528.87 and total disburse-ments
were $1,917,816.40, of which $500,030.06 was
in payments to policyholders. During the year, the
company increased its net reserves for policyholders
by $613,577.00.
The Southern Life Insurance Co. is strictly a
North Carolina firm. All of the stock is owned in
North Carolina, all of the business done is in this
State and all of the investments are North Carolina
investments, except for the U. S. Government bonds.
PYRAMID LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Charlotte, N. C.
The Pyramid Life Insurance Co., Johnston Build-ing,
Charlotte, founded during one of the worst de-pressions
of modern times, carried an advertisement
in 1933, the headlines of which read: "Many Great
Men—Many Great Industries Were Born in A De-pression
Cradled in Adversity. In Such a Beginning
a Bedrock Foundation is Laid."
During the summer of 1929, two groups of men in
Charlotte were interested in forming a legal reserve
life insurance company with its home office in the
Queen City, which then had no home office of a life
insurance company. The stock market crash in the
fall of 1929 doubtless influenced these twc groups in
getting together, the outcome of which was organ-ization
of the Pyramid Life Insurance Co.
Pyramid Life was to have a capital of $1,000,000,
but it was not until early in 1931 that the organizers
were able to secure the services of an experienced
life insurance man and raise about $250,000 in cash,
and sell the first policy.
In 1932, Pyramid Life acquired the Pioneer Life
Insurance Co., of Greenville, S. C, in exchange of
Pyramid stock for Pioneer stock. Pioneer Life sur-rendered
its charter and was dissolved. Pyramid
Life took over its assets and liabilities and some of
its personnel.
At this time, Eddie E. Jones, president of Pyramid
Life since its organization, began to devote full time
to the insurance company. The first employee of the
company had been John R. Pender, as assistant sec-retary
and treasurer, who, with one secretary, was
the entire "home office force" for a year or more
prior to the employment of William A. Searle, of
Montpelier, Vermont, as executive vice-president,
to get the company really started in business.
The first board of directors was large, representa-tive
men having been taken from the two groups of
organizers, and when Pioneer Life was acquired,
additional directors were taken on the board from
the South Carolina company.
The first officers included J. Luther Snyder, chair-man
of the board ; Charles P. Moody, vice-chairman
of the board; Eddie E. Jones, president; Ivey W.
Stewart, Ernest Ellison and H. B. Heath, vice-presi-dents
; E. Y. Keesler, secretary and treasurer ; John
R. Pender, assistant secretary and treasurer; Dr.
Hamilton W. McKay, medical director; Dr. Frank
L. Ray, assistant medical director; Hunter Marshall,
Jr., general counsel.
Present officers of Pyramid Life are J. Luther
Snyder, chairman of the board; Eddie E. Jones,
president; John R. Pender and W. T. DuPree, vice-presidents
; J. A. Law, secretary and treasurer ; John
Fort, assistant treasurer ; Dr. Frank L. Ray, medical
director ; Hunter Marshall, general counsel.
Pyramid Life is licensed to do business in its own
State of North Carolina and also in South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Gross assets are
now in excess of $2,000,000 and life insurance in
force exceeds $30,000,000.
WINSTON MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Winston-Salem, N. C.
One of the early Negro life insurance companies
in North Carolina has had a remarkable career since
it was organized in August, 1906, while the two
towns of Winston and Salem were separate munici-pal
corporations.
A group of leading Winston-Salem Negroes recog-nized
the need for an industrial insurance organiza-tion
that would fill a place for wage earners, partic-ularly
in the Winston-Salem area. Since that time
the Winston Mutual Life Insurance Co. has spread
out until it covers practically the entire State with
district offices throughout North Carolina.
The late Dr. J. W. Jones was the moving spirit be-hind
the organization and became its first treasurer.
J. S. Fitts, a prominent Negro lawyer, was the first
president. J. C. McKnight, one of the original direc
tors, is still a director. M. W. Johnson was the first
agency director and J. A. Blume was the first office
j manager and the only active officer for several
j
years. G. W. Hill, the present president, was among
the first agents employed by the company.
