Page 11 - Frankenmuth Insurance 150 Years Anniversary Booklet

A new business hits the road

Fifty-two years after the association began, another company was born
in Frankenmuth: the Frankenmuth Mutual Auto Insurance Company.

It was 1920, and though the town’s horses were a long way from being put out to

pasture, more and more of Frankenmuth’s citizens owned automobiles. Many of
these were insured by a company in Bay City, 30 miles north of Frankenmuth.

When the Bay City company went bankrupt, a group of car owners—including
Carl Nuechterlein—formed a committee to discuss creating an auto insurance
company. In September of 1921, the Frankenmuth Mutual Auto Insurance

Company was organized. A board of directors was named, which in turn elected

the company’s first officers, including Leonard Reichle as President, Carl Ortner
and Bernhard Schaefer as Vice Presidents, and the ever-present Carl Nuechterlein
as Secretary-Treasurer, who was designated to actively manage the company.

Regulations required that the company have 200 subscribers before it could
issue its first policy. The Board of Directors became the company’s first agents,

and by March of 1922, the 200 subscribers were enrolled. The first
official policy was issued to John A. Geyer on a Dodge Brothers

car, for a premium of $7.50 (plus a $1.00 policy fee). Geyer was a
company founder and also served on the Board of Directors.

The modest conservatism which had marked the beginnings of the association

was a hallmark of this new company as well. The commission paid to agents was
$1 per policy. The company’s office, like the office of the association, was housed

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