"It commenced, without capital, on the 1st of February, 1843. At the
close of its second year, (31st of January, 1845), it had issued 1086
policies, and its net accumulated premiums was $97,278. At the
termination of the third year, on the 31st January, 1846, the whole
number of policies issued was 2133, and its net accumulated premiums,
after paying all losses and expenses, was $215,571..." The Trustees
were Morris Robinson, President; Benjamin D. Stillman [sic], R.H.
McCurdy,
Robert B. Minturn, C.W. Faber, Mortimer Livingston, Theodore Sedgewick,
Stacy B. Collins, William Barnwell, William Moore, Zebedee Cook Jr.,
Jonathan Miller, John H. Swift, Joseph B. Collins, James S. Wadsworth,
Henry W. Hubbell, Gouverneur M. Wilkins, John V.L. Pruyn, Thomas W.
Olcott, Charles Ely, Fitz Greene Halleck, Robert Schuyler, Amos S.
Perry, Thomas Tuckerman, Isaac G. Pearson, John C. Cruger, Alfred Pell,
David C. Colden, John C. Thacher, Rufus L. Lord, W.S. Wetmore, Joseph
Blunt, William J. Bunker, Gideon Hawley, and there were two vacancies.
Samuel Hannay was Secretary, and E. Cushing M.D. was the examining
physician in Cleveland, Ohio (The Mutual Life Insurance. The Cleveland
Herald, Jul. 18, 1846.) "Stillman" was a misspelling of Silliman.
(Display Ad. Milwaukie Sentinel, Apr. 28, 1845.) Dr. Erastus Cushing of
Cleveland, Ohio, was the
grandfather of Dr. Harvey Cushing.
Zebedee Cook Sr. was a mast maker in Newburyport, Mass. (Display Ad.
Political Gazette, Oct.1, 1795.) He was Chairman of the Board of
Selectmen of Newburyport, which orderred that "all vessels arriving fom
Guadaloupe or Martinico, shall anchor at Quarantine ground, till the
Health-Officer has been on board and reported." (Take Notice.
Newburyport Herald, Nov. 29, 1808.) Zebedee Cook married Elizabeth
Whitney in 1825. (Married. Salem Gazette, Apr. 7, 1825.) He died in
1845. (Deaths. Boston
Daily Atlas, Sep. 5, 1845.)
In 1811, there was a big fire in Newburyport, which wiped out most of the downtown, including Zebedee Cook Jr.'s dry goods store. "On Friday evening last, at half past 9 o'clock, the citizens of this town were alarmed with a cry of fire, which proved to have taken effect at the place where they have so repeatedly been summoned in the course of the present season on a similar occasion; and where it has for some time past been anxiously feared some incendiary intended to accomplish the purpose which is now effected... It is estimated that upwards of two hundred buildings were burnt, most of which were Stores and Dwelling-Hoses; in which number nearly all the Dry Goods Stores in town are included; four Printing Offices, being the whole number in town; and including the Herald Office; the Custom-House; the Surveyor's Office; the Post-Office; two Insurances Offices; (the Union and the Phenix;) the Baptist Meeting-House; four Attorneys' Offices; four Book-Stores, the loss in one of which is Thirty Thousand Dollars, and also the Town Library." (Dreadful FIRE! Newburyport Herald, Jun. 5, 1811.) [A few weeks later, under the pretext of imminent danger, the town of Salem, about 20 miles down the coast, passed a smoking ban.]
In 1814, Zebedee Cook Jr. (1786-1858) opened an insurance office in
the Exchange
Coffee House in Boston. (Display Ad. Salem Gazette, Apr. 15, 1814.) In
1820, he chartered and opened the Eagle Insurance Company in the former
place of the Office of Discount and Deposit for the United States Bank,
Boston, with himself as President. (House of Representatives. Salem
Gazette, Jun. 13, 1820; Display Ad. Boston Repertory, Sep. 26, 1820.)
In 1824, he was a member of a committee formed "for the purpose of
adopting suitable measures to interest the attention of Congress in the
suppression of the piratical hordes which infest the shores of the
Islands of Cuba and Porto Rico." The other members were William Gray,
Thomas H. Perkins, Francis J. Oliver, and William Sturgis. (Meeting at
Merchants' Hall. Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot, Dec. 15,
1824.) His business references included Stephen White, of
Salem; J. & T.H. Perkins & Sons; Samuel
G. Perkins; Bryant & Sturgis; Caleb Loring; Pascal P. Pope;
Daniel Webster; Willard Phillips; and Charles G. Loring, of Boston
(Insurance. Essex Register, Dec. 10, 1827); and
Lorman & Son, R.H. Douglass & Co., William Howell & Son,
and Riggs, Peabody & Co., Baltimore. (Insurance. Baltimore Patriot,
Aug. 15, 1828.) In 1834, in Gloucester, Mass., he married Ann S. Trask,
daughter of Hon. Israel Trask. (Marriages. Salem Gazette, Apr. 8,
1834.) He was President of the Mutual Safety Insurance Company of
New-York from 1840 until resigning in 1848. Alfred Pell, the
Vice-President, resigned as well. (Insurance. Portsmouth Journal
of Literature and Politics, Jun. 13, 1840; Boston Daily Atlas, Dec. 4,
1848.) He died in South Framingham, Mass., in 1858. (Obituary. New York
Times, Jan. 27, 1858.)
