What Voltaire was to France, Benjamin Franklin was to America. An American immortal, he was one of the founders of the country. He was present at the Continental Congress and the signing of the American Declaration of Independence. He was in Paris to draft the wartime treaty with France and then almost single-handedly concluded the peace treaty with Great Britain. He was present at the signing of the U. S. Constitution. He was the best American scientist, its most deft diplomat and an accomplished writer.
He was a printer, publisher, author, inventor, and educator. What is not as well known was that he was also an insurance executive and his long life of public service was filled with such a vast number and variety of contributions to American life that any listing is incomplete.
While his patriotic service to his country are well documented in American history books, he was also instrumental in the establishment of a fire brigade in Philadelphia and pioneered the development of organized risk-bearing in the United States by initiation of the first incorporated fire insurance company of America. This was the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. The founding of this company marked an important milestone in the establishment of insurance in America.
The fame attained by Benjamin Franklin through his other activities has often obscured his tremendous contribution to the origin and early growth of the American insurance industry.
Courtesy of ushistory.org