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 99
For the first five or six years, the office was located
in one room over the Jones Drug Store at Fourth
and Church Streets. From 1913 to 1928, the office
was located on Church Street over the Forsyth Sav-ings
and Trust Co. For the next eleven years, until
1939, the firm occupied offices on Third Street. At
the expiration of that time the company purchased
a building, a modern two story edifice, suitable for
its activities, on the corner of Eleventh Street and
Woodland Avenue.
In 1913, J. A. Blume was promoted to president
of the company, succeeding J. S. Fitts and served
until 1936 when G. W. Hill succeeded him. N. T.
Mitchell, district office manager at Wilmington, is
one of the older employees of the company, having
been in service for 28 years, and E. M. Lewis, co-manager
of the Winston-Salem district office, has
20 years of service with the company.
During the first one-third of the 42 years of opera-tion,
the Winston Mutual Life Insurance Co. had
many "ups and downs", but was laying a firm foun-dation
on which to build an important financial in-stitution.
Since the installation of G. W. Hill as
president, eleven years ago, the company has ex-perienced
its most remarkable growth During that
period the assets increased from $89,000 to $1,255,-
000, an increase of more than 1400 percent.
The Winston Mutual Life Insurance Co. has wise-ly
invested its total admitted assets of more than
$1,255,000. Among its investments are $500,000 in
U. S. Government bonds and $20,200 in stocks and
other bonds. Its mortgage loans on real estate
amount to $568,983.83, cash and deposits in banks
amount to $104,078.88 and its real estate holdings
are valued at $55,606.61.
With total liabilities of $992,016.87, the company
has a surplus of $180,000 and $83,607.99 reserved
for contingencies, giving a total fund of $263,607.99
for additional protection of its policyholders. As
the Winston Mutual Life Insurance Co. advertises,
it has $126.57 in assets for each $100.00 in liabilities.
Present officers and directors of the company fol-low:
G. W. Hill, president and manager; J. E. Til-lett,
Edenton, vice-president; E. E. Hill, secretary;
W. P. Hairston, treasurer ; Mrs. Nellie M. Bausman,
assistant treasurer-cashier; A. W. Harper, auditor;
A. T. Spaulding, Durham, consulting actuary; Dr.
John R. Henry, medical director; W. Avery Jones,
attorney, and G. Cosmo Hill, J. C. McKnight and
Mrs. Selena Hayes Hall, directors.
District offices and managers are located at the
following points in the state : Winston-Salem, A. W.
McKnight and E. M. Lewis, managers; Greensboro,
R. E. Walker, manager; Salisbury, L. J. Caldwell,
manager; Charlotte, W. L. Adams, manager; Ashe-ville,
R. L. Spicer, manager; Raleigh, P. A. Simmons,
manager ; Fayetteville, C. W. Newell, manager ; Wil-mington,
N. Theo Mitchell, manager; Rocky Mount,
J. L. Smith, C. R. Reid and C. J. Artis, managers.
Three special field representatives are J. H. Alex-ander,
W. E. Baird and M. H. Spence.
The Winston Mutual Life Insurance Co. operates
its own printing department, in which all policies,
forms and stationery are printed.
With its firm and business-like foundation, built
over a period of 42 years and the remarkable growth
during the past decade, the Winston Mutual Life In-surance
Co. is now in position to extend and expand
its activities in the industrial insurance field to
greater achievements in the years to come.
COASTAL PLAIN LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Rocky Mount, N. C.
The Coastal Plain Life Insurance Co., with its
home office at 123 Rose Street, Rocky Mount, is a
new and husky youngster in the life insurance field
in North Carolina. It was incorporated July 25,
1947, and started business just before the year
ended.
The Coastal Plain Life Insurance Co. has author-ized
capital stock of $250,000, with $100,000 paid-in
and a contributed surplus of $75,000. It is develop-ing
a full line of industrial life and health and acci-dent
insurance. With five full-time employees in the
home office, the company has 35 workers in the field.
In its expansion program, the Coastal Plain Life
Insurance Co. has district offices already established
at Rocky Mount, Durham, Goldsboro, Washington,
Wilmington and Greenville, with plans for further
additions and has agents operating in Henderson,
Tarboro, Kinston and Wilson.
