There are many odd things on the campus of Transylvania, from Rafinesque’s tomb to an insurance plaque no one even realizes is there. The marker isn’t a large monument, but rather a plaque on a rock located outside the Brown Science Center, in front of Hazelrigg Hall. This led me to question: what is it for and why is it here?

Thanks to the library, I was able to research the man who is mentioned in the plaque. What I discovered was very vague but interesting nonetheless. The man’s name was Thomas Wallace; he was a wealthy and successful merchant in Lexington. He also served on the Board of Trustees at Transylvania beginning in 1807 and resigned from his position on Friday, March 22, 1816.

If you read the plaque, it will mention The Insurance Company of North America (INA), which is the oldest capital stock insurance in the US, founded in Philadelphia in 1792, about 12 years after Transy was founded. They sold life, fire, and marine or boat insurance to people throughout the upper parts of the US.

Alexander Henry, who was an INA Director, proposed that they expand their company to Lexington, which was on the nation’s frontier. On January 26, 1808, the INA President John Inkeep appointed agents through many different places, one of them being Thomas Wallace in Lexington. 

This event has been credited as the start of the “American Insurance System.” In 1957, a plaque was put on Transy’s Campus to honor when insurance came to Lexington and their agent, Thomas Wallace.

The full text of the plaque reads as follows, for those curious:

“Here in the thriving frontier town of Lexington, Kentucky in 1807, The American Agency System of bringing insurance protection to America’s families, businesses and institutions was begun when Thomas Wallace, prominent merchant, was appointed an agent of Insurance Company of North America.

Thus, a free people, with initiative and enterprise, created a system of providing for their own security through independent local businessmen that spread throughout America, enabling the nation to grow and prosper.

1807 – 1957″