Beckett & Gray Insurance
The solidity of any institution rest on the good opinion in which it is held in its own home and in no line of business is this more true than that of insurance. In Morgan county the firm of Beckett & Gray holds the most prominent place and scarcely any one thinks of going any place else when a fire insurance policy is to be taken, for the reason that this firm represents the leading companies of the United States, and of all the loses by fire in this county for the past twenty-four years in greater amount has been satisfactorily adjusted by them and paid by policies issued through their agency than all the other agencies combined in the county, over $100,000 having been paid in losses since the inception of this agency. The agency was established by Frank M. Beckett in 1885, and occupies handsome ground floor offices adjoining the city hall. Sixteen of the strongest and most popular fire insurance companies in the world are represented. The Ohio Farmers, The Phoenix of Hartford, The Hartford of Hartford, The Home of New York, The Columbia of Ohio, The Germania of New York, The Connecticut, The Philadelphia Casualty, The Bankers’ Surety, and seven Ohio Mutuals, as follows: The Knox Mutual, Ohio Mutual, Richland Mutual, Mansfield Mutual, Western Mutual, Manufacturers’ Mutual, Central Manufacturers’ Mutual, and the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Mutual.
The firm places all kinds of legitimate fire insurance, together with live stock, cyclone and plate glass insurance, and the Herald ventures the assertion that in no other town of equal size in the state does any insurance agency present stronger line of companies than this one.
In 1900, Lewis T. Gray purchased a half interest in this agency, and since that time the firm style has been Beckett Y Gray. Mr. Gray was the efficient county treasurer for two terms, 1895 to 1899, and for a number of years has been a member of the McConnelsville school board. He was born at Chesterhill, and bore all the vicissitudes of a village boy, attending school between chore times. He came to McConnelsville in 1884 and secured employment in the George Hann cigar factory, and later was a clerk in the clothing store of J. C. Bolen.
Mr. Beckett is a native of Morgan county, who has made good at home. He held the important position of Assistant State Fire Marshall under the administration of Hy D. Davis. Both are prominent in social and financial circles, eminently practical in business methods and identified with the progressive and substantial development of the county.
Herald Souvenir Morgan County, Ohio, October 1909