Officers of the company include: S. E. Wilson,
president; W. C. Woodard, Jr., vice-president, and
G. H. Foster, secretary. Directors, some of the most
prominent business and professional men in Rocky
Mount and other eastern communities, include, in
addition to Mr. Wilson and Mr. Woodard, William
H. Shaw, chairman; Hyman L. Battle, James C.
Gardner, R. D. Wimberly, A. R. Weathers, Dr. R. D.
Kornegay, J. J. Haggerty; H. H. Strandberg and
Wiley W. Mears, all of Rocky Mount ; B. A. Wilson,
Henderson; R. M. Fountain, Tarboro, and T. B.
Glover, Roanoke Rapids.
Mr. Wilson, president, a native of Warren County,
has had 23 years of experience in industrial and
ordinary life insurance. Ten years of this time was
spent in Rocky Mount as district manager of the
Southern Life Insurance Co., Greensboro. Mr. Wood-ard,
vice-president, a native of Rocky Mount, is also
an experienced insurance man, having spent ten
years as district agent in Rocky Mount for the At-lantic
Life Insurance Co., Richmond, Va. Mr. Foster,
secretary, came to Rocky Mount about a year ago to
help organize the Coastal Plain Life Insurance Co.
He is a native of New Jersey and spent nine years
with William R. Price and Co., general agents, and
five years with the Ocean Accident and Guarantee
Corp., both of New York City.
The Coastal Plain Life Insurance Co. has made
satisfactory growth in the less than one year it has
been in operation.
PAGE 100 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
FIDELITY NATIONAL LIFE INSURANCE CO.
Greensboro, N. C.
The Fidelity National Life Insurance Co., 412
Dixie Building, Greensboro, is one of North Caro-lina's
newest life insurance firms. It was incorpo-rated
July 7, 1947, with authorized capital of $2,000,-
000, with $200,000 paid-in and $100,000 in contribut-ed
surplus.
Officers of this new company are : Emry C. Green,
president and treasurer; D. E. Hudgins, vice-presi-dent
and general counsel, and Ralph L. Lewis, secre-tary.
Directors of the company, in addition to the
three officers, all prominent business and profes-sional
men in the Piedmont area, include: W. J.
•Carter, H. C. Carter, C. W. Edwards, John W. Clark,
V. B. Higgins and W. J. Adams, Jr., all of Greens-boro;
Earl N. Phillips, A. M. Rankin, Jr., and Jack
Burris, all of High Point; N. C. English and Doak
Finch, Thomasville; Ralph M. Holt, Burlington; J.
Murrey Atkins, Charlotte; Miles J. Smith and Fred
J. Stanback, Salisbury, and B. E. Jordan, Saxapa-haw.
Mr. Green, native of Halifax County, taught school
at Weldon and was also a postal employee briefly.
He is a graduate of Georgia Tech in chemical negi-neering.
Years ago, he went to Greensboro and for
several years was developing as an insurance man
with the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co. He
moved up until he became secretary. He held this
position for several years and was also manager of
the Mortgage Loan Department. In 1934, Mr. Green
was elected president of the Pilot Life Insurance Co.,
continuing in that position until 1946. For several
months he has been engaged in the organization of
the Fidelity National Life Insurance Co.
Ralph L. Lewis, native of New York State, moved
to Greensboro as a child with his parents in 1910.
For six or seven years, he was on the road for the
Hartford Fire Insurance Co. and in 1924, he returned
to Greensboro and became associated with J. E.
Lathan and Co., real estate firm, serving as secretary
until 1936. Then, he organized the firm of Lewis
and Stephens, Inc., real estate and insurance, later
selling his interest in that firm. Mr. Lewis was a
member of the Greensboro City Council from 1932
to 1940, serving as mayor of the city in 1939-40.
From 1940 to 1946, he was in the U. S. Army, serving
as Base Commander at several overseas places. He
was a Colonel at the time of his discharge.
D. E. Hudgins, vice-president of Fidelity National
Life and its general counsel, is a native of Marion, a
graduate of the University of North Carolina and a
Rhodes scholar to England. He has been a promi-nent
Greensboro attorney for several years.
The Fidelity National Life Insurance Co., in Aug-ust,
purchased the controlling interest in the George
Washington Life Insurance Co. of Charleston, West
Virginia. This well-known institution was organ-ized
in 1906. The Fidelity National will carry on its
operations through the George Washington Life and
will discontinue operations of the Fidelity National
for the time being.
