Isn't There Anything That Guy Didn't Do?

He's not just the father of the library and the free press in America but also the founder of the first U.S. insurance company. Benjamin Franklin took the issue of fire safety very seriously, writing about it frequently in his paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette. Seeing a need for a more organized method of dealing with the frequent fires Franklin gathered a group of thirty Philadelphia citizens to take up the challenge. On December 7, 1736 they formed the Union Fire Company, Pennsylvania's first volunteer fire department.

Some years later in 1752, Benjamin Franklin and his fellow firefighters founded "The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire."

Modeled after the "Amicable Contributionship of London." they formed as a mutual insurance company in which policyholders came together to share their risk. The company refused to write houses that its members thought were unsafe or were poorly maintained for fire hazards. They reportedly also refused to issue policies to homes which offered haven to British soldiers.

Policyholders homes were inspected by the insurer and its underwriting standards became the basis for the city's first building codes.
The Philidelphia Contributionship, founded by Ben Franklin, is still in business today and has the distinction of being the nation’s first and oldest property insurance company.