New York state. He was elected to his present position January I, 1905.

BEARDSLEY, EDWARD WATSON, ex-president of the National Association of Local Agents, and member of the agency firm of Beardsley & Beardsley, Hartford, Conn., was born in Winsted, Conn., June 4, 1868. He was educated in the public schools and Hartford High school, and began his business career as office boy in the office of the Phoenix Insurance Company in 1885. On March 1, 1891, he was appointed local agent of the Phoenix, and in 1899 formed the agency firm of Beardsley & Beardsley, representing the Phoenix and Etna of Hartford, Home of New York and Alliance of Philadelphia. He was elected president of the Connecticut State Association of Local Agents in 1901, and has been active in the affairs of both the state and national association, being elected president of the National Association in 1908. He is a director of The Empire Knife Company of Winsted, Conn., and clerk of the West Middle School district.

BEARDSLEY, GUY ERASTUS, assistant secretary of the Etna Insurance Company, was born in Coventry, Chenango county, N. Y., December 14, 1874, and was educated in the public and high schools of Hartford. He is a graduate of Yale University, class of 1896, and began his business career in fire underwriting, serving as an examiner at the home office of the Etna for a number of years, and later representing that company in the field as special agent in Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, and Vermont. He went from the Etna's home office as special agent for the National Union Fire of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, and was special agent for the Home of New York in Connecticut and Rhode Island for three years and later became special agent of the Etna. With the exception of these four years spent in the field for the Home and National Union, his business career has been spent with the Ætna, and he was elected to his present position in May, 1907.

BEATH, ROBERT B., former president of the United Firemen's Insurance Company of Philadelphia. [See Death Roll.]

BEDDALL, EDWARD F., president of the Queen Insurance Company of America and United States attorney for the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool, is a native of the county of Essex, England, where he was born May 1, 1839. His first connection with the insurance business was as inspector of agencies for the London branch of the Royal, in 1863. Mr. Beddall was made manager of the Canadian branch of the Royal in July, 1871, and of the New York branch in July, 1873. He has, therefore, been connected with the company fifty-two years. In April, 1900, he resigned the latter office and was elected president of the Queen Insurance Company of America, of New York, but retained the general attorneyship of the Royal for the United States. He was in 1895 elected president

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BERKSHIRE MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY

of the Tariff Association of New York, and in 1896 president of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters. He is a warden of the Church of St. John's, Larchmont; he has been president of St. George's Society of New York, and is prominent in social, charitable, and religious matters in the metropolis. He is also president of the Royal Indemnity company.

BENSON, R. DALE, former president of the Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company, retired 1914. [See Cyclopedia for 1913-14.]

BENTON, EVERETT C., president of the Massachusetts Fire and Marine Insurance Company and member of the firm of John C. Paige & Co., Boston, Mass., has spent his entire business life in fire insurance, having started as a clerk in the office of the general agency of which he is now a member. He is a native of Vermont and was born of American parentage at Guildhall, September 25, 1862, and received a common school education. He is prominent in the business and social affairs of Boston, being a member of various clubs and societies, and is active in Masonic circles, being a thirtythird degree Mason and past Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. He was a member of the governor's council in 1897, and is a member of the Metropolitan Park Commission.

BERDAN, WILLIAM SIBLEY, general agent of the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company, New York, was born in Litchfield, Ohio, August 30, 1865. He received a common and high school education, and began his business career in fire insurance, and has represented various companies as local and special agent. He represented the North British and Mercantile on the Pacific Coast and Texas until appointed general agent for the company in charge of the Pacific coast field with headquarters in New York.

BERESFORD, PERCIVAL, United States manager of the Phoenix Assurance Company, Limited, of London, president of the Imperial Assurance Company of New York, and United States manager of the Swiss Reinsurance Company of Zurich, Switzerland, was born in Middlesex, England, February 6, 1874. He entered the London office of the Palatine Insurance Company in 1890 and in 1895 joined the surveying staff of the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company in London. He subsequently became secretary of the South Wales branch of the latter company. In 1903 Mr. Beresford became associated with the Phoenix and previous to coming to this country in 1909 managed two of their branches.