Clarence Cook was the fourth son of Zebedee Cook.
(Died. New York Times, Jun. 3, 1900). Clarence Chatham Cook was born in
Dorcester, Mass. in 1828, and graduated from Harvard in 1849. "He
studied architecture, and for several years was occupied as a teacher.
In 1863 he began the publication of a series of articles in The New
York Tribune on American art. These articles were continued at
intervals until 1869, when he became the Paris correspondent of that
paper. He remained abroad for several years." (Clarence Cook Dead. Jun.
3, 1900.) The Tribune was anti-smoker Horace
Greeley's paper. His sister married James Lovell Little of Boston
(Married. Boston Daily Atlas, Oct. 21, 1843), and his grandnephew, Clarence Cook Little, was
Director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.
He was born in West Springfield, Mass., and came to New York City
after his first wife, Harriet Kent, died. He was a member of the dry
goods firm of Merritt, Ely & Co. (Obituary Record of Graduates of
Yale College Deceased during the Academical Year ending in June, 1883,
p. 9.) His grandson, Morris Upham Ely, Wolf's Head 1898 was vice
president of the Ely Anode & Supply Co. (Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1932-1933, p.
94.) Henry B. Hyde of
the Equitable was employed by Merritt, Ely & Co. from 1850 to 1852.
The Ely family held a reunion in Lyme, Conn. in 1878. (Reunion of the
Ely Family. New York Times, May 6, 1878.)
Morris Robinson (1787-1849) was a Royal descendant of Edward I, King
of England. He married a daughter of William Duer, who was also a
Royal. His daughter, Harriet Duer Robinson, married Albert Gallatin,
grandson of the banker Albert Gallatin. (Americans of royal descent. By
Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 108.)
Benjamin Douglas Silliman was the son of Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman
(Yale 1796), and the grandson of Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman (Yale
1752), and great-grandson of Judge Ebenezer Silliman (Yale 1727). Prof.
Benjamin Silliman (Yale 1796) was his uncle. His mother was Hepsa Ely,
daughter of Rev. David Ely (Yale 1769), whose clan contributed at least
two dozen Yalies. After the War of 1812, his father gave up his
successful law practice in Newport, R.I., and moved to New York City,
then Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1823. Benjamin D. Silliman was admittted to the
bar in 1829, and was counsel to the National Bank of Commerce
for over half a century. (Obituary
Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Academical
Year ending in June, 1901, pp. 2-4.) He was one of the organizers of
the Society of Alumni of Yale College, with Elias H. Ely [Yale 1810] as
Treasurer. (Yale College. New-York Spectator, Sep. 20, 1831.) "Mr.
Silliman never married, and his nearest relatives living are his
sister, Mrs. Laura S. Blagden of Washington; two nieces, Miss Caroline
Taylor, who was his housekeeper, for years, and Mrs. Samuel Carey of
Manhattan; anothe niece, Mrs. Harriet Silliman Matherson of Brooklyn,
and two nephews. It is expected that the greater part of Mr. Silliman's
estate will go to these relatives. No estimate of the value of the
estate could be obtained yesterday, but it is known to be very large.
Mr. Silliman inherited a fortune from an aunt, and was also left part
of the estate of his brother. He owned the valuable piece of property
at the southeast corner of Broadway and Wall Street, Manhattan; his
residence in Brooklyn, also a valuable property, a country seat at
Babylon, L.I., and other reeal and personal estate." The little corner
at Broadway and Wall Street which his aunt, Mary McGregor, left him was
about thirty by forty feet in size, and "enjoys the reputation of being
the most valuable piece of ground in this city, if not in the world."
(Benj. D. Silliman Dead. New York Times, Jan. 25, 1901.) It was
sold for $700,000 to the Mercantile Trust Company of St. Louis, "acting
as agents for interests whose identity was not disclosed." The United
Cigar Stores Company held a lease on the building. (Most Costly Site in
New York Sold. New York Times, Jun. 7, 1905.) From 1877 until his
death, he was a business partner of Philip H. Adee, Yale 1873. In
1897, he made a deposition about his family's long friendship with the
William H. King, of the King family
of Newport, Rhode Island, several of whom had been partners of Russell
& Co. in the China trade.
Trustees of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1854: Frederick S.
Winston, President; R.H. McCurdy; Joseph B. Collins; W. Smith Brown;
J.P. Yelverton; Hamlin Blake; John H. Swift; J. Wadsworth; Samuel M.
Cornell; G.M. Wilkins; John V.L. Pruyn; George R. Clark; Ezra Wheeler;
J.P. Treadwell; Abraham Bininger; M.H. Grinnell; Alfred
Edwards;
William Betts; Joseph Blunt; Isaac G. Pearson; Samuel D. Babcock; William
Moore; John Miller; William H. Popham; C.H. Norton; John M. Stuart;
William J. Bunker; Nathaniel Hayden; L. Edgerton; Eugene Dutilh; R.G.
Moulton; Samuel E. Sproull; Charles J. Stedman; Richard Patrick; Lucius
Robinson; Lewis Battelle. Secretary: Isaac Abbatt; Actuary: Charles
Gill. (Insurance. New York Times, Feb. 17, 1854.)
