now deal directly with the home office. The forty-sixth annual statement January 1, 1899, exhibits the following figures:

J. R. Stebbins, the late President, died in April, 1898, and was succeeded by A. H. Sawyer, the former vice-president and general counsel. The company was examined by the New York Insurance Department during 1898, and its statement verified.

ALABAMA, INSURANCE SUPERVISION IN, 1860-99. In 1860 the supervision of the business of insurance in Alabama was vested in the State Auditor, but by an act of the Legislature in 1897 it was transferred to the Secretary of State, who became insurance commissioner, ex officio. The term of office is two years and the officials have been:

ALABAMA, UNDERWRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF. [See Underwriters' Association of Alabama.]

ALBANY INSURANCE COMPANY, Albany, N. Y. Organized 1811; capital, $250,000. J. Howard King, president; Charles H. Hahn, secretary.

ALCOCK, CHARLES, general manager of the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool. He was appointed to succeed J. H. McLaren, who died November 13, 1893. Mr. Alcock was for some years chief clerk of the London Assurance Corporation, in charge of its foreign department. In 1885 he joined the staff of the Royal as assistant secretary, succeeding afterward to the secretaryship, and on the retirement of Sub-Manager Digby Johnson, in 1893, to take the management of the Lancashire, he was appointed to the vacancy, which he filled until his advancement to the office of general manager.

ALEXANDER, JAMES W., first vice-president of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, was born at Princeton, N. J., July 19, 1839, and was the son of Rev. Dr. James W. Alexander, many years pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York, and nephew of the late William C. Alexander, the first president of the company. He was graduated from Princeton College in the class of 1860, and, after a few years' practice at the bar of New York, joined the office force of the Equitable Life. He was appointed Secretary in 1866, elected second vice-president in 1871, and first vice-president in 1874. Mr. Alexander was president of the

Princeton Club of New York several years, and is the present president of the University Club of New York, and a trustee of Princeton University.

ALEXANDER, W. A., Western general agent of the Fidelity. and Casualty Company, was born near Corinth, Miss., May 2, 1857, where his father was, at the time, president of Carrollton College. In 1885 Mr. Alexander went to Chicago to seek his fortune, and formed connection with an accident insurance company to solicit on a railroad line. This position he resigned to accept the general agency of the Fidelity and Casualty. He represents that company in its accident, steam boiler, elevator, and employers' liability departments.

ALIENATION. A transfer of property to another. The fire insurance policy being a personal contract the alienation of the property covered by it voids the policy. So many controversies as to what constitutes alienation have arisen in insurance practice that the standard policies now describe minutely what will avoid the policy. [See Policy Forms, Fire. Also any digest of insurance law.]

ALLEGHENY INSURANCE COMPANY, Pittsburgh, Pa. This company re-insured its business in October, 1898, in the Armenia Insurance Company of Pittsburgh. It was organized in 1859, with $100,000 capital, and had a choice preferred business, mostly local.

ALLEMANNIA FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Pittsburgh, Pa. Organized 1868; capital, $200,000. Wm. Steinmeyer, president; G. W. Hammer, secretary.

ALLEN, ERNEST L., president of the German-American Insurance Company of New York. [See Death Roll.]

ALLEN, JEREMIAH M., president of the Hartford_Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, was born at Enfield, Conn., about 1833, and received his early education at the Westfield Academy, Westfield, Mass., where he was fitted for a civil engineer. After graduation he taught school, but in April, 1865, he entered the insurance business as general agent and adjuster for the Merchants Insurance Company of Hartford, a position which he subsequently held for the Security Fire of New York. In 1867 he was elected president of the Hartford Steam Boiler. Mr. Allen is identified with the prominent charitable institutions of Hartford, and has been in the city government. He is a member of several of the leading scientific societies of the United States, and has been since its organization the president of the Hartford Board of Trade. In 1898 he declined a re-election.

ALLIANCE ASSURANCE COMPANY, London, England. Organized 1824. Since 1892 the company has been doing business on the Pacific Coast, the present branch manager being C. F. Mullins, San Francisco. In May, 1897, the company entered the States east of the Pacific Coast department for business, with Weed & Kennedy of New York as branch managers.

ALLISON, YOUNG E., insurance journalist, is of ScotchIrish lineage and a native of Henderson, Ky., where he was born December 23, 1853. Leaving school when nine years old, he obtained, in a country printing office, the rudiments of his present profession. He was a newspaper reporter at the age of seventeen, and in the course of his journalistic career has been managing editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, editor of the Louisville Daily Commercial, and city-editor of the Evansville, Ind., Journal. He established the Insurance Herald at Louisville in 1888, and is its present editor. Colonel Allison has achieved fame in literature as a humorist, a magazine writer, and a novelist. He was, in 1893, the Kentucky commissioner for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago.

ALVERSON, H. C., assistant general agent of the Insurance Company of North America and Philadelphia Underwriters (the Insurance Company of North America and Fire Association of Philadelphia), with headquarters at Erie, Pa., was born in Chautauqua County, New York, June 12, 1843. He began the insurance business in 1866 at Beloit, Wis., as a solicitor for farm business. From 1869 to 1871 in Wisconsin, and from 1871 to 1886 in Iowa, he did special agency work, and on January 1, 1886, he entered the service of the Insurance Company of North America as Iowa State agent. In January 1, 1895, he was transferred to his present position.

AMERICAN CENTRAL INSURANCE COMPANY, St. Louis, Mo. Organized 1853; capital, $600,000. G. T. Cram, president; J. H. Adams, secretary.

