 |
 |
 |
|
 
 
 
 |
|
|
| |
The year was 1794. George Washington was president. Franklin
Street was the city's northern boundary. Bel Air was a tiny
village of 157 people in an undeveloped frontier. Baltimore
was a small but growing town, not yet incorporated as a city.
On January 21 of this year, a number of respectable citizens
assembled to establish a fire insurance company similar to that
created in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin. This meeting gave
rise to the birth of the Baltimore Equitable Society.
By February 10, 1794, a constitution had been drawn to govern
the new company, the Baltimore Equitable Society for Insuring
of Houses From Loss By Fire. Policy Number 1 was issued on April
10, 1794 to Humphrey Pierce on his three story brick house on
Baltimore Street. By December 27 of its first year of operation,
the Society was incorporated, making it older than Baltimore
City itself, which was not incorporated until three years later.
At the conclusion of the Society's first year of business, 104
policies had been written for a total coverage of $129,016.
Expenses for the first year of Society business equalled $300.69
including salaries and rent. Detailed accounts were kept, noting
charges of $1.33 for a pewter ink stand and $.50 for 50 quills.
Nearly two years after incorporation, on December 4, 1796, the
Society sustained its first loss from fire when William Hawkins'
two brick houses at Light and Baltimore Streets (now the site
of the Nations Bank Building) were destroyed. The blaze consumed
a number of other businesses, homes and a church in what amounted
to the city's "Great Fire" to that date. With this
first loss, began the Society's tradition of prompt and full
payment to the policyholder.
Baltimore Equitable insured the property of a number of the
City's prominent citizens. In 1803, Charles Carroll of Carrollton,
a signer of the Declaration of Independence, insured four brick
buildings on the north side of King George Street (now Lombard)
between Stillhouse Street (now Front) and Jones' Falls. In 1838, Homewood the home of Charles
Carroll Jr. now on the Johns Hopkins University campus, was
first insured. When the owner cancelled this policy in 1866,
the Society refunded the entire original payment. Then in 1903,
when Johns Hopkins University acquired the mansion, the university
insured it again.
The Society was an eyewitness to the tumultuous times which
the nineteenth century presented to the nation. In 1814, the
British burned Washington and turned toward Baltimore where
they intended to do the same. Francis Scott Key watched the
bombardment of Fort McHenry from the harbor where he penned
the poem which became our national anthem. Six months after
the British forces were defeated at the Battle of Baltimore
and the city had been spared the destruction it had feared,
the Society expressed its relief. The minutes recorded at its
annual meeting on April 3, 1815, noted, "Peace and the restoration
of tranquility...(leave) the board the opportunity and satisfaction
to record... that there was no loss sustained." Had the British
been successful in their land and sea attacks on Baltimore,
the minutes would have told of a very different outcome.
Later in the nineteenth century, another milestone in American
history dramatically impacted the City of Baltimore. The year
was 1861, and Abraham Lincoln was president. Lincoln ordered
the 6th Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers to Washington and
the soldiers' route took them through Baltimore on April 19.
As their cars were drawn along Pratt Street from the President
Street Station to Camden Station (now the site of Oriole Park
at Camden Yards and just a few blocks from the Society's headquarters)
an angry mob of citizens met them with bricks and stones. Shots
were fired by both sides and by the time the riot had ended,
four soldiers and 12 Baltimoreans lay dead, with many more injured.
Troops were eventually stationed at Fort Federal Hill and various
other encampments surrounded the city with their cannon aimed
at the city for the duration of the Civil War.
|
|
|
|
