The Secretary of the company who had been
absent from the office two months on account of ill-health super-
induced by overwork, returned about January and from that
time on to the end of the year many important questions arose
and were decided.
Before considering them, however, it must be noted that on
March I, 1863, the company made an agency contract with Heber
Smith, of Watertown, who afterward became an officer of the
company.
In this connection it may be well to understand that the limita-
tions of space will not permit a reference to all agency appoint-
ments. A complete history of the Agency department would re-




ii4 Laying a Strong Foundation

quire a volume by itself. Only those whose names have become
linked with the management of the company will be specially
mentioned, except in the exhibit of General Agents hereafter
shown. It may be said in passing, however, that no life insurance
company ever had a more able and earnest corps of agents than
has been connected with this organization beginning away back
in the early years of the state and continuing down to this semi-
centennial anniversary.
The success of the agency work of the company has been
largely due to the caliber of the men employed, but the company's
system of agency organization and supervision has had much to
do with the grand accomplishments of the department.