AMERICAN COMPANIES ORGANIZED OR CONTROLLED BY FOREIGN COMPANIES. A number of fire insurance companies of other countries doing business in the United States have organized or acquired the control of companies with American charters. The following is the list, March 1, 1899:

Hamburg-Bremen,

Lancashire,

Lion Fire,

Owning Cosmopolitan of New York.*

Owning Lancashire, N. Y.

Owning Lion Fire, Connecticut. *

Liverpool and London and Globe,

Owning Liverpool and London and Globe, N. Y.

London and Lancashire,

Owning Norwalk Fire, Connecticut.

North British and Mercantile,

Owning North British and Mercantile, N. Y.

North German Hamburg,

Owning North German Fire, N. Y.

Norwich Union,

Scottish Alliance,

Scottish Union and National,

Thuringia Fire,

Owning Scottish Union, Connecticut. *

Owning Thuringia-American, N. Y.

Union of London,

Owning Victoria Fire, N. Y.

The Frankfort-American of New York has been organized by the Frankfort Marine Accident and Plate Glass of Germany.

AMERICAN CREDIT INDEMNITY COMPANY, New York. Organized 1893. S. M. Phelan, president; Edwin M. Treat, secretary. This company extended its business, the guaranteeing of the payment of mercantile debts, into several states in 1896. [See Credit Insurance.]

AMERICAN FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Baltimore, Md. Organized 1858; capital, $200,000. A. R. Cathcart, president; Charles K. Abrahams, secretary.

AMERICAN FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, THE, of New York. Organized 1857; capital, $400,000. George S. A. Young, president; Walter S. Alley, vice-president and secretary.

AMERICAN FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY of Philadelphia was incorporated February 28, and began business March 12, 1810. The authorized capital was $500,000. Of this amount $200,000 was paid in at the outset. The remainder was required in 1827. The charter was amended January 28, 1812, authorizing perpetual insurance, and the first perpetual policy was issued March 10 of that year. The original officers of the company were William Jones. president, and Edward Fox, secretary. In 1813 President Jones was made a member of the Madison Cabinet, accepting the appointment of Secretary of the Navy, and was succeeded as president of the company by Guy Bryan. Secretary Fox, whose management was characterized by great personal energy and success, died in 1822, and ex-President Jones resumed connection with the company as his successor. Joseph Reed was president and Job Bacon secretary in 1827, when the stock subscriptions were called. At the beginning the American Fire established agencies in all of the large towns and cities in Pennsylvania and received risks from outside states by means of correspondence. The American Fire was involved in most of the extensive conflagrations that occurred in the country during the first forty years of its history, the principal

* Chartered but not vet doing business.

losses being at Philadelphia, May 22, 1836, $42,021, and October 4, 1839, $42,470; Pittsburgh, April 10, 1845, $38,000, and St. Louis, May 17, 1849, $100,000. In the New York conflagration of July 19, 1845, the company lost $30.000. In all of these instances its losses were promptly paid, ensuring the American Fire a conspicuous and honorable reputation as an insurance organization.

By an act approved February 16, 1847, the capital stock was reduced to $277,500. April 14, 1863, an act was adopted authorizing an increase to $400,000, with power to make the amount $500,000. These figures were reached in 1886. The American Fire was admitted to New York in 1854, reporting under the laws of the State to the insurance department for the first time that year. Prior to that, however, it had regularly transacted business in the State for a considerable period. The officers at the time mentioned were Samuel C. Morton, president, and Joseph G. Mitchell, secretary. In 1855 Thomas R. Maris became secretary and was made president January II, 1860, succeeding George Abbott, who was President Morton's successor in 1857. At the time President Maris assumed the management the company's assets amounted to $659,325; when he resigned, April 23, 1882, they were $1,620,307. In April, 1882, Thomas H. Montgomery was elected president of the American Fire and has since held the position. Albert C. L. Crawford was elected secretary in 1860, and retained the place until the time of his death, July 8, 1886. He was succeeded by Richard Maris, the present incumbent of the office. The directors are Messrs. Thomas H. Montgomery, Israel Morris, Pemberton S. Hutchinson, Alexander Biddle, Joseph E. Gillingham, Charles S. Whelen, Edward F. Beale, John S. Gerhard, and Edward Lowber Welsh. The total assets of the American Fire December 31, 1898, amounted to $2,710,727.67, the net surplus being $504,733.52. The income during the year was $1,355,234.90, the cash premiums aggregating $1,226,144.49. The losses amounted to $781,877, the total disbursements being $1,329,894.79. The total premiums received since the organization of the company amount to $34.159,904.77; the total losses paid, $20,153,185.26; total cash dividends, $2,808.935.50. The total amount of risks in force December 31, 1898, including perpetuals, was $167,386,350. The total of perpetuals was $23,251,168.

AMERICAN FRATERNAL CONGRESS was organized by representatives of eighteen fraternal orders at Omaha, Neb., October 11, 1898. The officers elected were: J. C. Root of the Woodmen of the World, president; W. E. Sharp of the Royal Highlanders, vice-president; Roger Dickens of the Business and Fraternal Association, secretary; F. F. Rose of the Fraternal Union of America, treasurer. This organization appears to be independent of the National Fraternal Congress [which see].

AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY, Boston, Mass. Organized 1818; capital, $300,000. F. Peabody, president; H. S. Bean, secretary.

AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY of Newark, N. J.. was incorporated February 20, 1846. Its capital stock is $600,000;