Nearly 100 years ago three agencies signed up to represent Fireman’s Fund. They still do. Some other agencies may be close runners-up, but this steadfast trio, completely spanning the nation, with their offices in such widely separated states as Massachusetts, Illinois and Hawaii, hold the all-time record with our century-old company. Fireman’s Fund salutes them proudly. In addition to their devotion to insurance, the leaders of all three agencies, or their predecessors, are distinguished by their long and painstaking service to their community and government.

ONE

In 1872, 91 years ago, an agency established two years before in Brockton, Massachusetts, became a representative of Fireman’s Fund. In 1873, that agency was acquired by S. Frank Packard, grandfather of Roger Keith, present senior partner of Roger Keith & Sons, whose close and pleasant association with Fireman’s Fund has never waned. From almost the beginning, the agency has been conducted by the members of one family. Today the agency of Roger Keith & Sons, one of the largest in Massachusetts, consists of Mr. Keith and sons Roger, Jr., and Hastings. A third son Paul, for a while with the Boston office of Fireman’s Fund, later entered the family business and served there for 23 years until his sudden death in 1961.

From the time of Grandfather Packard, who was a selectman of the old Town of Brockton before it became a city, interest in community and government has been close to the hearts of the family. Mr. Packard’s son Frank E., an uncle of Roger Keith, was a representative to the state legislature. Mr. Keith was mayor of Brockton for two terms and both he and his son Hastings served in the state senate. At present, Hastings is a U.S. Congressman from the Twelfth District.

During his days with the state senate, Roger Keith served as chairman of a special commission which revised the so-called Blue Sky laws and cleared away many of the old stock dealing abuses. The committee was a forerunner of the national laws that went into effect in the early 30’s under President Roosevelt. Mr. Keith also was secretary of the Massachusetts delegation that nominated Coolidge for President in 1924. All are members of the South Congregational Church, of which Grandfather Packard was both deacon and treasurer for many years and of which Mr. Keith has been moderator for over 38 years.

With the approach of the Fireman’s Fund centennial, Mr. Roger Keith wrote: "This year, we suddenly realize, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company will complete 100 years in the insurance business. We have been an agent of the Fireman’s Fund since sometime prior to 1872 (the exact date has apparently been misplaced among the ancient archives). We are very proud of the friendly association we have had and of the wonderful service received by our office during this time – and I can vouch personally for almost 40 years. From your Boston manager, Abel M. Wood, whom I personally knew well, to your present manager, Miles Leavitt, relations have been pleasant and services excellent. "We all join in wishing you another century of service to the insuring public." Roger Keith is the senior partner of Roger Keith & Sons, an agency that has represented Fireman’s Fund for 91 years.

TWO

The Potter Insurance Agency of Henry, Illinois, representing Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company for 90 years, since 1873, boasts a picturesque background that reaches back through the long avenues of the past to 1861. In that year the agency was founded by Fred S. Potter. While continuing the insurance business, Mr. Potter, a student of law for several years, became an attorney. A staunch Republican, he would mount the soap box and stand firmly in debate with anyone who wished to argue politics of the times. Among his interesting legal accounts was that of John Deere. Mr. Potter represented Mr. Deere when he brought an accounting suit against a Mr. Leonard Andrus of Grand Detour and Dixon, Ill. (Grand Detour was the town where Mr. Deere forged the first steel plow at the request of Mr. Andrus, who was the actual originator of the steel plow idea and who later was Mr. Deere’s partner.)

Mr. Potter had grown up in Grand Detour, where his mother was the first white girl born in that sparsely settled community. No sooner did he move to Henry on the Illinois River, 125 miles southwest of Chicago, than he opened his insurance office. In Henry, his father built a now historic family home at 506 Carroll Street – a three-story, 14-room house whose large beams were mortised and joined with wooden pegs. It was the first house in Henry with central heat – steam heat.

