Ohio County, West Virginia The Conservative Life Insurance Company This file was submitted by Tina Hursh, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume 111 Pg. 362 The Conservative Life Insurance Company. With full measure of consistency may this publication offer brief review of the Conservative Life Insurance Company of Wheeling, West Virginia, for the institution is one that is gaining high rank and unequivocal success, and had proved a source of just pride, as well as value, to the city and state in which if figures as a "home corporation." This company was organized and incorporated, under the laws of West Virginia, in the year 1906, with an authorized capital of $500,000. When its first policy was issued, in April, 1907, the assets of the company were about $14,000. Of all that has since been achieved an idea is conveyed by the brief notation that at the close of the year 1920 the assets of the company aggregated $1,575,344.56, an increase of nearly $400,000 over the preceding year. From an appreciative article that appeared in the publication entitled "Money and Commerce," are taken the following pertinent quotations. After noting that annual statement of the company for the year 1920 the article continues as follows: "Thus it will be seen that from a very meager beginning it has progressed and advanced each year until it now stands among the leading financial institutions in the country. It has always been the aim and policy of the management to build up the institution on a solid and safe foundation, and to that end great care has been exercised in the selection of insurance risks, investment of the funds, and the systematic conducting of its affairs in such a way as to give to the public every attractive and up-to-the-minute form of policy, together with the creation of a permanent agency organization, which now numbers approximately two hundred fifty men and women, representing it in the states of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. With the constant opening of new state, with the agency force increasing in numbers, and with the volume of business constantly expanding, and naturally the resources of this institution cannot help but swell in proportion, and its future growth and stability can be measured only on the basis of the amazing financial growth of some of the institutions of this kind in the East. Since its organization the company has paid out over $600,000 in death claims, and has withstood not only the great World war but also the greatest epidemic the world has ever known, Spanish influenza. This alone increased the expected mortality by over one-half, yet each and every claim was paid the same day that proofs of death were filed and approved at the home office. This alone demonstrates to the public at large the financial strenght of the company, and is positive evidence and proof of the soundness and stability as well as of the just and equitable treatment received by the policy-holders and their beneficiaries." The home offices of the Conservative Life Insurance Company are established in a fine building that bears the company's name and that is owned by the company. This is an enlarged and remodeled structure, the base of which was the old post office or Federal Building at Wheeling, and with the purchase more recently of adjoining property on which was situated the Colonial Theater the company now owns a block 132 feet square-one of the most valuable properties in the city. In conclusion may be given extracts from a New York financial periodical, the New York Commercial, whose representative found fully justified the "claim that Wheeling has one of the most successful and best managed life-insurance companies in cities of this class in America." The article further states that the ultimate test of a company's financial solidity is the relation of liabilities to assets, and that, gauged by this test, some of the smaller insurance companies hold the commanding position, "and this is true of the Conservative Life of Wheeling." In Commenting on the specially liberal policies marking the conduct of the business and the company's adoption of "multiform" insurance, the article continues thus: "This contract has been the means of the company writing as much or more business in its home state as any other company operating in the State of West Virginia, and the contract has proved so popular that it is now being copied by some of the older and larger companies. The wonderful success and progress of this enterprising concern is due to the competent staff of officers and agents. Clem E. Peters, the efficient secretary and treasurer of the company, who is recognized as one of the leading insurance men of this district, has perhaps been more of a factor in bringing the company through to its present high standing than any other individual connected therwith, because it has been through his untiring efforts that the company has attained its present high rank in financial circles. Of the secretary and treasurer of the company more specific mention is made in preceding biography.