The life insurance industry is a $1.2 trillion business in the United States and, one company, Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company, of Augusta, was a trailblazer in building the industry.
The concept of life insurance may seem like a modern invention; however, there were early forms of insuring someone’s life in antiquity, mainly for soldiers who left dependents to fight wars.
According to Ethos, Roman military general, Gaius Marius, created a so-called “burial club” for his fellow soldiers so that should one of them be killed in warfare, the survivors would band together to pay for the funeral and the burial costs.
There is also evidence that some Medieval churches offered a form of life insurance to their congregations.
Life insurance sales did not reach America until the mid-1700s, when a group of Presbyterian ministers created the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers in 1759 and the Episcopalian priests organized a similar fund in 1769.
However, according to Trustage, life insurance was frowned upon in some quarters.
Many thought it was vulgar to try and put a price on a person’s life and others even though it might cause marital strife and even murder. People who enjoy watching true crime programs might agree that the detractors had a point.
By the turn of the 20th Century, purchasing life insurance had become more commonplace, but it was mainly only purchased by business professionals and not factory workers.
Enter Solomon W. Walker.
In 1898, Walker was an enterprising Black teenager who delivered groceries, and he always noticed how nicely dressed and well groomed the White life insurance salesmen were when he would encounter them on his rounds.
According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Walker’s entire net worth was around $2.50 and the cost to charter an insurance company was a hefty $25. So, Walker pooled his money together with that of his younger brother Thomas and two other young Black men, his cousin, 16 year-old Walter Hornsby and James C. Collier.
Prior to the turn of the century, most Blacks in the South were sharecroppers and had no need for income replacement when they were trying to survive without starving over one bad crop.
However, the late Augusta historian Ed Cashin, notes in his book, “The Story of Augusta,” that Augusta already had a burgeoning Black middle class even before the Civil War, and those numbers grew over time.
By the time that Walker and his buddies started the Pilgrim Benevolent Aid Society, there was an untouched market just waiting to be tapped.
Before the Great Depression, life insurance companies began following the lead of the banking industry in investing their proceeds and not leaving enough capital to be solvent in an emergency.
After a panic occurred in 1905, new federal law forced life insurance companies to place on deposit at least $5,000 for the protection of policy or holders; the new law forced Walker to merge his company with several other benevolent societies and the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company was formed.
The company then expanded to offer “burial policies” that had a much lower face value and would basically pay for the cost of a casket and burial plot. However, the policies were affordable enough for mill workers and Pilgrim had no shortage of customers.
According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, by 1948 the company had paid out $14 million in policy claims and employed over 700 people.
Ironically, it would be the Civil Rights movement that would turn Pilgrim’s fortunes. As racial attitudes changed, more and more White owned insurance companies began trying to break into a market that previously only Pilgrim serviced.
By the early 1990s, Pilgrim merged with Atlanta Life Insurance Company; so the Pilgrim name is not around anymore, but the company is still alive in spirit.
…And that is something you may not have known.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
