For more than twenty-five years William Warren was one of the leading representatives of an interest which has grown to vast proportions in the United States, and for more than twenty years of that time, he was identified most prominently with this interest in Chicago and the Northwest. The faithful and efficient servant of one of the great insurance corporations of the world, he was at the same time a watchful guardian of the public interest, and one of those intelligent, conscientious and capable men, who have contributed so much toward systematizing the business of Fire Underwriters, and elevating it to its present high plane in this country within the past quarter of a century.

The era through which he passed was what might properly be termed the formative period of western Fire Insurance history. It was the period within which were formulated many of the most important policies governing the conduct of fire underwriting, and within which many of the most judicious regulations of fire insurance business were devised and put into effect. In bringing about necessary reforms, and inaugurating improved methods in the busi

engaged,

ness in which he was William Warren was one of the most potent factors among his contemporaries, and he was therefore widely. known as a man of affairs, of business sagacity and executive ability.

Of English nativity, Mr. Warren was born in Uffington, County Berks, March 22, 1819, receiving in his early boyhood such education as was thought necessary to fit him for a successful tradesman. At thirteen years of age his school days were over, and he entered the employ of his uncle, James Warren, of London, who was engaged in the India tea trade. There he received a thorough and systematic business training, and after five years' experience in trade he immigrated to the United States. Arrived in New York city, he began his business career in this country as a clerk in the, wholesale dry goods house of John P. Stagg & Co. In the winter of 1843-44 he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he established himself in the dry-goods trade. This business he conducted successfully, becoming recognized as a merchant of character and ability, and the strictest integrity.

In Cleveland he formed the ac

quaintance of Miss Mary Anne Seymour, daughter of Alexander Seymour of Utica, N. Y., who became a resident of Cleveland in 1835, and who came of New England ancestry, and in 1847 they were married.

While engaged in merchandising, he received from the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company an appointment as its local agent, and began giving a share of his attention to this business in 1853. In 1860 he disposed of his mercantile interests and became associate general western agent of the Liverpool & London & Globe company, with headquarters in Cincinnati. Removing to that city he devoted the next six years to building up the business of this company in the extensive territory of which he had charge, his family residing meantime in the beautiful suburb of Walnut Hills, in a house which had become famous as the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, when her husband was a professor in Lane Theological Seminary. In 1866 Mr. Warren was transferred from Cincinnati to Chicago, where shortly afterward he assumed sole charge of the affairs of the company, for fourteen of the northwestern states and territories. In supervising the numerous agencies under his control, establishing new agencies and extending the insurance business in his western field, he led an exceedingly active life during the years immediately following his change of location, and few of the representa

tives of the great corporation with which he was connected have had greater influence in shaping its affairs, or have contributed more toward advancing its interests in the United States. In 1875 he received a further recognition of his valuable. services by being appointed resident secretary of the independent branch of the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company, then established for all the northwestern states and territories lying east of the Rocky Mountains, and this important position he retained up to the date of his death in 1889, his connection with the company covering in all a period of thirty years.

His death occurred on the roth of November, 1889, and on the 12th of November the largest memorial meeting of the Chicago Fire Underwriters Association ever held, was convened for the purpose of paying tribute to his memory. Accustomed to deal with the practical affairs of life in the most practical way, the representatives of this interest are not, as a rule, much given to sentimentality, but upon this occasion there were manifestations of deep feeling such as are seldom witnessed in a gathering of business men.

In addition to having been during the years of his active life, a model of business rectitude, a man of practical ideas and of marked executive ability, Mr. Warren had been one of those men who had the happy faculty of making warm and devoted friends of

all those with whom they are associated. It was, therefore, with sense of personal bereavement that the men who had regarded him at the same time as business associate and friend, came together to give expression to their sentiments concerning his life and character. These expressions of regard were not confined to the formally adopted resolutions which bore testimony to his worth as a man and a citizen, but one after another the members of the association, some with tear-dimmed eyes, gave estimates of his character, based upon years of association with him. One of those who had known him longest, and had been most intimately acquainted with him, and who was. therefore, admirably qualified to make a just estimate of his worth, drew a word-picture of his dead. friend, calling attention to his distinguishing characteristics in such a way as to make a reproduction of his utterances appropriate in this connection. Said the speaker alluded to:

"William Warren has passed away, after reaching the allotted bound of human life; yet to none of us did he seem old, because his feelings were always young. In many particulars his character furnishes us an admirable model. My acquaintance with him covered considerable more than a quarter of a century; yet, to my mind, in the buoyancy and cordiality of his feelings, and the playful friendliness of his manner, he seemed the same to me the last time I met him

that he did the first. There is not one here this morning, I apprehend, but will bear ready testimony to the sterling integrity of his character, which was manifested upon all occasions and under all circumstances. He always impressed me very strongly with a kindliness of character which was, manifest at all times. I have rarely met him of late years, even if but for a moment on the street, that he did not give expression to some word of solicitude in respect to my personal welfare. I think we shall all remember him, and mourn him as a personal friend.

"He was distinguished for his charity and considerateness of others, even with those with whom he did not agree. He was eminently a man of peace, and in no attitude was his character more striking or worthy of emulation than in his willingness to yield his preferences for the sake of peace and harmony. The charity and kindliness of his nature were strongly evidenced in his conceding to others the value of their opinion, though they might conflict with those he entertained. He was also characterized by large-hearted generosity and hospitality, of which not only myself personally, but members of my family have had conspicuous evidence. He was in the highest sense of the word a gentleman, and we shall cherish his memory for his honorable bearing in business relations, as well as for the social amenities which were among his distinguishing characteristics,"