The Brown family owned the Port Morris Land and Improvement Company, which held property along the New-York and New Haven Railroad, with a half-mile frontage on the East River. Three of them were incorporators of the Southern Railroad Company. (New Companies Incorporated. New York Times, Jun. 28, 1885 p.3; New York's Bankers, Merchants and Manufacturers. New York Times, Aug. 18, 1885). William Smith Brown died in Heidelberg, Germany. (Obituary Notes. New York Times, Jun. 26, 1892.) His son, William Reynolds Brown, married Ellen Watkins Babcock, a daughter of Samuel D. Babcock's uncle, Capt. David Sherman Babcock. Their son, Donald W. Brown, was Vice President of the Puritan Mortgage Corporation, whose directors included his uncle, Joseph N. Babcock, and Thomas J. Watson, President of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, which became the International Business Machine Corporation. (Donald Brown Dies On Vacation. New York Times, Aug. 25, 1931; Display Ad 25. New York Times, Nov. 19, 1932 p. 21; Display Ad 1. New York Times, Apr. 15, 1924 p. 2.)
The Dodge family settled at Salem,
Massachusetts in 1629, and branched into Connecticut during the
Revolutionary times. David Low Dodge, the head of a private school at
Norwich,
married a daughter of the Rev. Aaron Cleveland, the grandfather of
ex-president Cleveland. "In 1802, David Low Dodge went into business in
Hartford, Conn., and three years later founded the wholesale dry goods
house of Higginson, Dodge & Co. of Boston, New York and Baltimore,
which was destined to become the largest wholesale house of its day,
but dissolved in the trade disturbances attendant upon the Embargo act.
For some years following the dissolution, David L. Dodge lived in
Connecticut, entering business in New York once more, however, in the
firm of Ludlow & Dodge, from which he retired in 1827." His
daughter, Mary Abiah Dodge, married New York merchant Norman White, the
father of Rev. Erskine Norman White, Yale 1854, both of whom were
directors of Union Theological Seminary. (Obituary Record of Yale
Graduates 1910-1911, pp. 19-20.)
His son, William Earl Dodge, born in 1805, established Huntington
& Dodge that year in New York. He married the daughter of Anson
Green Phelps of Phelps & Peck, metal dealers, and entered the firm,
which became Phelps, Dodge & Co. in 1833. William Earl Dodge Jr.
was born in 1832 and became a partner in 1864. Both were active in the
Evangelical Alliance and the National Temperance Society, and William
E. Dodge Jr. was active in the Young Men's Christian Association. He
was a trustee of the New York Life Insurance Company. He married Sarah,
the daughter of Panama Railroad President David Hoadley in 1854.
William E. Dodge Sr. died in 1883, and William E. Dodge Jr. in 1903.
(William E. Dodge Dead. New York Times, Aug. 10, 1903.) William Earl
Dodge [3d] graduated from Princeton in 1879, and married Emeline, the
daughter of Oliver Harriman.
(A Brilliant Social Event. New York Times,
Dec. 7, 1879.)
William E. Dodge Sr.'s brother-in-law, Daniel James, was a partner
of
Phelps-Dodge, which did business in Liverpool as Phelps, James &
Co. Dodge was an original incorporator of the New-York and Erie
Railroad, a director of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad,
and the New Jersey Central, and one of the founders of the Mutual Life
Insurance Company, the Atlantic Mutual Marine Insurance Company, the
Bowery Fire Insurance Company, the United States Trust Company, the
Greenwich Savings Bank, the City Bank, and the American Exchange
National Bank, "in all of which he was a Director from the time of
their organization until his death." He owned lumber mills and up to
400,000 acres of timber land in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, West
Virginia, Texas, and Canada. He left seven sons - William E. Dodge Jr.,
Anson G.P. Dodge, Rev. David Stuart Dodge, Gen. Charles C. Dodge,
Norman W. Dodge, George
E. Dodge, and Arthur M. Dodge. (A Good Life-Work Ended. New York
Times, Feb. 10, 1883.) Mrs. Dodge and sons William E. and D. Stuart
Dodge [Yale 1857] were the executors of his will, which was in the
custody of John E. Parsons.
His estate was estimated at $5 million net. (William E. Dodge's Will.
New York Times, Feb. 18, 1883.)
Rev. David Stuart Dodge, Yale
1857, was president of the board of trustees of the Syrian Protestant
College in Beirut, Lebanon, president of the Presbyterian Board of Home
Missions 1899-1915, and president of the National Temperance Society
from 1903 until his death. [These had all been funded by his father's
bequests]. He married Ellen Ada Phelps, daughter of
John Jay Phelps. (Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1921-1922, pp.
17-18.) She was a sister of William Walter Phelps,
Skull & Bones 1860. Rev. Dodge's son, Francis Phelps Dodge, Yale
1894, was involved with Life Extension Institute.
(Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1925-1926, pp. 157-158.)
William Earl Dodge Sr.'s brother, David Stuart Dodge, Yale 1826, was
a
physician in Hartford, Conn. They had ten children, including one who
graduated in the Yale class of 1866. (Obituary Record of Graduates of
Yale College Deceased during the Academical Year Ending in July, 1869,
p. 39.) His son, Frederic Nevins Dodge, Scroll & Key 1866, was a
lawyer with
the E.A. Bliss lumber company, then an official in the New York Custom
House since 1887. His mother was a daughter of Erastus Hyde. (Obituary
Record of Yale Graduates 1925-1926, pp. 35-36.) His grandson, Effingham
Nevins Dodge, Elihu 1906, was editor of the Yale Alumni Weekly from
1906-1907. He was a law partner of Montgomery Hare, Yale 1893 [who
married John E. Parson's daughter]. He enlisted in Naval Intelligence
in 1918. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased
during the Year 1940-1941, p. 111.)
