History of Detroit, a chronicle of its progress, its industries, its institutions, and the people of the fair City of the straits, / by Paul Leake ... [Vol. 3]

HISTORY OF DETROIT

861

and in the social life of his home city occupies an assured position. As
president of the Federal Casualty Company he stands at the head of
one of the leading organizations of the kind in Wayne county, and is
widely known in many parts of the Union. A man of broad capabilities,
energetic and persevering, he is ever ready to take advantage of offered
opportunities, and seemingly has no trouble in carrying forward to
a successful completion whatever he undertakes. He was born at
Zumbro Falls, Minnesota, Dectmber 21, 1866, and although a comparatively young man has the distinction of being a pioneer in the Health
and Accident Insurance business.
At the age of eighteen years, having asquired a practical education
in the public schools, Mr. Cliff became bookkeeper for a mercantile
house in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1887, and continued thus employed until
1891, when he became a charter member of the Northwestern Benevolent
Societ., which was formed for the purpose of carrying on industrial,
health and accident insurance, it being the first organization of the kind
to successfully conduct that line of work. He was elected cashier and
office manager of the company, and filled the position so ably that at
the end of eighteen months he was made secretary and general manager
of the concern. In 1900 the Northwestern and Metropolitan Accident
Association of Chicago, Ill., were re-insured by the Metropolitan Casualty Company, which assumed control of the affairs of the former associations, and made Mi. Cliff general manager of the entire organization. During the later months of the same year the Metropolitan
Casualty Company consolidated with the Continental Assurance Company under the name of the Continental Casualty Company, with a capital stock of three hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Cliff accepted the position of general manager of the company, but resigned it in 1901, having
purchased an interest in the United States Health and Accident Insurance
Company, of Saginaw, Michigan, of which he became secretary immediately following its incorporation as a stock company. During the
six years that he was officially connected with that organization its
annual premium income grew from $300,000 to nearly $800,000, and
its assets, in addition to the substantial dividends paid out, increasing
from $200,000 to $700,000.
On January 1, 1907, Mr. Cliff tendered his resignation to the United
States Health and Accident Company, retaining,. however, his financial
holdings in the same, and became president of the Federal Casualty
Company of Detroit, Michigan, which has since been his home. Resourceful and enterprising, Mr. Cliff conceived and put in force the
so-called profit sharing contracts for agents, which has proved especially
popular.
Mr. Cliff was one of the founders of the Detroit Conference, an
organization of industrial, health and accident insurance companies,
and served two terms as its president and has always been a member
of its executive committee. For two terms he was one of the executive
committee of the International Associations of Accident Underwriters,
and in 1906 read before the organization a paper entitled "The Origin
and Development of Industrial Health and Accident Insurance" handling the broad subject in a most interesting and instructive manner.
The Federal Casualty Company, of Detroit, a health and accident
insurance company, was organized and incorporated in 1906, under
the laws of Michigan. It has a capital stock of two hundred thousand
dollars and a large surplus. Mr. V. D. Cliff is president of the company and Mr. Peter Patterson, secretary. The company is operating
in about thirty states of the Union, and now has about thirty thousand
policy holders, the business having had a strong, healthy growth from
the start.