Case and Son agency has long, rich history
Birthday celebration planned for Friday, public invited
By KATHY HAGEMAN
News editor
Back in 1868 when Alex E. Case began selling insurance in Marion Centre, most of his customers probably had never even heard of insurance and had no idea what it was.
But now, much more than a century later, the legacy Alex E. Case started has continued and on Friday his descendants at Case and Son Insurance, Inc., 220 E. Main, Marion, will celebrate 135 years in business. The company will host a reception at their office from 5 to 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
In a day and age when businesses come and go with little advance warning, there's something comforting about dealing with a business that's been run by the same family, in the same location, for 135 years.
Although the location is the same, the building has changed a few times. Initially, the first Case insurance office was located upstairs in Marion's first hotel, a log cabin structure.
"There was a store front building in the 1900s and the office was located upstairs. In 1933 Granddad put a brick front on the building," said Rosse Case, great-grandson of founder Alex E. Case.
"That building housed our family's office until fire burned it down in the 1960s," added Case and Son Insurance President Alex H. "Casey" Case.
A veteran of the Civil War, Alex E. Case — the founder of Case and Son Insurance — came to Marion Centre to establish a homestead shortly after the first settlers had made their homes here.
However, because of his abilities in clerical and legal matters, he was much in demand and soon abandoned the homestead and moved to town to help in county government and other civil affairs.
On Jan. 25, 1868, he received his first appointment as an insurance agent and was continuously licensed as such during his lifetime.
On Jan. 25, 1893, the business became known as Case and Son when Alex's son Rosse Case joined his father in what was then an insurance and real estate business. Rosse enhanced the insurance part of the business and enlarged it as the county became more populated.
The next Case family member to join the firm was Casey's namesake, Alex H. Case. The son of Rosse Case and grandson of the founder, Alex became a partner in the business of Case and Son and remained active in the business until shortly before his death in 1981.
Alex's children brothers Rosse B. and Alex "Junior" Case, joined the company on Dec. 25, 1955, when they became partners. With their addition, the company was able to assign certain fields of insurance to each of the partners.
Today, Rosse is officially retired from Case and Son, but still "keeps his hand" in the family business.
Rosse said he joined the company after serving in World War II and graduating from college at Emporia.
"It was a good opportunity to go into business with my dad," Rosse said. "I liked the town. I grew up here and I married a local girl, Janice Socolofsky. So it was kind of natural to come back here."
As the corporation celebrates its 135th birthday, the fifth generation Casey Case, currently serves as president. He joined the firm Oct. 14, 1988.
A desire to return home and raise his own family in a small town encouraged Casey to leave the fast life in Aspen, Colo., and join the family business.
"I thought it would be a good place to raise my family and because of all the outdoor opportunities," said Casey. He enjoys fishing and camping and the Marion location is just perfect for that life.
Casey's father, Alex Case Jr., died March 20, 2001. Casey's mother, Jean (Hagens) Case, continues as a Marion resident. Although never involved in the business directly, Jean is an owner of the building, Casey said.
Other company employees today include Lori Fruechting, a licensed CSR, and Evelyn Ollenberger, who has worked at Case and Son since 1931.
Although Case and Son has always been family owned and operated, that nearly changed a few years ago when Rosse was thinking of leaving. However, that didn't pan out and ownership remained with the family, which is just fine with the Cases.
"Our founder was way ahead of his time," Casey said. "He had a lot of advertising gimmicks. People are always bringing in some little trinket or calendar that he put out.
One of the advertising gimmicks, which worked well for a long time, were numbered keychains.
"The keychain said to drop it off at Case and Son and it would be returned to its rightful owner," Rosse recalled. That system worked well until a fire destroyed the business building and the records.
A fiery end?
The long history of Case and Son almost ended in December 1968 when the building went up in flames. The Duckwall's store, which then occupied the lower level, caught fire destroying the building. The upstairs offices of Case and Son, along with dental office space occupied by Dr. E.K. Schroeder burned to the ground.
"We celebrated our 100th anniversary in January 1968 and in December the building burned down," Rosse remembered. "The temperature was way below zero and everything burned."
