Bio of HORNER, Warren Murdock (b.1870), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical

WARREN MURDOCK HORNER - Vol III, pg 152-156
Warren Murdock Horner, a widely known manufacturer whose work has been largely
national in its scope, was born at Ripon, Wisconsin, March 14, 1870, and is a
son of Andrew Watson and Anna L. (Hall) Horner. His paternal grand­father, John
Scott Horner, a direct descendant of Francis Horner of England, was governor of
Michigan during the regime of Andrew Jackson as president, served under five
presidents in conjunction with five receivers of the land office in Michigan,
was probate judge for Marquette county, Wisconsin, and was the founder of Ripon,
Wisconsin. Andrew W. Horner, father of Warren M. Horner, was a farmer who
resided through much of his life near Albert Lea, Minnesota. His wife was born
in St. Louis county, New York, May 25, 1838, and when yet a child removed with
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Hall, to Ripon, Wisconsin. She gave her hand in
marriage to Andrew W. Horner on the 25th of March, 1861, and in the fall of 1872
they took up their abode on a farm in Pickerel Lake township, four miles west of
Albert Lea. They became parents of five children, three of whom are living:
Harriet of La Crosse, Wisconsin, who is the widow of Forrest J. Smith; John S.,
of Albert Lea; and Warren M., of this, review. The death of Andrew W. Horner
occurred May 29, 1889, and his widow passed away in October, 1915, endeared to
all by her countless deeds of interest, sympathy and service, her charity being
limited only by her strength and her purse.
Warren M. Horner obtained his early education at Albert Lea, after which he took
an academic and scientific course in the University of Minnesota. When his
college days were over he engaged in the stationery and office supply business
for two years but was by nature a salesman and he decided to turn his attention
to the insurance business. He worked as an agent for one or two companies before
entering upon connection with the Provident Life & Trust Company of Philadelphia
at Minne­apolis. This was in 1894 and his original position was that of agent.
In the years that followed he earned a district agency and finally became
general agent. His territory was broadened until ultimately he had supervision
over the four states of Minnesota, Iowa and the two Dakotas. In 1915, however,
he relinquished all of his territory outside of Minnesota in order to practice
more intensive cultivation in the rich field close to his home and office. This
purpose was more in harmony with the nature of the man to concentrate and drive
hard on whatever he focused on rather than to scatter his energies. Not only did
he build up an agency with a national reputation as one of the very best, but
Mr. Horner was just as good a personal pro­ducer as he was an organizer and he
made a record which is said to rank with the highest and best in insurance
circles in America. For twenty-four years he was connected with the Provident
Life and then resigned to go into Red Cross work with the United States army in
the World war. At that time the Life Insurance Courant said of him: "Warren M.
Horner, general agent for the Provident Life & Trust Company at Minneapolis for
many years, one of the company's leading field managers, and one of the most
prominent figures of the whole country in agency circles, has resigned, as of
November 1, retiring from the Provident after exactly twenty-four years of
association with that company, and having spent over a quarter century of active
work in the life insurance business. Mr. Horner gave up his splendid agency, one
of the best organized and most successful offices in the west, in order to
engage in Red Cross Work overseas. He burned all of his life insurance bridges
behind him, totally severing the connection, for the reason that he felt that he
could not do justice to the company, his associates or himself, in attempting to
leave so important a responsibility behind at such great distance with all the
uncertainties of business conditions and those incident to war work. That is
characteristic of the man, to go whole-heartedly and completely into everything
he takes up, without letting himself be hampered by divided claims for his
attention. Mr. Horner is endowed with executive ability of a high order and is a
clear thinker. His office he systema­tized and departmentized until it became a
smooth running piece of machinery and a model of efficiency in organization and
operation. He took a very keen and sympathetic interest in his co-workers
individually, giving them both moral and financial support when necessary to
help them over the rough spots, and made them realize that there was a community
of interest in the organization. As a result the esprit de corps of his force
was splendid. Mr. Horner did not restrict himself wholly to the consideration of
his own organization. He had a broader vision of life insurance and strove to
make the business better understood and more highly regarded by the public at
large. The education and conservation movement of the National Association of
Life Underwriters, which was started a half dozen years ago, and in which
renewed interest has recently been shown, was Mr. Horner's original idea, and he
was the first chairman of that committee of the Association. He has exerted
himself to the utmost also in striving for a general uplift of agency personnel,
making repeated and insistent pleas for higher standards of agency
qualification. He took an unyielding position against part-timeism, and
practiced what he preached, refusing to employ any but agents who were willing
to give their whole time and best efforts to the business."