Mr. Green has been made president and Mr. Lewis
vice-president of the George Washington Life Insur-ance
Co.
Commissioner Controls Insurance Activity in State
By R. F. Adkins, Casualty Rate Specialist, N. C. Insurance Department
The North Carolina Insurance Department was
established by Act of the General Assembly on March
8, 1899. The Statutes charge the department with
the execution of all laws relating to insurance and
other subjects placed by law under the Department.
Included in these "other subjects" are the North
Carolina Building & Loan Division, the State Fire
Marshal's office, the State Building Code, inspection
and certain other functions of State properties and
buildings, and administration of the State Property
Fire Insurance Fund.
The Commissioner of Insurance is elected by the
people of the State for a term of four years, in the
same manner as any other elective State officer. His
salary is fixed by law.
The Statutes provide that the Commissioner shall
have the following powers and duties
:
1. To see that all laws of the State governing in-surance
companies, associations, and orders or bu-reaus
relating to the business of insurance are faith-fully
executed and to make rules and regulations not
inconsistent with the law, to enforce, carry out and
make effective such provisions of the law.
2. To receive and thoroughly examine all annual
statements which are required to be filed by each in-surance
company licensed to do business in the State.
3. To file with the Clerk of Superior Court of each
county on the first day of May a list of companies,
associations, orders and bureaus licensed to do busi-ness
in North Carolina.
4. To report in detail to the Attorney General any
violations of the law relative to insurance companies,
associations, orders and bureaus or the business of
insurance generally.
5. To conduct examinations, investigations and
hearings wherever necessary relative to any matters
involving the business of insurance.
6. To conduct or cause to be made, in cooperation
with local authorities, inspections of buildings in
towns and cities of the State to assure compliance
with the Building Code and laws relative thereto.
FALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 101
Examine plans and specifications of certain build-ings
or proposed buildings such as public buildings,
hospitals, hotels and theatres.
7. To report biennially to the Governor and the
General Assembly on his official acts, including a
summary of official rulings and regulations.
8. To issue licenses to insurance companies mak-ing
application to do business in the State provided
it is determined that such companies are duly quali-fied
and meet all requirements of the law for admis-sion.
To conduct examinations of all applicants as
insurance agents and to issue licenses to applicants
qualifying as insurance agents.
9. To perform all the duties and exercise all the
powers of supervision over all domestic building and
loan associations, including the issuance of licenses
and collection of license fees.
10. To examine carefully, as often as once in three
years, each domestic insurance company especially
as to its financial condition and ability to fulfill its
obligations and whether it has complied in all re-spects
with the laws. To assist in the examination
of insurance companies located in other states and
licensed to write insurance in North Carolina, inso-far
as the giving of such assistance is possible.
11. To conduct annual examinations of all build-ing
and loan associations licensed to do business in
the State.
12. To investigate all complaints and charges of
violations brought to the Department's attention.
13. To collect all taxes and license fees levied up-on
insurance companies, bureaus and agents, and to
deposit all such funds with the State Treasurer.
14. To require the filing of all rates for all types
of insurance and all policy and endorsement forms
used in writing all types of insurance; to examine
carefully such rates and policy forms and to approve
same if found to be in accordance with the provisions
of the Insurance Laws and fully justified. To dis-approve
all filings of rates and forms not in accord-ance
with the provisions of the Insurance Laws and
not fully justified.
The Statutes provide that the office of the Com-missioner
shall be a public office and the records, re-ports,
books and papers thereof on file therein shall
be accessible to the inspection of the public.
Many important changes and revisions in the In-surance
Laws were enacted by the 1945 and 1947
sessions of the General Assembly. Foremost are
Statutes relating to regulation of rates for various
lines of insurance and to meet the requirements of
Federal Public Law 15—a result of the Supreme
Court's decision in June, 1944, that insurance is in-terstate
commerce.
