The History of Unity Mutual Insurance Company
Unity Mutual Insurance Company was established in 1877 and incorporated on Jan. 1, 1878, by a group of 15 neighboring farmers in Stockholm Township of Wright County, Minnesota, who could not get protection for their property from other Insurance Companies. The office was in the Secretary’s rural farmhouse in Stockholm Township, Cokato, Minnesota. In the eighteen hundreds, the stock companies out east were not interested in insuring the farmers in the Midwest, and there were no other local Insurance Companies. Therefore, these farmers had to find ways to protect their property and that of their neighbors and their families. Thus, the Minnesota Township Mutual Insurance Companies were born and eventually numbered over 100 companies. This group of men, like many others, contacted the Minnesota Legislatures and then the Minnesota Commerce Department for permission to form and incorporate their own non-profit Insurance Companies. This “Mutual Insurance” concept was taken from Benjamin Franklin, who first came up with this concept of non-profit Insurance and formed the very first Mutual Insurance Company. The idea of this type of Insurance is essential in that all members would contribute a certain amount of money to the company treasurer and in the event of a loss, each member sharing in the loss to help the person suffering from the loss to be indemnified, or made whole by putting them back into the position they were prior to the loss or as close as possible. The idea was and continues to be to protect at cost and not for profit.
Minnesota Legislators allowed each of these companies to insure property only in so many townships in the State, and all of these townships must be continuous or connected. This is still the case today in Minnesota; however, in 2009, the Minnesota Legislators passed the “Modernization Law,” which changed territory writing to Counties rather than Townships. However, the Counties must be continuous or connected. This expanded the territory of many companies. In the case of Unity Mutual, a merged company, we can write in twenty counties, which is the maximum number of counties a township mutual (as they are still known) can write in.
Board of Directors | Our Staff |
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Marvin Johnson - President | John Kaufman - General Manager |
Joseph Holthaus- Vice President | Michael Kaufman - Supervisor |
David Urdahl - Treasurer | Megan Worm - Administrative Assistant |
Michael Kaufman - Secretary | |
Melvin Rozenberg - Director | |
Duane Henkelman - Director |