BERKSHIRE MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Pittsfield, Mass. Organized 1835. Henry R. Peirson, president; J. M. Stevenson, vice-president and treasurer; Robt. A. Barbour, secretary. Admitted assets, December 31, 1914, $234,444.29; liabilities, $163,621.34.

BISHOP, CHARLES NELSON

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BEVIER, BENJAMIN, was born in Napanoch, Ulster county, N. Y., and at the age of fifteen started business life in a general store at Woodbridge, N. J., in which capacity he continued until 1877, occupying similar positions at Bridgeport, Conn., and Napanoch. He began his insurance career with the local agency of Neafie, Terwilliger & Post, of Ellenville, N. Y., remaining with the firm until 1883, when he became bookkeeper for an insurance company, office at New York city, and later surveyor in Metropolitan District. In 1888 he was appointed special agent of the Queen Insurance Company, which position he still retains. Mr. Bevier has been a prominent member of the Underwriters' Association of the Middle Department since 1887, was elected to the presidency in 1899 and is still active in Middle Department affairs.

BIGELOW, FREDERIC RUSWELL, president St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, St. Paul, Minn., is a son of the late Charles H. Bigelow for thirty-five years president of the St. Paul Fire and Marine, and was born in St. Paul, Minn., March 31, 1870. He was educated in the public schools and Williams College, from which he graduated in 1891, and in the same year began his insurance career as clerk in the office of the St. Paul Fire and Marine. After a service of nine years as clerk and bookkeeper he was appointed marine secretary, subsequently becoming assistant secretary and then vicepresident, from which he was promoted to the presidency in 1911. He is a director of the Federal Reserve Bank for the ninth district.

BIRMINGHAM FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Pittsburgh, Pa. Organized 1871; capital, $200,000. Charles Melling, president; Wm. Ruske, vice-president; A. J. Henning, secretary; A. G. Kaufmann, assistant secretary; Frederick Buehler, treasurer. Admitted assets, December 31, 1914, $507,613.70; liabilities, $129,688.24.

BISHOP, CHARLES NELSON, manager of the Chicago and Suburban Department for the Northern of London, is a native of Kenosha, Wis., where he was born May 28, 1855, his father being the Rev. Hiram Nelson Bishop, D.D., rector of St. John's P. E. Church, Chicago. He was educated in the schools of Chicago, and while in the high school edited and published a monthly paper entitled Little Men. In 1872 he entered the Chicago fire insurance agency of Thomas & W. A. Goodman as a clerk, and three years later resigned to enter the service of the Spectator, with which he was connected, in all though not consecutively, seven years, part of which time as traveling agent and part as manager of its western office at Chicago. From 1880 to 1883 Mr. Bishop lived in Colorado, engaged in mining and publishing the Summit County Leader, of which he was editor and proprietor. After the following two years at Chicago with the Spectator, he abandoned journalism to become permanently interested in fire underwriting. He was a partner in the local agency firm of H. H. Brown & Co. of Chicago from 1885 to 1889, and in the latter year was appointed Chicago city manager for the Northern

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BLANCHARD, HERBERT PAUL

of London. In 1908 the Company placed its Suburban Department in his charge as well. This embraces about one hundred agents in the neighborhood of Chicago. Mr. Bishop takes an active interest in the Chicago Board of Underwriters and was elected its vicepresident in April, 1907, and re-elected in January, 1908, and in January, 1909, he was unanimously elected president. His particular hobby is the fire insurance patrol, having served continuously on the patrol committee since 1892. He was elected chairman of this committee in 1903, which position he relinquished on his election to the presidency of the Board. He was made a trustee of the Fire Insurance Patrolmen's Pension Fund in 1903, and 1909 made president of the Board of Trustees. In 1910 Mr. Bishop was unanimously re-elected president of the Board of Underwriters and of the Trustees of the Patrolmen's Pension Fund.

