The Bennett Family of Cincinnati

CAUSE OF DEATH: HEART FAILURE

OCCUPATION: INSURANCE AGENT

CHURCH AFFILIATION: EPISCOPAL

RESIDENCE AT DEATH: INDIANAPOLIS INDIANA

WHERE BURIED: SPRING GROVE 73/289

Williams City Directory for Cincinnati Ohio
1853-56 297 Elm Downtown Cinti
1861 65 Clinton Avondale
1863 67 Clinton Avondale
1866 Clifton
1871 Clifton
1873-74 98 Dayton (died here) 1855,56 p.128 lists J.B.Bennett as general ag ent for the Aetna Insurance Company of Hartford Conn. at #60 W.Fourth S treet. "All business pertaining to the interests of thi s Company in this section and the neighboring states, an d of the West, Northwest, and Southwest, attended to prom ptly, so as to accommodate its large patronage with the g reatest
facility and business skill."
Cincinnati - Past and Present
M. Joblin and Co. 1872 (portrait) "...Mr. Bennett is a warm-hearted, genial and co urteous gentleman, and is every way worthy the success which is cro wning his life-labors. The ability to infuse his own energy into al l his subordinates; the perfect discipline which characterizes ev erything he undertakes; and an intuitive knowledge of men and motives , are the sterling qualities which enabled him to outstrip competitor s and place himself at the head of one of the most successful insuranc e companies
in the country. Mr. Bennett is still in the prime of life; and, shoul d he not burn his candle at both ends, will doubtless live many years t o enjoy the
fruit of his labor."
ibid...... 1871 p.94 add for Andes Insurance, J.B.Ben nett president. Fire and marine insurance with cash, capital , and surplus of $1,202,847.01 ! For 8 months of business : "....2000 agencies established ! $700,000 Premiums ! $200,000 Loss es Paid ! and stock already at 20 per cent premium- It is the fi rst fire and marine insurance company ever started with a bona fid e $1,000,000 paid-up capital (with 1 exception in New York city durin g a very easy money market) and now ranks the ninth in order of the milli on dollar capitals engaged in fire and marine insurance...Business co nducted in a liberal spirit. Full lines upon desirable risks accept ed. Rates fixed with regard to the laws of average and fair compensat ion for
the hazard assumed."
ibid...... 1872 elaborate lithography, 8 colors for Ande s, Amazon, and Triumph insurance companies. J.B.Bennett is l isted as president for all three with B.D.West as Sec'y and J.J.B erne as Sup't. As of January 1, 1872 their assests are listed a s:
Andes $1,628,215.11
Triumph $ 727,593,11
Amazon $ 714,860.37
Totalling $3,070,668.59
Offices were located at 126 Vine Street ,Cincinnati Ohio "Having a thourough Agency System in the United State s and Canada improved business facilities for conducting a wholesal e and
retail trade. Lines commercial, forms convenient, rates and terms des irable. The character of these corporations is well indicated b y the peerless record of the Andes in the great Chicago fire. A n ew company paying over $900,000 for losses, and continuing solvent an d strong under that test- indeed everthing which is excellant or ess ential in securing indemnity can be obtained as certainly and as prom ptly in
this trio of companies as in any institution in the world."
Greater Cincinnati and Its People
History of Cincinnati Insurance Business
the list of fire and marine business.... " Amazon Ins. Co. 126 Vine St.; inc., 1871; reins ured in 1891; J.B.Bennett,Pres.; B.D.West, Secry. assests $1 ,127,698." "Andes Ins. Co.; org 1870, retired in 1872; pai d up capital
$1,000,000; J.B.Bennett,Pres,; J.H. Beattie, Secry." "Triumph Ins. Co.; org. 1871; reinsured in the Am azon 1872;
J.B.Bennett,Pres."
ibid.... " The Andes, J.B. Bennett's million dollar company, wa s located in the Sinton building on Vine Street. B.D.West, later with th e Michigan Inspection Bureau, was secretary. Holger DeRoode, later a p rominent local agent in Chicago, and George Coker, well-known adjust er and also secretary of the Kenton of Covington, were clerks in the An des office. DeRoode going to Chicago (sic.) to take the agency at tha t city."
ibid.... " When J.B. Bennett retired from the western general ag ency of the Aetna in 1870 he was suceeded by his brother, Fred C. Benne tt, and he
in turn, in 1897, by Keeler and Gallagher."
ibid.... "Aetna Insurance Company, of Hartford, established i n 1854 by Joseph B. Bennett, western general manger; suceeded b y his brother F.C. Bennett, in 1870; suceeded by Keeler and Gallaghe r in 1897;
department removed to Chicago in 1907."