MR. Horner's Red Cross work was cut short by the signing of the armistice before
he had orders from Washington to go overseas, but another large question,
perhaps the most important question before the world today, had already been
attracting his attention, namely, the matter of labor and capital. At that
juncture he had an opportunity to buy the business of the Mahr Manufacturing
Company, which he did. He is the president of the company and practically the
owner of the plant, and here he has carried out his ideas and ideals concerning
the solution of business difficulties by introducing a profit-sharing plan which
has succeeded to such an extent in developing individual responsibility and
interest in their work among the shop employes that he has done away with clock
punching at the noon hour and is con­templating entire elimination of the time
clock other than as it may be necessary in piece work. His idea is that
confidence begets confidence and mechanics and humanics should go hand in hand.
He therefore carries Group Life Insurance for all associates, gives them free
clinical examinations when ill and pays shop men full wages in case of illness,
the same as other members of the company. He is himself a dynamic force, one of
the great salesmen of the world, capable of arousing enthu­siasm in the workmen
and of carrying through his ideals. His own work has bee more national than
local and this is also true of the work of the Mahr Manufacturing Company in
establishing a worth-while idea in the treatment of all employes, whether in the
shop, in the office or afield. All are treated as members of the company and not
as mere machines but as human factors with human interests. This period of his
life, in its influence, scope and importance, far outclasses the other work he
has done, notwithstanding the great prominence which he attained in insurance
circles. The Mahrvel Blue Products, which are the output of his factory and
include a line of torches, forges and furnaces-oil burning equipment-have come
into great public favor under his wise methods of marketing and advertising. He
attacks every­thing which he does from the sales angle and he sells. Moreover,
he is a practical altruist and has spent time, money and energy in his
never-ceasing campaign to assist his fellowmen. To that end he writes, lectures
and works. He is an able and lucid writer, while as a speaker he is not only
fluent but concise and convincing. As a worker he is tireless and systematic. He
makes no useless move and speaks no useless word. He has addressed audiences
from many platforms in the United States and Canada on insurance and has
published a book entitled, "Training for a Life Insurance Agent," which is
highly praised and widely distributed. But it is in the vital question of
relation between labor and capital that he is most deeply interested. His talks
on individual responsibility tend to make not only better men but better
citizens. His views regarding labor are as advanced as those of the most ardent
advocates of the laboring people but he proposes practical means of smoothing
friction between labor and capital and at the same time produce results that
shall be beneficial and equitable to both classes. One incident showing the
force and ability of the man is well worth recording. When the United States was
in the World war and congress was devising all sorts of plans to raise money, a
bill was passed which taxed the proceeds of certain life insurance policies
payable at death. This Mr. Horner knew was wrong, so he not only addressed a
printed brief to Daniel C. Roper, commissioner of internal revenue, on. the
subject but he personally went to Washington and worked with leaders in
congress, so that the bill, under exemptions, was ultimately amended in the
language used by Mr. Horner in his brief and before the senate finance committee
on the question at issue.
Mr. Horner was married November 28, 1893, to Miss Grace Carpenter and they have
a daughter, Helen, who is now Mrs. L. R. Gaynor, JR., of Seattle, Washington.
Mr. Horner is a non-resident member of the Rainier and University Clubs of
Seattle, in which city he has financial interests. He belongs to the Phi Kappa
Psi college fraternity and is a member of the Old Colony Club of New York, which
has branches in other large cities of the United States and in foreign
countries. How­ever, Mr. Horner's interests center largely in Minneapolis, where
he has lived for over thirty years. He is a member of the Minneapolis,
Minikahda, and Manu­facturers' Clubs and the Civic & Commerce Association.
He is not a sectarian in the usually accepted religious sense but believes in
carry­ing out the genuine idea of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of
man, feeling that it is an adequate platform for all and that the lack of an
appreciation of this is responsible for most of the world's difficulties.