Chapter Two
The Early Years
A Hoxeyville, Michigan, band in Gleaner uniform stands ready for a rally in Manton, Michigan.
The articles of incorporation for The Ancient Order of Gleaners were drafted by Caro attorney Walter J. Gamble on Sept. 2, 1894, and sent to the Commissioner of Insurance for approval.
In the fall of 1894, he published a four-page paper called The Gleaner, which eventually became a large and influential farm journal. The Ancient Order of Gleaners was the first fraternal society to be organized under Act 119 of the 1893 Michigan Legislature. The law was designed to bring order to the chaotic fraternal insurance business in the state. Act 119 was not a stringent law but it was the beginning of a series of state regulations that eventually placed all companies on a sound financial footing. Act 119 did require yearly reports to the insurance commissioner and a review of rates.
The application was signed by Slocum, England, Eayrs, Chase, Gamble, Ealy, L.W. Ostrander, C.D. Petershans, and D.A. Graham. By the time state approval was sought 220 persons had been enrolled and their health certified by Dr. Chase. The applications were held until the charter was received on Sept. 25. The first certificates were issued Oct. 19. Offices were rented in what was known as “The Herman Block” on North State Street in Caro. The headquarters remained at that location until Aug. 1, 1898. The Herman Block still stands in Caro, housing retail shops in 2021.
Life insurance companies were slow to develop in the United States. The oldest is the Presbyterian Ministers Fund chartered in Pennsylvania in 1759, but the field didn’t expand until the 1840s and 1850s when 18 new companies entered the trade. Business boomed during the Civil War but languished afterward as a series of
As a newspaper publisher, Slocum understood the need to communicate with the members of the new order. 17
