I’m a magnet for old papers. At one auction house, I head straight to the glass cases after I walk through the door, hoping that some fascinating ephemera is waiting for me.
I’ve asked to see documents and papers so often that the staffer behind the glass cases was surprised once when I showed up for a doll auction. He apparently thought that papers were my only interest, but I have plenty of likes.
On this particular day I was combing through some papers in a flat box when I saw a beige and brown folded pamphlet and read the title:
“Automobile Policy. Expires Sept 19-1919”
It was a Pennsylvania auto insurance policy with $650 in coverage and an annual premium of a whopping $5.20.
This time, a young staffer was behind the counter and I was eager to show the find to him. He smiled but was obviously indifferent to the paper I had in my hand. But I like looking through old papers because they remind me that most of what we do today or even know today was built on the time before. We didn’t just think it up in our own generation. Millions of folks had done what we sometimes consider novel.
Like buying car insurance to protect our investment. The folded policy was testimony to a time when cars were not as plentiful – but were getting there, thanks to Henry Ford and his Model T – and a new industry was awakening.
The policy was issued by a company called the Donegal and Conoy Mutual Fire Insurance Company for a car registered in Marietta, Lancaster County, PA. It was a small company, founded in 1889 by a group of farmers to protect their farms and property. Donegal and Conoy apparently only wrote a limited number of policies to folks living in its area.
Among them was Ben Sellers, Esq. (an attorney, I assume) whose policy covered a one-year period from noon Sept. 19, 1918, to noon Sept. 19, 1919, “against all direct loss or damage by fire and lightning … upon the body, equipment and machinery.” The policy identified the vehicle as a 4-cylinder, 24 horsepower, 1918 Chevrolet touring automobile, number 45992, usually stored in a garage in Bedminster, PA.
In small print, the policy noted that the car was covered in the United States and Canada while in a building, on the road, on a railroad car, ferry or steamer, and against fires caused by explosion, self-igniting and lightning, and also while being transported by land or water against damage caused by stranding, sinking, collision, burning or derailment. It did not mention accidents involving damage to property, or maiming or killing other people – not even Sellers himself.
An interesting provision of the policy spoke to the war that would soon come to an end in November. It cited a 1917 “Trading with Enemy Clause,” which nullified the policy if the owner in any way acted in support of an enemy of this country or an ally of the enemy.
The policy didn’t say what specific type of touring car Sellers owned, but Chevrolet in 1918 released several cars, including the 4-cylinder Series FA and the 490 touring car, named after the price of the car. The 490 was first made around 1915 as competition for the Model T, the nation’s most popular car and Ford’s prize (which sold for around $495).
Chevrolet was trying to become a major player against Henry Ford. It had car plants in several cities in 1916 and production of its cars nearly doubled the following year. Dealerships were opened in some large cities. The company built its first enclosed car in 1916 and its first truck in 1918.
Sellers, the owner of the policy, was driving his car at a time when anyone could pay a fee to get a license without question, car insurance was not mandatory, and roads were a dirty mess. There were a lot of unskilled and untrained drivers behind the wheel.
Driving a car may have been new, but insurance coverage was not. Ben Franklin formed the first insurance company, The Philadelphia Contributorship, with a group of firefighters in 1752. It was a property insurance company to protect its members against fires.
Travelers Insurance Company was the first to offer insurance against one’s person. Founded in 1864, it insured people for injuries or death in a railroad or steamboat, and later expanded its coverage to include other types of accidents.
The company in 1897 issued its first auto liability policy to a man named Gilbert J. Loomis of Dayton, OH (or Westfield, MA, depending on whom you read). Loomis was a mechanic who had built a one-cylinder car, according to the Travelers website. He reportedly paid $7.50 for a policy with a coverage of $1,000 to protect him if he damaged someone’s property, or injured or killed someone with his car.
Several websites mentioned that the first Travelers policy was sold in 1898 to a Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, NY. He reportedly paid either $11.25 for $10,000 in coverage or $12.25 for $5,000 in coverage (against a collision with a horse because they were seemingly more prevalent than cars), depending on whom you read.
Travelers identified Loomis as its first car insurance policy-holder. Its website doesn’t say where the policy was issued.
Some other tidbits:
The first car insurance company was Amica Mutual Insurance Company, formed in 1907. It is still in business.
Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1925 were the first states to introduce legislation requiring auto insurance to some extent. In Connecticut, drivers had to prove “financial responsibility” (proof that they could pay for damages) if found at fault in an accident. In order to register a car in Massachusetts, drivers needed auto liability insurance.
New Hampshire in 1937 required drivers to prove financial responsibility or lose their licenses. That encouraged them to get liability insurance.
In 1956 New York state passed a law forcing all drivers to purchase liability insurance, followed by North Carolina a year later.