Officers and directors of the Phelps-Dodge Company, formed to take
over the assets of Phelps, Dodge & Co.: James Douglas, President;
Cleveland H. Dodge,
Arthur Curtis James, and James McLean, Vice
Presidents; and George Notman, Secretary and Treasurer; George H.
Agnew, E. Heyward Perry, Francis L. Hine, and William Church Osborne.
(Phelps-Dodge Company Election. New York Times, Dec. 23, 1908.)
Robert H. McCurdy (1800-1880), was the father of Richard A. McCurdy.
He was a
partner of the dry goods firm of McCurdy, Aldrich & Spencer. The
elder McCurdy and his former partner, Herman D. Aldrich, died on the
same day, and they had a joint funeral. It was an Episcopal service in
which Dr. George L. Prentiss, a Presbyterian clergyman from the Union
Theological Seminary, participated on behalf of McCurdy's remains.
Charles Butler was one of those who attended. (Obituary 1, New York
Times, Apr. 6, 1880 p. 5; The Two Dead Partners. New York Times, Apr.
8, 1880 p. 8.) Partner William Spencer died in New Haven in 1868.
(Died. New York Times, Feb. 11, 1868 p. 5.) He was a director of the
Continental Insurance Company in 1861, along
with NYGIC directors Samuel D. Babcock, A.A. Low, and John Caswell;
also Hiram
Barney of the Butler law firm and George W. Lane of the Central Trust.
(Ad 7. The Independent, Jan. 31, 1861;130(635):7.) McCurdy, Aldrich
&
Spencer was the predecessor firm of Low, Harriman & Co., whose
senior partners were James Low
(~1809-1898) and Oliver Harriman
(1829-1904).
Herman Daggett Aldrich's wife was Elizabeth Wyman of Baltimore, whose brother, William, was the donor of Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus. (Elizabeth Wyman Aldrich. New York Times, Jan. 20, 1904 p. 9; $500,000 for Johns Hopkins. New York Times, Dec. 1, 1903.) The Wymans' father, Samuel Wyman Sr., came to Baltimore from Lowell, Mass., and had been interested in New England cotton mills for many years. (William Wyman Is Dead. New York Times, Nov. 27, 1903.) Wyman's cousin, William Keyser, and Francis Jencks/Jenks donated their land to JHU along with his. (Land for Johns Hopkins. New York Times, Feb. 5, 1901.) Henry Walters was one of the unnamed potential donors (Johns Hopkins University. New York Times, Apr. 23, 1901.) Another brother, Samuel Wyman Jr., was associated with Herman Aldrich after the latter retired from McCurdy, Aldrich & Spencer. (Death List of a Day. New York Times, May 17, 1899.) Samuel Wyman Jr. left a trust fund from the income of 200 shares of the Continental Insurance Company for Katherine Nolan Dudley, daughter of the Right Rev. Thomas U. Dudley; and $25,000 to his friend, Seth G. Babcock. A nephew, Spencer Aldrich, Jacob B. Underhill, and Thomas U. Dudley Jr. were executors. (The Will of Samuel Wyman, Jr., Filed. New York Times, May 20, 1899.)
The Homewood Campus / Johns Hopkins UniversityTrustees of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1858: Frederick S.
Winston, President; Millard Fillmore; David Hoadley; William V. Brady;
Henry A. Smythe; Robert H. McCurdy; John V.L. Pruyn; William Betts;
Isaac Green Pearson; William Moore; John H. Swift; W.E. Dodge; Richard
Patrick; Joseph Blunt; Nathaniel Hayden; Jonathan Miller; Abraham
Bininger; John P. Yelverton; John Wadsworth; William J. Bunker; Samuel
M. Cornell; Samuel E. Sproulls; John M. Stuart; Hamlin Blake; Alfred
Edwards; Lucius Robinson; Samuel D. Babcock; George S. Coe; Charles J.
Stedman; Cephas H. Norton; William K. Strong; Ezra Wheeler; William H.
Popham; Lycurgus Edgerton; W. Smith Brown; George R. Clark. Secretary:
Isaac Abbatt; Actuary, Sheppard Homans; Medical Examiner, Minturn Post,
M.D.; General Agent, Henry H. Hyde. (Financial. New York Times, Mayn
17, 1858.) In 1859, Miller left and Alex W. Bradford became a trustee.
(Insurance. New York Times, May 26, 1859.)
General Agent Henry H. Hyde was the father of Henry Baldwin Hyde
(1834-1899), who founded the Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1859,
after seven years as a clerk at the Mutual. (Death of Henry B. Hyde.
New York Times, May 3, 1899.)
Trustees of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1866: Frederick S.
Winston, President; John V.L. Pruyn; William Moore; Robert H. McCurdy;
Isaac G. Pearson; Martin Bates; William Betts; John P. Yelverton; John
Wadsworth; Alfred Edwards; John M. Stuart; Oliver H. Palmer; Samuel E.
Sproulls; Samuel M. Cornell; Lucius Robinson; W. Smith Brown; Richard
Patrick; William H. Popham; William A. Haines; Ezra Wheeler; Seymour L.
Husted; Samuel D. Babcock; Alex. W. Bradford; David Hoadley; Henry A.