The duties of the Commissioner of Insurance as
specified in the Insurance Laws and as set forth in
the rules and regulations adopted by the Department
all point to one specific objective; i. e., the safeguard-ing
and protection of the public interests of the citi-zens
of the State in all matters relative to insurance
which is purchased by the citizens for the protection
of themselves, their beneficiaries, or the public. This
objective, however, requires a tremendous amount
of detail and the functioning of complicated depart-mental
machinery which must be administered by
the Commissioner, his deputies, and the personnel
under him. It requires the strictest scrutiny of all
rate schedules, policy forms, company practices, an-nual
financial statements of the companies, the li-censing
of the highest type of insurance agents, and
the stamping out of all illegal and unethical practices
on the part of anyone connected with the insurance
business.
Col. James R. Young was the first Insurance Com-missioner
and was succeeded, in turn, by Stacey W.
Wade, the late Dan C. Boney and the present Com-missioner
William P. Hodges.
Ten Fire and Casualty Company Home Offices in State
North Carolina has a dozen home companies which
fall into the general classification of fire and casualty
companies, embracing marine, compensation and
other types, ten of which are in operation and two
of which are still in the organization stage. The
State has within its borders fewer home offices of
fire and casualty companies than is the case with
life insurance companies.
Many fire insurance companies started in North
Carolina as home companies have been absorbed en-tirely
or are controlled by larger fire insurance
groups chartered in and operating from other states.
Three of the larger North Carolina firms have been
able to retain their names and operate as North
Carolina companies, many of the directors living in
this State. They are the Atlantic Fire Insurance Co.,
Raleigh, affiliated with the Phoenix Insurance Co.,
Hartford, Conn. ; the Piedmont Fire Insurance Co.,
Charlotte, one of the group of the ^Etna Insurance
Co., and the Southern Fire Insurance Co., Durham,
affiliated with the Crum & Forster group. The old-est
company in the State, the North Carolina Home
Insurance Co., Raleigh, no longer exists and has be-come
a departmental office of the group composing
the American National Fire Insurance Co. of New
York. Still another, the Dixie Fire Insurance Co.,
Greensboro, has also passed out of existence and
operates as a branch of the American Fire Insurance
Co. of Newark, N. J.
In the group of home-owned fire and casualty com-panies
are the Hardware Mutual Fire Insurance
Company of the Carolinas, Charlotte, which has
gone into other fields than hardware; the Carolina
Casualty Insurance Co., Burlington ; two Negro com-
PAGE 102 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
panies in Durham, the Bankers Fire Insurance Co.,
and the Southern Fidelity Mutual Insurance Co.,
both affiliated with the large North Carolina Mutual
Life Insurance Co., Durham; and the Blue Ridge
Fire Insurance Co., which started in South Carolina
a few years ago and moved to Shelby January 1,
1946. Two other companies in process of organiza-tion
are the Old North State Insurance Co., Green-ville,
and the Textile Insurance Co., which will have
its home office in High Point.
Detailed information on these companies is given
in the articles below.
HARDWARE MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE
COMPANY OF THE CAROLINAS
Charlotte, N. C.
The Hardware Mutual Fire Insurance Company
of the Carolinas, 118 East Fourth Street, Charlotte,
chartered in 1911 and beginning business in 1912, is
the only advance premium mutual fire insurance
company in North Carolina and probably the only
one in the entire southeast.
This firm was organized as a service of the Hard-ware
Association of the Carolinas and for many
years wrote insurance for the hardware merchants
of North and South Carolina. In 1933, it started
writing general business insurance covering other
kinds of business property, along with its hardware
store business.
The first officers of the Hardware Mutual Fire
Insurance Company were: W. W. Watt, Charlotte,
president; W. H. Keith, Timmonsville, S. C, vice-president;
E. W. Duvall, Cheraw, S. C, treasurer;
T. W. Dixon, Charlotte, secretary. Additional direc-tors
were: M. Bonnoitt, Darlington, S. C. ; U. Ben-ton
Blalock, Wadesboro ; A. R. Craig, Marion, S. C.
;
W. H. Smith, Gaffney, S. C, and R. H. McDuffie,
Asheville. This group, along with M. J. O'Neill,
Henderson, and H. E. Reid, Lincolnton, formed the
organizing committee.
