

■f V 



Just Another Wreck to Worry About 

 Left to right, A. E. Richardson, manager, Paul Edwards, and 

 L. V. Drake of the claims department. 



"All Correspondence Clears Through Her" 

 Evelyn Ernst, head of underwriting department. 



STARTING an insurance company 

 is more than just a couple of 

 boosters sitting up late talking it 

 over in a hotel bedroom. Insurance is 

 a commodity like anything else. There 

 has to be a demand for it. You 

 wouldn't try to sell fur overcoats in 

 deep Africa, would you? So, you see 

 how it is. That's the way it was back 

 in 1925 and '26. 



There was a general and insistent 

 demand that the I. A. A. set up an au- 

 tomobile insurance company which 

 would get away from all this business 

 of paying high commissions every time 

 the agent dropped in for a chat. A com- 

 pany through which a farmer might 

 insure without paying high Chicago 

 rates was the idea. In fact, by 1925 

 those who had been loud in their de- 

 mands were getting a bit pointed in 

 their sarcasm regarding the way the 

 mills of the gods ground, and so on. 



In the meantime, the Legal Depart- 

 ment was quietly gathering a valuable 

 fund of information. Vernon Vaniman, 

 at that time director of insurance — 

 what there was of it — for the I. A. A. 

 was straining at the leash, rarin' to go. 

 A committee interviewed automobile 

 insurance companies in the State as 



well as from out of it, and it all settled 

 down, after the smoke had cleared 

 away, to the conclusion that there 

 didn't seem to be any reason why the 

 Farm Bureau of Illinois couldn't set 

 up its own insurance company. 



The executive Committee of the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association, on Sep- 

 tember 10, 1926, voted unanimously to 

 organize a legal reserve mutual auto- 

 mobile insurance company for its mem- 

 bers. This action was taken subject to 

 the approval of a meeting of Farm Bu- 

 reau presidents called for October 8. 

 This meeting endorsed the action of the 

 committee, and the organization of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Mutual Insurance 

 Company followed. Vaniman was 

 placed in charge of organization to se- 

 cure 5,000 charter members. The com- 

 pany, set up under the uniform mutual 

 law of Illinois, became a legal reserve 

 mutual. The charter of the company 

 was broad enough so that other lines 

 of insurance might be adopted later. 

 The company was established to fur- 

 nish insurance at cost and was not to 

 operate for profit. It was to be gov- 

 erned by 19 directors, which at that 

 time included the Executive Commit- 

 tee or board of directors and officers 



Everybody V 



Your Auta I 



ComP< 



Have a Look at This'Gr 

 Built in Nine Years b: 



Bureau! "'■ 



of the Illinois Agricultural Association. 

 Came 1926, and 3,290 charter policy- 

 holders had sent in checks represent- 

 ing a good deal of money, sufficient to 

 start the company. Many years later 

 these courageous souls were to receive 

 their reward. On April 1, 1927, at high 

 noon, the company issued its first pol- 

 icy, without very much pomp and less 



"It's Here Somewhere!" 



Margaret Severns, head of accounting 

 department. 



"Your Pol'cy's in These Files" 



A member of the staff buried himself in the filet. 



"Your Broken Bones Show up on Oscar" 



When a physical mishap is reported, the bones | ^^.^ 

 question are studied on the skeleton. . _ 



'. H 





f ■^. 