Smythe; William V. Brady; W.E. Dodge; George S. Coe; William K. Strong;
William M. Vermilye; John E. Develin; Wellington Clapp; Alonzo Child;
Henry E. Davies; Richard A. McCurdy, Vice President; Francis Skiddy.
Secretaries: Isaac Abbatt, Theodore W. Morris; Actuary, Sheppard
Homans;
Medical Examiners, Minturn Post, M.D., Isaac L. Kip, M.D. Betts,
Robinson, and Bradford were Counsel. (Financial. New York Times, Mar.
6, 1866.)
William A. Haines was a partner of Halsted & Haines, dry goods.
He was born in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1822 and died of Bright's disease.
His son, William A. Haines, was a member of the firm also. (Death of a
Prominent Merchant. New York Times, Mar. 9, 1880.) Partner James M.
Halsted, was a director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society.
Board of trustees: Frederick S. Winston, Samuel D. Babcock, John
V.L. Pruyn, David Hoadley, Robert H. McCurdy, Henry A. Smythe, Isaac G.
Pearson, William E. Dodge, Martin Bates, George S. Coe, William Betts,
William M. Vermilye, John Wadsworth, John E. Develin, Alfred Edwards,
Wellington Claff, Oliver H. Palmer, Alonzo Child, Samuel E. Sproules,
Henry E. Davies, Samuel M. Cornell, Richard A. McCurdy, Lucius
Robinson, Francis Skiddy, W. Smith Brown, J. Elliot Condict, Richard
Patrick, James C. Holden, William H. Popham, Hugh N. Camp, William A.
Haines, Herman C. Von Post, Ezra Wheeler, George C. Richardson, Seymour
L. Husted, Alexander H. Rice. Richard A. McCurdy, Vice President;
Sheppard Homans, Actuary; John M. Stuart, Secretary; L.C. Lawton, Asst.
Actuary; Frederic Schroeder, Assistant Secretary; C.A. Hopkins,
Cashier; William Betts, LL.D., Hon. Lucius Riobinson, Hon. Henry E.
Davies, Counsel; Isaac L. Kip, M.D., G.S. Winston, M.D., Medical
Examiners. (Display Ad, New York Times, Jan. 25, 1871, p. 7.)
George Isaac Bliss was an actuary and statistician with the Mutual
Life from 1898 until his retirement in 1938. (Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1946-1947, p. 43.)
Granville Moss White graduated from Yale School of Law in 1877, then studied medicine at Columbia and received his M.D. in 1884. He was connected with the Mutual Life Insurance Company since 1886, first as medical examiner and medical director until 1903, then as secretary and second vice president between 1903 and retirment in 1929. He was a director of the Morristown Trust Company for 29 years. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1931-1932, p. 238.)
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1931-1932 / Yale University Library (pdf, 311 pp)Tighe was a native of New York, who moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in
1886 and specialized in municipal and real estate law. He was admitted
to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1892 by motion of
William H. Taft, S&B 1878, who was then the U.S. Solicitor General.
He was attorney for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York since
1890, the Eastman Kodak Company since 1900, for Fairbanks, Morse &
Co. since 1926, and for a number of Minnesota counties and
municipalities, including St. Paul 1920-28. He organized the St. Paul
& Suburban Railway Co.; purchased the Duluth, Red Wing &
Southern Railroad and became its president; organized and became vice
president of Luger Lumber Co. in 1904, and served as counsel until
1918. He was vice president of C. Gotzian & Co., shoe
manufacturers, 1906-1909, and married Harriet Gotzian, the daughter of
Conrad Gotzian. They were the parents of Laurence Gotzian Tighe,
S&B 1916, and Richard Lodge Tighe, S&B 1923. (Bulletin of Yale
University, Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University 1928-1929,
pp. 78-79.) Laurence G. Tighe, S&B 1916, was a partner of Brown
Brothers and of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (Brown Brothers and
Harriman in Merger. Bankers Magazine 1931 Jan;122(1):124.) He was an
assistant treasurer of Yale University from 1938 to 1953, and was
succeeded by Charles Stafford Gage, S&B 1925. (Tighe to Join Yale
Staff. New York Times, Feb. 23, 1938; Gage Named Treasurer of Yale U.
New York Times, May 7, 1954.)
"In the Mutual Life Building are quartered the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, the Guaranty Trust Company, the Morton Trust Company, and the National Safe Deposit Company, in all of which the Mutual itself as well as various of its officers and Trustees have been interested, and in addition to this certain of the Trustees who have been members of the 'inner circle' have occupied offices in the building for their private purposes." (Says Mutual Officers Cared Only For Power. New York Times, Apr. 1, 1906 p. 3.)
In 1891, the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company was reorganized under the auspices of the Mutual Life Insurance Company. (The New Trust Company. New York Times, Oct. 21, 1891, p. 10.) Its name was later changed to the Guaranty Trust Company of New York.
The Mutual Life Insurance Company was the principal sponsor of the National Union Bank, which not only made it "a depository for its own assets, but has ordered the agencies in other cities to select a local bank, which employs the National Union, as a New York correspondent. This plan, it is expected, will bring at once about $6,000,000 into the hands of the new concern. John D. Crimmins, with the traction syndicate back of him; Oliver H. Payne, with the Standard Oil Company; Frederick P. Olcott, with the Central [Trust] Company; H. McK. Twombly, with some of the Vanderbilt business; S.L. [sic] D. Babcock, Luther Kounze and William C. Whitney, each representing millions, are in the directory." Its president, J.C. Hendrix "twenty years ago, was the Brooklyn reporter for a New York morning paper." (How It is Arranged. Atlanta Constitution, Apr. 12, 1893.)