Col. James R. Young, North Carolina Insurance
Commissioner, was so interested in helping to pro-mote
this company that he agreed, probably extra-legally,
to accept the personal notes of members of
the board of directors and others as a fund in lieu
of reserves and to guarantee that any fire losses
would be paid. When sufficient funds had been ac-cumulated
as reserves, Commissioner Young return-ed
the notes filed with him. Incidentally, the first
loss amounted to $95.00, which was paid promptly,
as has been the case in every loss since.
Mr. Watt, the first president, at the time of his
election, was a traveling salesman in the Carolina
area for a large hardware jobbing house in Phila-delphia.
He continued as president until 1939 when
he was made chairman of the board. He died two
years later. A. R. Craig, one of the original directors,
was made assistant secretary and moved to Charlotte
in 1919. When T. W. Dixon, the first secretary, died
in 1924, Mr. Craig succeeded him as secretary and
the offices of secretary and treasurer were com-bined.
Mr. Craig continued to hold this combined
position until 1939, when he succeeded Mr. Watt as
president of the organization.
When the Hardware Mutual Fire Insurance Co.
was first organized, it started in offices in the Com-mercial
National Bank Building. It remained there
TWO N. C. FIRE INSURANCE
COMPANIES LOSE IDENTITY
N. C. HOME INSURANCE CO.
The North Carolina Home Insurance Co., Commercial
Building, Raleigh, oldest insurance company in North Caro-lina,
which weathered the storms and came through 80 years
of ups and downs from the Reconstructions days, is no
more. Its nucleus is now a departmental office of the
American National Fire Insurance Company of New York,
and its affiliates.
The North Carolina Home Insurance Co. was organized
by a group of North Carolina citizens in 1868, three years
after the War Between the States ended, because residents
of this State could not get Are insurance on their property
through northern companies. Several such companies were
formed in North Carolina during that Reconstruction period,
but North Carolina Home was the only one to survive. This
company had an initial capital stock of $126,400, about all !
in notes of many prominent citizens in the State, for there
was little cash then.
In 1888 the State Bank, which held a large amount of
the notes of the North Carolina Home Insurance Co., went
into liquidation, and control of the company was purchased
by the Great American Insurance Co. This control con-tinued
until last year, even though the North Carolina Home
had about 300 stockholders in this State. In 19 47 a re
organization and consolidation was completed by which the
American National Fire Insurance Co. of New York, form
erly of Columbus, Ohio, acquired control of the North Caro-lina
Home, and this company has now passed into history
After the Great American acquired the North Carolina
Home, in 1899, Alexander Webb joined the company as vice
president and executive officer. A few years later Mr. Webb
was elected president and held that position for 40 years
or more, until the merger last year. He joined the com
pany at the age of 30 and is now 78. He has been the main
spring of the firm during these years and has entered fully
into the life and growth of Raleigh.
Raleigh now has one of the four departmental offices,
the others being located in Chicago, San Francisco, and
Montreal, Canada. Mr. Webb continues as manager of this
office for North Carolina and part of South Carolina for-the
six affiliated companies, American National Fire, Great
American, American Alliance, Rochester American, Massa
chusetts Fire and Marine, and Detroit Fire and Marine.
DIXIE FIRE INSURANCE CO.
The Dixie Fire Insurance Co., Dixie Building, Greensboro,
was another of the North Carolina fire insurance companies
which has now lost its identity and name and the former
organization is now a branch of the American Fire Insur-ance
Co., Newark, N. J., which acquired control and liquidat-ed
the Dixie Fire last year.
James Blades, wealthy lumberman of Elizabeth City and
later of New Bern, was the first president of Dixie Fire, al
though he never moved to Greensboro. The company wai
promoted by a Mr. Thompson and the organization was per
fected about 1910. Mr. Blades continued as president foi
about five years, until his death in an automobile accident
west of Hickory while on his way to Montreat.
Harry R. Bush, an experienced fire insurance man, was
brought into the company and as president directed its
affairs successfully for many years. Dixie Fire, meanwhile
had been consolidated with the North State Fire Insurant
Co., operations continuing under Dixie Fire's charter. Mr
Bush was instrumental in getting the American Fire Insur
ance Co., interested in Dixie Fire, resulting in the purchas<
later.