Although he was only about ten years old, Casey remembers the night well. He accompanied his mother to the fire scene, and remembers his father heading upstairs to try and rescue records from the burning building. But the fire was too intense, and his father turned around.
The Cases feared the fire meant the end of their business. Without records, it would be impossible to continue. However, when the flames died down and nothing was left by debris, the company's safe was intact.
"The safe dropped down in the ashes and we pulled it out with a crane 24 hours later," Rosse remembered. "The papers with all the accounts were there and we were able to resurrect our business."
Also, one of the insurance company's Case and Son had represented for years, Commercial Union, offered their paper records to the Case company to help in the rebuilding process.
"We went up to Kansas City to get them. They trusted us with them," Rosse said, shaking his head. "You know that wouldn't happen today."
Case and Son Insurance, along with Hannaford Abstract, co-built the new building which is currently utilized by both businesses.
"The new building was made with concrete and steel," Casey said.
"We put steps up into our new building because of the floods. That's why you walk up after entering," Casey explained, noting that before the city's dikes were built in the late 1970s, most new downtown construction was elevated.
A decade of change
Although he has been selling insurance only about 15 years, Casey said he believed there's been more change in Case and Son, and the insurance business in general, during the past ten years than during the entire 125 years previous.
"There's been many mergers and name changes. Our lead company — Commercial Union who appointed us in 1879 — operated under the same name for about 120 years," Casey said. "But during the past four years, they've gone through three name changes.
"These companies think they need to keep getting bigger," he said. And while the sale and accompanying transition is underway "service is terrible," Casey said.
"And about the time things start getting back to normal, they merge again," he said, shaking his head. "That makes it hard for us as the agent representing these companies. It's a challenge for us to keep a balance between the customer and the company."
But on the positive side, there are also some long-established Kansas companies "who have had the same employees for 30 or 40 years" that continue to operate as reliably as before.
Besides dealing with the changing complexion of the insurance world, small businesses like Case and Son have also had to deal with changes in the industry caused by extreme weather.
"Wind and hail damage in Kansas cost billions of dollars to the insurance industry in recent years," Casey said. "Some have been forced to sell or go broke."
Rosse agreed, "A lot of companies are reluctant to write insurance in Kansas."
Also, recent declines in the stock market have caused many companies to lose money. Add to that equation the enormous cost of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
"About four things have come together to negatively impact the insurance industry," he said.
But the good news is that companies are still out there that choose to write insurance, although the premiums may increase each year.
"Those higher premiums don't always sit well with customers, but a lot of our customers are pretty loyal," Casey said. "They rely on us to give them the best advice we can."
Although the insurance industry overall is experiencing a downtime, Case and Son has seen growth in recent years by purchasing other agencies.
"We purchased our main competitor, Marion Insurance Center, about 12 years ago. That doubled the size of our agency," Casey said. "And when we purchased them, Vernie Konecny came with it. That was the key to the purchase. She knew the customer base and kept that intact. If not for her we would have lost half the customers.
"That was a pretty significant event for us," Casey said.
Within the past 15 years, Case and Son has purchased four or five other agencies, with the most occurring last year when they bought the Dorman Becker Agency in Durham.
As for the big picture, Case and Son has gone from horseback to the Internet.
"Granddad used to go door to door by horse and buggy, then by automobile," Rosse said. "Now it's e-mail and Internet."
Casey agreed, "When I came 14 years ago, we didn't have a computer in the office. Now we have to do business with them. One company required us to get a computer. Communication is a lot better when the computers work properly."
The future
As for the future of Case and Son in the distant future, that depends pretty much on the interests of Casey's children. He and his wife, Nicki — a native of Detroit, Mich. — have two boys, Wil, 10, and Grif, 6.
Both of Casey's sisters, Diana Costello and Debbi Darrow, both of Marion, have tackled other careers.
In Rosse's case, his grown children live elsewhere. His daughter, Tamara Stone lives in Overland Park, another daughter, Teresa Nielsen lives in New Hampshire, and his son, Brad Case, is in Denver. They have five grandchildren.
As for the immediate future, Casey sees the company weathering the storm during these tough times.
"When I first came here the insurance industry was experiencing good times and all companies seemed to be healthy, but things have changed in recent years," Casey said.
"I feel that will level out and we plan to be here many more years."