In 1902, sixteen of the thirty-five trustees of the Mutual Insurance Company of New York were also directors of the Guaranty Trust or Central Trust (Babcock, McCurdy, Baker, Cromwell, Henderson, Rogers, Juilliard, Gillette, Haven, Bowdoin, Iselin, WC Whitney (former), Jarvie, Speyer, Lanier, and Twombly). Frederick P. Olcott's brother, Dudley, was also a trustee, as was Samuel D. Babcock's son-in-law, William P. Dixon, and another relative, William Babcock; and Richard A. McCurdy was President of the Mutual. (Display Ad 3. New York Times, Jan. 1, 1902 p. 4.) In 1905, Babcock and Whitney were gone, and Robert H. McCurdy and ex-Secretary of War Elihu Root had been elected in their places. (Display Ad 6, Mutual Life Insurance Co. New York Times Feb. 4, 1905 p. 7 [a special ad with dates of election].)
Richard A. McCurdy and his friends in the Guaranty Trust set up McCurdy (who had planned to retire that year anyhow) to be the scapegoat of the investigation. H.H. Rogers was Chairman of the Agency Committee, which by-laws gave the general supervision of all agency matters; while George F. Baker was Chairman of the Finance Committee, and was for many years Chairman of the subcommittee on Salaries, "which fixed, or allowed President McCurdy to fix, the compensation," which formed the basis of the board's action against him and the Raymond firm. But, when it was proposed to punish the delinquencies of this inner circle, it was blocked. Board members Stuyvesant Fish and Effingham B. Morris of the Girard Trust Company of Philadelphia resigned. (Fish Likely to Serve On Lawson Committee. New York Times, Feb. 25, 1906.) Other members of Mutual's Finance Committee were Charles R. Henderson, George G. Haven, Augustus D. Juilliard, Adrian Iselein Jr., James N. Jarvie and Emory McClintock, Vice President and Actuary. They were all relected after McCurdy resigned and fled to "exile" in France, except that Henderson was transferred to the new Real Estate Committee, and Frederic Cromwell was substituted for George G. Haven. "On reliable authority it is ascertained that as matters stand now George F. Baker, retaining his old place as ranking member of the Finance Committee, is ruling the Mutual's affairs. Indeed, Wall Street men declared yesterday that Mr. Baker had recently expressed the opinion that the reorganization of the Mutual Life on the terms which he had mapped out would be carried out regardless of the opposition that might be encountered from Policy Holders' Campaign Committees, and regardless of public criticism generally. Mr. Baker, it is understood, has been in constant communication with President Peabody about the naming of the committees, a condition that was predicted last Fall when Mr. Peabody, whose law firm was counsel for the First National Bank, was elected upon the insistence of Mr. Baker and Henry H. Rogers of the Standard Oil Company." (Mutual Stands Pat; George F. Baker Rules. New York Times, Jun. 1, 1906.) The investigation subsequently revealed that Vice President McClintock had personally directed the company's lobbying efforts in Boston. (M'Clintock's Orders to Lobbyist Out Now. New York Times, Aug. 17, 1906.)
They allowed McCurdy to put numerous relatives on the payroll and draw lavish salaries. These included his son, Robert H. McCurdy; son-in-law, Louis A. Thebaud; his brother-in-law, and Dr. Elias J. Marsh, as Medical Director; and Thebaud's cousin, Peter Stuyvesant Pillott, as Inspector of Risks. Dr. Walter R. Gillette, First Vice President, was a brother of a partner in Chamberlain & Gillette, General Agents for the company in Texas. Vice President Robert A. Graniss's cousin, Howard Lewis, was General Agent for the Mutual in northern New York. General Agent Raymond was a brother of Charles H. Raymond. McCurdy and his family reaped $4,643,926 in salary and commissions between 1885 and 1905. (McCurdy Family's Millions From Mutual Life. New York Times, Oct. 7, 1905 p. 4.) The Mutual brought suit against McCurdy et al. to recover $3,371,341, and then settled for $815,000. (Mutual Gets $815,000 Ends M'Curdy Suits. New York Times, Mar. 5, 1909.) By 1910, McCurdy was being lauded as "one of the three great figures in life insurance."
George G. Haven was punished for squealing on the gang: "To this influence of Mr. Baker is attributed in large degree the retirement of George G. Haven from the Finance Committee and the implied retirement of Mr. Haven from a place of prominence in Mutual Life affairs. Mr. Haven was formerly one of the innermost members of the 'inner circle,' and even a member pro tem., according to his testimony, of the sub-committee of the Finance Committee, which voted President McCurdy an additional $50,000 a year in 1901 in lieu of pension, which Mr. McCurdy was prohibited from receiving under the by-laws of the company. The other two members of this committee were George F. Baker and Augustus D. Juillliard, both of whom testified before the Armstrong Committee before Mr. Haven was called to the stand. Mr. [Charles Evans] Hughes did not elicit much information from either of them about the increase in salary and how it was voted, but when Mr. Haven was called he told about the work of the sub-committee, explaining that he personally had served on it only two or three times when he was called in through the absence of one of the members. It was soon after this that the Lawyers Mortgage matter came out, and it has been an open secret in financial quarters that considerable resentment was felt toward Mr. Haven by certain of his fellow-members of the 'inner circle.' In the Lawyers Mortgage deal Messrs. Juilliard, Cromwell, Haven, Jarvie and Iselin were involved in addition to Mr. McCurdy." (Mutual Stands Pat; George Baker Rules. New York Times, Jun. 1, 1906.)