:ALL, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 103
mtil 1942, when it moved to its present location at
L18 East Fourth Street. With only two or three
)aid employees at the beginning, it now has twenty
employees, thirteen in the home office at Charlotte
ind seven traveling men covering North and South
Carolina.
Present officers of the company are: Arthur R.
>aig, president and treasurer; J. M. Anderson,
Columbia, S. C, vice-president; M. R. Whisnant, sec-retary,
and R. S. Logan, cashier. The directors, in
iddition to Messrs. Craig, Anderson and Whisnant
ire : H. P. Duvall, Jr., Cheraw, S. C. ; J. T. Griffith,
Monroe ; J. R. Poindexter, Elkin ; R. E. Barron, Rock
Sill, S. C. ; D. E. Turner, Sr., Mooresville, and Abel
barren, Garland.
Indicative of the value of the operation of this
company is a report that in its 36 years of opera-
;ion, it has paid $1,234,176.30 in dividends to its
policyholders and has paid $785,983.00 in net losses
;o its policyholders. In its December 31, 1947, state-nent
of conditions, the company shows total assets
)f $661,313.70 and of its liabilities, $444,827.69 is
shown as surplus to its policyholders. The company
aow has $3.00 in assets for every $1.00 of liabilities.
Because of the company's care in selecting risks
md its economy in management, it has been possible
for the company, having no stockholders, to pay
handsome dividends to its policyholders. During the
36 years of operation, it paid policyholders dividends
di 25 per cent from 1912 through 1918; from 1919
through 1922, dividends amounted to 33V3 percent
and since that time, dividends have been on a 35 per-cent
basis.
Assets of the Hardware Mutual Fire Insurance Co.
have trebled during the past decade, increasing from
$208,797.16 in 1937 to $661,313.70 at the end of
business in 1947. Of its net surplus of $444,827.69,
investments include $148,954.21 in stocks and $301,-
767.84 in bonds, of which $165,152.43 is invested in
U. S. bonds.
Two of the effective slogans of Hardware Mutual
Fire Insurance Company of the Carolinas are:
"Make your insurance, pay your dividends," and
"Make your dividends, pay your taxes."
Incidentally, Alfred M. Best & Co.'s Insurance
Report for 1948 rates this company as A-plus (Ex-cellent)
.
CAROLINA CASUALTY INSURANCE CO.
Burlington, N. C.
The Carolina Casualty Insurance Co., located at
221 Morehead Street, Burlington, incorporated Aug-ust
26, 1943, and starting business late in that year,
s the only North Carolina insurance company which
?ives a general coverage of casualty insurance, in-cluding
accident, health, hospitalization, automo-
)ile, general liability and compensation.
This company grew out of the activities of Bay-or's
Insurance Service, Inc., general agent and state
nanager for several insurance companies and ope-rating
in Raleigh, Durham and Burlington for the
past fifteen years.
P. C. Baylor, president, and a group of his asso-ciates
in Baylor's Insurance Service decided to or-ganize
the Carolina Casualty Insurance Co. for the
purpose of handling some of the business that had
been handled through Baylor's Insurance Service
in North Carolina and several other states.
Mr. Baylor, a native of New Jersey, who has been
in North Carolina for fifteen years, in addition to
his two main firms, is engaged in other relative activ-ities.
R. F. Halyburton, executive vice-president and
secretary of the Carolina Casualty Insurance Co.,'
formerly in local agency business in New Jersey,
has been associated with Mr. Baylor since 1936 and
is also secretary-treasurer of Baylor's Insurance
Service.
A. C. Fairey, first vice-president, was in local
agency business in Charlotte and Greensboro for
several years and for ten years, until 1936, was chief
deputy insurance commissioner of North Carolina.
He also has been associated with Baylor's Insurance
Service since 1938 and has been vice-president of
that service for the past year or two. F. F. Foster,
vice-president, is a native of Iowa and engaged in
casualty insurance activities later in Charlotte, join-ing
Baylor's Insurance Service in 1943. F. M. Hunter,
vice-president, in charge of the Accident and Health
Department of the Carolina Casualty Insurance Co.,
also was associated with Baylor's Insurance Service.
