A Brief History of Society Insurance

On a summer day during World War I, a group of farm threshing crews formed a company with a descriptive (if not brief or catchy) name: Wisconsin Brotherhood of Threshermen Insurance Company, Limited Mutual. What would later become Society Insurance was born in Madison, Wisconsin on June 8, 1915.

But let’s back up to 1911, when the story begins. In that year, Wisconsin became the first state to pass a workers’ compensation law determined to be constitutionally valid.

By 1915, threshing crews throughout Wisconsin had found great difficulty purchasing workers’ compensation insurance for their employees, whose jobs carried a high risk of injury. The crews decided to insure themselves and formed an insurance company to pool and spread risk among the members of the group.

For reasons that aren’t entirely known, the fledgling company moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin in 1918. Its first location there was a house on Main Street, home to one of the founding employees. Also that year, the first policy surplus was declared in the amount of $301.69.

In 1920, “headquarters” moved down Main Street to the residence of Grace Lewis. Grace was the daughter of one of the company’s founders, and she had begun working there two years earlier. Grace would later go on to run the company until 1952 from her post as secretary.

In that era, the company grew and developed a reputation among farmers for fair dealing. It purchased a Madison competitor, Threshermen’s National Insurance Company, in 1930. A newly constructed office opened in 1954.

In anticipation of its 50th anniversary (1965), the company contemplated changing its name to Key Mutual Insurance Company. Insurance agents who sold Threshermen’s policies mostly disliked the idea and stressed the value they saw in a respected name, even as agriculture’s role in the business declined.

Threshermen’s continued to fine-tune products to match the needs of industry and customers. The company introduced its first niche commercial-lines policy in the early 1980s. In 1987, it became a servicing carrier for the Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Insurance Pool, a key role the company has excelled at. (This assigned-risk pool helps businesses obtain the work comp insurance required by state laws when they are unable to purchase it on the open market.)

By late 1995, Threshermen’s had become Society Insurance and the company was settled into a new building on Camelot Drive in Fond du Lac. Society would add the “I” states—Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa—to its territory in 1996 and 1997. The signature Uncommon Insurance ad campaign first appeared in 1998.

Substantial growth, unique marketing, and great products have brought Society to this point.  Its policies have evolved through the years, but the commitment of Society’s employees and agents to policyholders has not wavered.

Some things never change.