BISSELL, RICHARD M., president of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, and formerly manager of the western department at Chicago, Ill., was born at Chicago, June 8, 1862. He was graduated from Yale University in the class of 1883, and entered the insurance business soon after graduation. He was president of the Merchants' Club, Chicago, and also a member of the Commercial, Literary, University, and Union League Clubs of that city. He was elected vicepresident of the company in January, 1903. In 1909 Mr. Bissell was appointed underwriting manager for the above company, and upon the retirement of President Chase in 1913 was elected president, which position he now occupies.

BLACKSTONE MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Providence, R. I. Organized 1868. William B. McBee, president; Ernest W. Brown, vice-president and secretary; Howard I. Lee, assistant secretary. Assets, December 31, 1914, $1,139,787.44; liabilities, $685,891.77.

BLACKWELDER, I. S., fire underwriter, is a native of Montgomery county, Ill. He was appointed local agent of the Ætna Insurance Company at Hillsboro, the county seat, in 1864, while holding the office of county clerk of said county. His first field work was for the Etna in 1868. He was engaged in field work continuously from that date until 1881 as representative of several prominent fire insurance companies, excepting that for two years of the time-1874 to 1876-he served as chief supervising agent for the National Board of Fire Underwriters. In April, 1881, Mr. Blackwelder was appointed manager of the western department of the Niagara Fire Insurance Company, with headquarters at Chicago, which position he held until 1907, when he resigned. Mr. Blackwelder was elected president of the Western Union at the annual meeting of that organization in September, 1902, and is assistant secretary of the governing committee of the Western Union in Chicago.

BLANCHARD, HERBERT PAUL, assistant secretary of the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, San Francisco, Cal., is a native

BOARD OF Underwriters, METROPOLITAN DISTRICT, BOSTON 25

of California, and was born of American parentage in Placerville, El Dorado County, October 15, 1871. He was educated in the public and private schools of Placerville, and Hopkins Academy, Oakland, from which he graduated in 1889. The following year he entered the service of the Fireman's Fund, and has since served the company continuously in various positions in the office and in the field, until appointed to his present position. He was elected president of the Fire Underwriters' Association of the Pacific at the annual meeting in 1915, and has served the association in other capacities.

BLANKET POLICIES. In American underwriting a blanket policy covers different kinds or different pieces of property under the same form. Blanket policies are not considered good underwriting, but are found to be necessary in many cases.

BLIVEN, WAITE, vice-president and underwriting manager of the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 29, 1867. He was educated in the public schools, and began his insurance career with the Howard Insurance Company of New York in 1884. A year later he became connected with the American Fire Insurance Company at the Western Department Office in Chicago, and in 1888 was appointed special agent of that company, having charge of several western states. He was elected secretary of the American Fire April 10, 1905, and became vicepresident of that company and of the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania in 1911. On the merger of the American Fire with the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania in December, 1913, he was elected vice-president of the latter company, and appointed underwriting manager.

BLODGETT, WILLIAM A., vice-president of the American Central Insurance Company, St. Louis, Mo., was born of American parentage in Boston, Mass., May 22, 1865. He was educated in the public schools of Boston and Chicago and began his insurance career in the service of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company in 1881. He continued in the service of the Springfield until 1911, when he resigned as second assistant manager of the company's western department, to accept his present position.

BLOSSOM, GEORGE W., assistant general agent of the National Fire of Hartford, in its western department at Chicago, was born at Dubuque, Ia., October 1, 1854. He has been in the fire insurance business from early manhood, beginning in a local agency at Dubuque, serving in the office of the western department of the German-American eight years, and in the same department of the Connecticut Fire three years. He then became a partner in the Chicago local agency of Fred S. James & Co., and also assistant general agent of the National Fire, also the New York local agency of Fred S. James & Co.

BOARD OF FIRE UNDERWRITERS OF THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT, Boston, was formerly known as the Suburban Underwriters' Association, organized in 1895, and re-organized in 1912