Edwin W. Coggeshall, who was President of the Lawyers' Mortgage
Insurance Company in 1901, testified that he had offered to sell a
block of 1000 shares of the increased capital stock of his company to
the Mutual. These were accepted by Richard A. McCurdy on behalf of the
Mutual, but subsequently split up between Mutual board members. All
except Adrian Iselin, Jr., were members of the Finance Committee, "and
were among the party who originally advocated the immediate election of
Charles A. Peabody to the
Presidency of the company, opposing the plan
suggested by other Trustees to postpone electing a permanent President
until the Mutual's own investigating committee had completed its work."
Coggeshall said that instructions were received to issue the 1000
shares to N.B. Putnam, Jr., who turned out to be a clerk in the
Guaranty Trust. (Mutual Trustees Divided Stock. New York Times, Dec.
23, 1905.) Dudley Olcott and James Speyer, who were elected Trustees in
1880 and 1898, respectively, resigned in March, 1906, after Charles A.
Peabody was successfully installed as President. Peabody subsequently
became a director of the Guaranty Trust.
Charles A. Peabody (1849-1931) was President of the Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1906 until retiring in 1927. He was a director of the Farmers Loan and Trust from at least 1900 to at least 1929, and a director of the Guaranty Trust Company from 1911-26. After graduating from Columbia University and Columbia Law School, he joined his father's law firm, Peabody, Baker and Peabody. Partner Fisher Ames Baker was counsel to the First National Bank and the uncle of its President, George Fisher Baker. "It was said at the time Mr. Peabody left law for insurance, that the change was, at least in part, due to the influence of the elder Baker in the councils of the Mutual." Peabody was trustee of the estate of the first John Jacob Astor since 1893, and was associated with William Waldorf Astor and represented him in this country. At his death, he was on the boards of directors of City Bank Farmers Trust Company, Mutual Life Insurance Company, Oregon Short Line Railroad, Central of Georgia Railway, Illinois Central Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad, and was a trustee of the Church Pension Fund and member of the board of managers of Delaware & Hudson Company. (C.A. Peabody Dies; Insurance Figure. New York Times, Apr. 27, 1931.) His granddaughter, Anita Peabody Hadden, married Arthur W. Page Jr, whose brother Walter H. Page became chairman of the Morgan Guaranty Trust.
Frank L. Polk, partner of the law firm of Davis, Polk, Lansing, Wardwell & Reed, was a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1930 to 1943.
S. Sloan Colt, vice
president of the Bankers Trust Company, Charles Proctor Cooper,
vice president of A.T.&T.,
and John King Ottley, President of the First National Bank of Atlanta,
were elected trustees.
(Mutual Life Elects 3 Trustees. New York Times, Jun. 6, 1931.)
Lewis Douglas succeeded David F. Houston as president of the Mutual
Life. He was born in Douglas, Ariz. in 1894 and graduated from Amherst
College in 1916, then spent a year at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He had been a US Representative (D-AZ) from 1927-33, when
he was appointed U.S. Director of the Budget. "When the President
rejected the policy of a balanced budget Mr. Douglas declined to agree
with Mr. Roosevelt's views" and resigned. He had been principal
and vice chancellor of McGill University since 1938, which he resigned,
but continued as a governor. He married Margaret Zinsser. (Mutual Life
Picks A New President. New York Times, Jun. 9, 1939.) He was elected a
vice president and director of American Cyanamid in 1934. (L.W. Douglas
Joins Chemical Conern. New York Times, Dec. 11, 1934.) He was assistant
lease-lend expeditor with W.A. Harriman in London (Lewis W. Douglas
Named London Lease-Lend Aide. New York Times, Jan. 28, 1942), and was
an advisor to Gen. Lucius Clay in the Supreme Headquarters Allied
Expeditionary Force military government of Germany. Clay's immediate
assistants and counselors were the Director of Intelligence, the Joint
Intelligence Committee and a mission from the Office of Strategic
Services. (Hard Policy Fixed for Ruling Reich. New York Times, May 17,
1945.) He was president of the
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York from 1940-47, and a director
of General Motors from 1944-65; and was
appointed to the US Advisory Committee on Information (USIA) in 1959.
(Douglas, Lewis Williams, 1894-1974. Congressional Bio.) He married
Peggy Scharmann Zinsser, the youngest daughter of Fredrick George
Zinsser. (Married. New York Times, Jun. 21, 1921.) Her
sister, Ellen Zinsser, married John
J. McCloy. Her nephews, Stuart and Peter Douglas, were ushers.
Lewis W. Douglas and F. Trubee Davison were among the guests. (Other
Weddings. New York Times, Apr, 26, 1930.) He was the grandson of James
Douglas, the President of the
Phelps-Dodge Company, who had been the major benefactor of James Ewing of the American Society
for the Control of Cancer; and he succeeded his uncle, Archibald
Douglas, as chairman of the board of managers of Memorial
Hospital in 1944.