Joseph Bennett In the midst of financial turmoil and struggle, Joseph wa s born in the small village of Narborough on the river Na r on August 11, 1825. He was the sixth child born to Rober t and Eleanor , who had already begun preparations to leav e England for a more favorable financial climate. It was ag reed to go to America's western frontier because the west w as the place for new opportunity and limited only by a man' s willingness to work. First settling in Cleveland, Ohio i n 1831 the family found harsh conditions awaiting them in t his western frontier town of 3000 people. Joseph went to sc hool on Superior street and remembers a particularly crue l teacher named Rawson, who used the rod to punctuate the l essons. In 1833 Joseph's family left for Cincinnati, hearin g that it was more settled and closer in circumstance to th eir former village in county Norfolk, England. Being locate d on the Ohio river and already booming due to its locatio n on the river, Cincinnati felt better for the Bennetts. Yo ung Joseph began working at fourteen in a jewelry store, we nt to college for a year at fifteen, and entered into the f ield that would earn him a national reputation at sixteen . In 1841, "J.B." started with the Old Protection Fire an d Marine of Hartford, the first eastern company to establis h a department or western branch office outside of their ho me state (in 1825). Although starting as an office boy, J.B . soon was trusted with the books. His assistant was H.M.Ma gill, later to become the western general agent for Phoeni x of Hartford. Other prominent insurance men in the offic e at this time were W.H.Wyman, general agent of the Aetna a t Omaha, Nebraska, and John McGee, later assistant secretar y of the Home of New York. The first experiments with class ification by risk was worked out by the aforementioned fo r the next 29 years (until 1854) while with the Protectio n business. While already using the idea of sub-agents to w rite policies from Pittsburgh to New Orleans (frontier limi t), J.B. can be traced as the originator of the recording a gency plan. Although agents could write policies for the pa rent companies, they were subject to home office approval . What J.B. did was to allow the agents to write their ow n policies and bind the parent company without first gettin g their approval. He then extended that to include daily re porting by the agents so that the general agent could mor e 'track' the risk and quote competitive rates. Another met hod that came to be as a direct result of J.B.'s innovativ e management techniques was that of the use of maps to mor e accurately access the hazards of buildings due to local e and other risk factors. The man in charge of mapping wa s William H. Martin a German engineer and draftsman who wa s viewed suspiciously when he went about making maps and no tes since the Civil War was in full at the time. In assista nce to him, was D.A. Sanborn, who later went on start his o wn business called the Sanborn Map Company in New York. Ano ther idea that originated in Cincinnati was that of using u nderwriters and that innovation was fostered by Alexander S toddard, another employee of J.B.'s Aetna agency. For reaso ns now only recorded somewhere within the Aetna records, J. B. severed relations with them and began his own business c alled Andes insurance. Presumably due to the parent being t o far removed for Joseph's successful formula of quick-acti on and 'lesse-faire' style of management, Joseph organize d the Andes insurance company on April 5, 1870 and within 3 0 days had 1 million dollars capital paid in full reserv e ! By December 1871, more than 2500 agencies were fully st affed and operational, all writing policies at breakneck sp eed, according to J.B.'s template. His success was so stagg ering that the Ohio state limits of 1 million dollars in op erating capital forced Joseph to divest the holdings into t wo other companies- Triumph and Amazon. They also experienc ed rapid growth and short time periods before achieving cap ital in excess of one-half million within their first 6 mon ths of operation ! In the fall of 1872, the October winds h ad just started over Chicago when the Great Fire raged thro ughout, destroying millions in property. By December, the A ndes insurance company had paid out $842,619.48 in claims a nd showed no faltering in a market enviroment that resulte d in over 60 fire insurance companies bankrupting with a to tal pay-out exceeding $20 million dollars ,all total . An d no sooner had he re-structured when the next November bro ught the great Boston fire which ruined Triumph and stunne d Amazon. But Joseph had a tremendous backing of supporters , who were ready to pour money into covering all losses. Ho wever, the Ohio Insurance Department would not allow a grac e period for adjustment and, coupled with family problems , led to his demise. His 21-acre estate in Clifton, known a s Amazon Corner, was handed over to Amazon to cover unsecur ed stock of J.B.'s. He was later employed by Amazon and And es in New Orleans and Indianapolis. His neighbor, and vice- president of Amazon, Gazzan Gano, headed the Amazon compan y for 3 years and was successful in lessening the losses co ncerning Triumph and Andes insurances. His brother, Howel l Gano, retired from hardware just to manage the receiversh ip of their dismantling. These losses by Joseph and other C incinnati companies made investors leery of the fire insura nce business and kept Cincinnati from remaining the insuran ce capital of the West. Oddly enough, in the 1890's many co mpanies were absorbed and re-insured by larger companies (i ncl. Amazon) with many choosing CHICAGO as their western ba se ! It is in Indianapolis where Joseph died, no doubt stil l working for the company he founded- Amazon. He had marrie d again to Anna Todhunter and is interned with her at Sprin g Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. A large stone memorial head stone marks his resting place and it reads:
Joseph B. Bennett
Aug 11 1825 - Dec 3 1889
Erected by his fire insurance friends.

(Research):"One Hundred Years of Fire Insurance
A History of the Aetna Insurance Company
Hartford, Conneticut 1819-1919 "
by Henry Gall and William George Jordan
Published by Aetna Insurance 1919
This book discusses in depth the reasoning behind why agent s were so important to Aetnas development. It's success dep ended "...upon the ability of the Company to select agent s distant from its home office who could be trusted to tran sact business with the same judgement and discretion." In the first few decades of the Company many letters and p amphlets were authored to help train new recruits. " Amon g these was a little booklet prepared by Secretary Perkin s in September,1819, entitled "Instructions and Explanation s for the use and direction of the Agents of the Aetna Insu rance Company," the first of its kind ever issued by a fir e insurance company. Revised in 1826, again in 1830 and a t frequent intervals thereafter, this primer of underwritin g, supplemented by the letters of Secretaries Perkins, Good win, and Loomis and finally by the "Aetna bible" - an hono r title bestowed on the "Guide to Fire Insurance" issued b y General Agent J.B.Bennett of the Aetna's Western Branch i n 1857 - contain all the elements of a complete educationa l course for the profession of an insurance agent." The text of this passage continues by quoting from Joseph' s book on page 149 which addresses how sensitive and discer ning agents had to be. As the company was growing across the United States, stric t attention was paid to maintaining a continuity of polic y and procedure for all offices opened. Originally, appoint ments to management of these offices were " almost withou t exception, either former residents of Hartford or known p ersonally by one or more of the directors."