Article by Kyle Widner

Such public approval assisted to slam unfastened yet more doors to life insurance companies offering this type of family protection. The contemporaries of the MetropolitanThe Prudential Insurance Company of America, which had begun operations as an Industrial company in 1875, and the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, which started in August 1879were besides hammering before. As the industrial business flourished, several other companies entered the field. It was so golden that the bulk of industrial insurance was conducted by companies which were managed with eminent integrity and skill.

Sowing the seeds of industrial insurance over a quickly widening area required an unprecedented expansion of the company’s Field Force. When the industrial business was launched belated in 1879, the company had simply one branch office in New York City and two in Brooklyn. During 1880 no less than 23 offices were opened in such wide divided cities as Providence; Baltimore; Boston; Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Rochester, N. Y.; Portland, Maine; and Washington, D. C.

Each year whipsawed the cultivation of unexampled areas. Offices were opened in Chicago and in Newark during 1881, and by 1883 the Company had forced as far west as Milwaukee, Wis., and as far south as Richmond, Va. The business was pursued most energetically where the ask for industrial insurance was most urgentin industrial cities with big concentrations of wage earners. In the five year period between 1886 and 1891, the number of district offices turned from 65 to about 100; the Field Force increased from well-nigh 2,700 to nigh 5,000 men.

True pioneers those who managed these former offices! Their names are yet cited with reverence when the veterans get conjointly to reminisce about “the full previous days.” There was William G. Staniland, one of the first over from England. He was designated to the Pittsburgh District, and went the first Metropolitan Superintendent to go west of the Allegheny Mountains. There was W. G. Roberts, of Philadelphia, an older brother of James S. Roberts, who later became Secretary of the Company; James W. Walker, who did spade work in the former industrial business; Allen Lee Bassett, who had been President of The Prudential of Newark, and who for years managed the Metropolitans Newark District; John H. Crankshaw, who played a significant part in training the Field Force.

Especially efficacious was Joseph Grosner, who, as agent, then as Superintendent, and later as Chief Supervisor at the home office, played a critical role in inspiring the FieldMen to an understanding of the service they could render. All these men not only did yeoman service in opening territory for Industrial insurance, but also educated literally hundreds of unexampled men to move over leadership as Superintend­ents in the e’er-expanding operations of the company.