Officers of the company include: P. C. Baylor,
president; R. F. Halyburton, executive vice-presi-dent
and secretary ; A. C. Fairey, first vice-president
;
F. F. Foster and F. M. Hunter, vice-presidents; W.
R. Massey, treasurer; N. S. Baylor, assistant secre-tary
and assistant treasurer; J. D. Coleman, assist-ant
secretary; A. B. Coe, assistant treasurer, and
J. D. Cooper, general counsel.
Directors of the company are : M. A. Carty, Miami
Beach, Fla., chairman of the board; J. M. Benson,
J. M. Freeman, J. A. Bailey, N. S. Baylor, P. C.
Baylor, W. M. Brown, Jr., T. D. Cooper, D. S. Doster,
A. C. Fairey, F. F. Foster, R. F. Halyburton, F. M.
Hunter, W. R. Massey and Ralph H. Scott, all of
Burlington.
In the home office in Burlington, the company has
fifty-five employees with an annual payroll of $180,-
000 and in addition about 500 agents, approximately
200 of whom operate in North Carolina. The
Carolina Casualty Insurance Co. is licensed to do
business in eight states and is in active operation in
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Caro-lina,
South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Ap-proximately
50 percent of its total policy writings at
present are in North Carolina. All business in
excess of $5,000 on each claim or series of claims is
reinsured to protect against serious losses in any of
the company's casualty writings.
Growth and progress of the company have been
conservative and steady and the operations have been
very successful. Net premiums written increased
PAGE 104 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1948
from $12,066 during the first month or two of opera-tion
in 1943 to $818,599 in 1947. Assets increased
from $260,077 to $738,476 and the surplus from
$285,929 to $325,994 in the same period. Most of
the assets include cash $113,737, U. S. Government
bonds $511,505, and $43,142 in selected stocks. The
company has set aside reserve funds of $412,482
and had $325,994 as surplus for the additional pro-tection
of its policyholders. The company has $179.03
of assets for every $100.00 of its liabilities.
In 1947, the company's income was $869,934 and
its expenditures, $775,866, including losses paid and
expenses of operation. The ratio of income to dis-bursements
indicates that $115 was received for
each $100 paid out. These figures show that the
company is in excellent financial condition.
BLUE RIDGE INSURANCE CO.
Shelby, N. C.
The Blue Ridge Insurance Co., 215 East Warren
Street, Shelby, was organized by a group of Shelby
men, headed by Fred W. Blanton, and was incorpo-rated
October 6, 1944, in South Carolina with home
office in Spartanburg, S. C. As of January 1, 1946,
the company secured a North Carolina charter and
moved its home office to Shelby.
When first organized, the authorized capital stock
was $300,000, and prior to moving the company to
Shelby, the North Carolina charter authorized cap-ital
stock of $1,000,000. The Blue Ridge Insurance
Co. was organized for the announced purpose of
trying to keep a portion of the fire insurance pre-mium
dollars in the south and particularly in the
Carolinas. It is pointed out that the South has sent
millions of dollars to New York and to the New
England states in fire and automobile insurance
premiums. The organizers have as their purpose
the development of a strong locally owned stock
company and investing their money in the states in
which they do business, at present in North and
South Carolina.
The Blue Ridge Insurance Co. is one of the few
North Carolina fire and casualty companies that is
owned and operated by North Carolina people. It
is engaged in underwriting fire and automobile risks,
including insurance against fire, theft and collision
of automobiles, fire, windstorm and extended cover-age
for buildings and flight and ground coverage for
airplanes. A portion of each risk is reinsured in
cases of fire, windstorm and extended coverage in-surance.
Principal promoters of the Blue Ridge Insurance
Co. are officials and directors of the Manufacturers
and Jobbers Finance Corporation of Shelby and this
corporation is at present the largest stockholder in
the insurance company, owning more than one-fourth
of the shares outstanding as of June 1, 1948.
The insurance company has an arrangement with the
Finance Corporation, by which the company writes
practically all fire, theft and collision insurance re-quired
on vehicles financed by the Finance Corpora-tion.
This connection provides a substantial source
of business for the insurance company, since the
premiums written on M. & J. business for the year
of 1947 amounted to $365,375.75.
From a small beginning in the latter part of 1944,
the Blue Ridge Insurance Co. has developed i