W. Randolph Burgess,
Vice Chairman of the National City Bank, was elected a trustee of the
Mutual Life Insurance Company. (Elected By Mutual Life. New York Times,
Nov. 28, 1940.)
Lewis W. Douglas was president of the Mutual. Trustees nominated to serve for three years were Charles E. Adams, Chairman, Air Reduction Company Inc.; Lewis H. Brown, President of the Johns-Manville Corporation; W. Gibson Carey Jr., President of the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.; F. Trubee Davison, in military service; Charles E. Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co., and a director of the Guaranty Trust; Leon Fraser, President of the First National Bank of the City of New York; William D. Mitchell, Counsellor at Law; New York; Alexander E. Patterson, Executive Vice President of the Mutual; John Sloane, Chairman of W.& J. Sloane; Robert C. Stanley, Chairman and President of the International Nickel Company of Canada Ltd.; Robert T. Stevens, fomer president of J.P. Stevens & Co., in military service; and John C. Traphagen, President of the Bank of New York. (Display Ad. New York Times, Nov. 18, 1942 p. 20.)
Lewis W. Douglas, president. Trustees nominated to serve for three years were Charles E. Adams, Chairman, Air Reduction Company Inc.; Lewis H. Brown, President of the Johns-Manville Corporation; W. Gibson Carey Jr., President of the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.; F. Trubee Davison; Charles E. Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; E. Roland Harrison [sic], partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; William D. Mitchell, Counsellor at Law; New York; Alexander E. Patterson, Executive Vice President of the Mutual; John Sloane, Chairman of W.& J. Sloane; Robert C. Stanley, Chairman and President of the International Nickel Company of Canada Ltd.; Robert T. Stevens, Chairman of J.P. Stevens & Co.; and John C. Traphagen, President of the Bank of New York. (Display Ad. Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 9, 1945 p. 21.)
Trustees nominated to
serve for three years were Charles E. Adams, Chairman, Air Reduction
Company Inc.; F. Trubee Davison; Louis W. Dawson, New York; Charles E.
Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; John W. Hanes,
Vice President and Director, Olin Industries Inc.; E. Roland Harriman,
partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; William
D. Mitchell, Partner, law firm of Mitchell, Capron, Marsh, Angulo &
Cooney, New York; John Sloane, Chairman of
W.& J. Sloane; Robert T. Stevens, Chairman of J.P. Stevens &
Co.; and Thomas J. Watson Jr., Executive Vice President of
International Business Machines Corp. (Display Ad. New York Times, Nov.
7, 1951 p. 32.)
Artemus L. Gates, S&B 1918, was elected a trustee of Mutual Life Insurance (Former High Navy Aide Made Insurance Trustee. New York Times, Apr. 1, 1952.)
Trustees nominated to serve for three years were Charles E. Adams, Director, Air Reduction Company Inc.; F. Trubee Davison; Louis W. Dawson, President of the Mutual; Charles E. Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; John W. Hanes, Chairman of Finance Committee and Director, Olin Industries Inc.; E. Roland Harriman, partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; Robert P. Koenig, President, Cerro de Pasco Corporation; William D. Mitchell, Partner, law firm of Mitchell, Capron, Marsh, Angulo & Cooney, New York; John Sloane, Chairman of W.& J. Sloane; and Thomas J. Watson Jr., President of International Business Machines Corp. (Display Ad. New York Times, Oct. 28, 1954 p. 42.)
Trustees nominated to serve for three years were S. Sloan Colt, director, Bankers Trust Company.; F. Trubee Davison; Louis W. Dawson, President of the Mutual; Charles E. Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; John W. Hanes, Director and Consultant, Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation; E. Roland Harriman, partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; Oveta Culp Hobby, President, Editor and Director, The Houston Post; Robert P. Koenig, President, Cerro de Pasco Corporation; John Sloane, Retired; and Thomas J. Watson Jr., President of International Business Machines Corp. (Display Ad. Cicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 7, 1957 p. N10.)
Trustees nominated to
serve for three years were S. Sloan Colt, Director and member of
Executive and Trust Committees, Bankers Trust
Company.; F. Trubee Davison; Louis W. Dawson, Chairman of the
Mutual; Charles E.
Dunlap, Chairman of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; John W. Hanes,
Director of the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation; E.
Roland Harriman,
partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; Oveta Culp Hobby, President,
Editor and Director, The Houston Post; Robert P. Koenig, President,
Cerro
de Pasco Corporation; Frank Pace Jr., Chairman of General Dynamics
Corp.; and Thomas R. Wilcox,
Executive Vice President of The First
National Bank of New York. (Display Ad. New York Times, Nov. 4, 1960 p.
56.)
"CHARLES J. BUESlNG, C.L.U.* Lincroft, N. J.; Delegate-Director
(1963-). Field Underwriter, Mutual Of New York. ACS New Jersey
Division: Member, Board of Trustees and Executive Committee (1945- );
Past President, Past Crusade Chairman. Recipient, ACS Natl.-Div. Award;
Member: Board, Life Underwriters' Association of New York; Life
Managers' Assn. of N. Y. (Past Pres.); American Society of Chartered
Life Underwriters." (1966 House of Delegates and Board of Directors.
American Cancer Society Inc.)
H.I. Romnes, the Chairman of
A.T.&T. and a director of the American Cancer Society, became
a trustee in 1967. (Mutual
Life Appoints Romnes to Its Board. New York Times, Oct. 3, 1967.)
cast 05-05-09