Upon the death of Fred S. Potter in 1903, his son, Fred W. Potter, took over his father’s insurance business and law practice. In the home on Carroll Street, Mr. and Mrs. Fred W. Potter raised four children, all of whom had been born at home. Mr. Potter died in 1947. In 1937, the insurance agency was handed on to his son, Ned Potter, the present owner-agent. At that time, the agency had 22 fire insurance companies and a few casualty companies. Now there are only six fire companies and six casualty companies, among which, says Ned Potter, "Fireman’s Fund remains one of the best." Fireman’s Fund has written all of the agency’s crop-hail busi-ness since 1946.

The town’s population of 2,365 has remained fairly steady through the years, although in the last few years there has been a slight increase due partly to the purchase of a tract of land along the river two miles north of Henry by the B. F. Goodrich Chemical Company – a sale handled by the Potter Insurance Agency. The tract is now the site of a $6,500,000 plant employing 95 people.

To Mr. Potter, Henry is just about the finest place in the world, "a great farm-trade community with churches of all denominations, with progressive merchants, fine stores and shops, and long noted for its wonderful duck-hunting, which rates with the best in the Mid-West." No wonder Mr. Potter was glad to get back to such a hometown after a 46-month Army stint in World War II!

Mr. Ned Potter commented on the Fireman’s Fund Centennial as follows: "It is indeed a pleasure to extend congratulations on your 100th Anniversary – especially so since this Agency has represented Fireman’s Fund for 90 years. I can truly say that it has been a pleasure to do business with Fireman’s Fund and sincerely hope that I may be around to say the same congratulations on the 100th year of our Agency’s representation of your fine Company. Best wishes from your agent and his very competent office-secretary, Miss Estella Manock."

THREE

It was 91 years ago, in 1872, that Bishop & Company (now the Bishop Insurance Agency, Ltd., of Honolulu,) became a representative of Fireman’s Fund, a representation that has continued uninterruptedly to this day, a strong and mutually happy alliance. In 1846 Charles R. Bishop sailed from Newburyport, Massachusetts, for Oregon. En route, his brigantine put in at Honolulu – and he promptly fell under its spell. When the ship pulled out, Mr. Bishop was not aboard. He was to remain in Hawaii for the next 48 years, building a great banking company, helping with the economy and progress of the country, serving as advisor to five Hawaiian kings.

His business start came when he founded a bank in a little basement store near the Honolulu waterfront, a banking firm that grew into the leading financial institution of Hawaii. Founded in 1859, the insurance agency was originally a department of the Bank of Bishop & Company, and remained with the bank until the agency was purchased by Bishop Trust Company as a wholly owned subsidiary. The new corporation had its first directors meeting the day of the purchase, August 19, 1907.

In 1850, Mr. Bishop married the striking 20-year-old Princess Bernice Pauahi Paki, a descendant of Kamehameha I. In 1872, following the death of Kamehameha V, the Princess was offered the throne, but she declined, and the long dynasty came to an end. The Princess died in 1884, and in her memory Mr. Bishop founded the renowned Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.

In 1894, Bishop sold his Hawaiian interests and moved to Berkeley, California, becoming a vice president of the Bank of California, and serving from 1900 to 1915 as a director of Fireman’s Fund.

Since occupying its first office at 924 Bethel Street, Honolulu, the insurance agency has moved four times. At present, it occupies the second floor of the Seaboard Finance Building. To meet its need for more working space, Bishop Insurance Agency has begun construction of a new $2.1 million building which will take up a good portion of the same block in which the agency had its start. The building will be known as Bishop Insurance Building.

In the general lines department, Bishop represents some 13 fire and casualty companies. The agency is one of the largest in the State of Hawaii in general lines production, writing more than 15,000 insurance policies annually. On the occasion of the Fireman’s Fund Centennial, Jerry Hay, president of Bishop’s, wrote: "On behalf of the staff of Bishop Insurance Agency, Limited, I want to take this opportunity to wish the Fireman’s Fund and our good friends at the Fireman’s Fund our sincere best wishes on their 100th anniversary.

"Our association has been a long one and a most pleasant one. Our records indicate that our firm began representing you in 1872 when the Fireman’s Fund had been founded only nine years before. "Fireman’s Fund is one of the truly great insurance companies in the world, and we are certainly grateful and pleased to say that we are among the first existing agencies of the Fireman’s Fund."

Fireman’s Fund Archives: 4-1-3-4-83, 0414]