"My rule in everything that is to be done, from writing a letter to planning an important business, is to use my best skill, regardless of time, engagements, and everything else.  This rule has governed my labors for the Equitable."

Henry B. Hyde December 29, 1897 

CHAPTER I - EARLY TRAINING

HENRY BALDWIN HYDE was born in the village of Catskill, New York on the 15th of  February, 1834 where his father, Henry Hazen Hyde, was actively engaged in mercantile business.  Their American ancestor was William Hyde of England, who, in 1633, crossed the ocean and became a settlers of Norwichtown in Connecticut, where he died in January 1681.  His descendants, actuated by the restless spirit which has scattered the sons of New England throughout the county, and contributed to it the sterling qualities of that blood, pushed westward for betterment of fortune; and one branch established itself at the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.

    To the village school, which his father had attended, young Hyde went to receive instruction from schoolmaster, John C. Johnson, who had been his father's preceptor.  Of those early days Mr. Hyde said little beyond that he well remembered going, as a boy, to the small docks at the Catskill Landing and wistfully watched the boats sail for New York, wondering whether the time would every come when he, too, should go to the great city at the mouth of the river.

    When he attained the age of sixteen, a desire to seek fortune in New York City inspired Him.  He resolved to go forth and become an actor in the great theater of commercial life of which he had heard so much.

    Even to the Catskills, in and about the time, which was during the year 1850, when conveniences of travel were not so many as they are today, there came certain letters and documents explaining life assurance, and dwelling upon its benefits.  Among those who were impressed by the information thus given of a growing industry, then comparatively new in the United States, was the schoolmaster John C. Johnson.  He was a tall, active man, with long gray hair and a commanding personality.  He was a good talker, and becoming desirous of enlisting in the new occupation, he secured a contract as an agent of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, then in its eight year.  At once he prevailed upon Henry Hasen Hyde to enlist in the service of the same company; and so, in 1850, the records show that from the village of Catskill three persons set forth--a schoolmaster and pupils of two generations, within ten years, were to make their separate and distinctive marks on the business of life assurance.

    Young Hyde, finding no opening for himself in New York, went to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, where he remained for a few months ; but before the close of the year 1850 he returned to New York City and secured a clerkship in the mercantile house of Merritt, Ely & Co.,  were he remained for two years.  Mr. William A. Wheelock, one of the Equitable Society's directors, Says: My first acquaintance with Mr. Hyde was during the two years previous to his employment by the Mutual Life Insurance Company.  It was early in the fifties that he came to the firm of Merritt, Ely & Co., who were in the importing and jobbing dry-goods trade, and into which I had then admitted as a partner, after having served with them for five years, beginning immediately after graduating from the New York University.  My department in the business called me to reside in Manchester, England, during the entire period of Mr. Hyde's clerkship in our house, as I had charge of the purchase of foreign goods,  as I had only twice during each year that I came to this country, remaining about a month on each occasion.    During such visits I met Mr. Hyde frequently, and had a very pleasant acquaintance with him.  He entered heartily into the business, in which, of course, he occupied a subordinate position, as he was one of the youngest clerks.  He had frequently stated to me that the foundation of his success was due to the strict discipline which was under during those two years.  He was an efficient clerk, and most agreeable personally, and even at that period of his life gave great promise of what his future was to be.  Even at that early day his active brain seemed to foresee the very great opportunity which later on presented itself in the life assurance business, and it was this which led him to enter a field which in his judgment promised such great results.  From that period until his death my acquaintance with him and my affection for him were of the most delightful character."

    In January, 1852, young Hyde obtained a subordinate position in the office of the Mutual Life Insurance Company.  In the same year his father was appointed by the Board of Trustees "as the agent of the company." and was commissioned by the president to go forth and "visit many cities and towns of the United States for the purpose of extending a knowledge of the strength and high standing of the company, to confer with agents already appointed, to select others, and to inspire all with energy and zeal in their efforts to seek applications for life insurance."     He was the right man to do this missionary service : for he was a natural negotiator, fluent in speech, earnest in persuasion, and believing that life assurance, next to the Gospel, was the one thing that all men needed.

    Meanwhile his son was rising in the esteem of the trustees of the company, who in due time appointed him to the responsible position of cashier.  It had been frequently stated that it was to the experience he acquired during his service of seven years in the office  of the Mutual Life, that Mr. Hyde was indebted for his first knowledge of the assurance business.  But this is not strictly true.  It was from two or three principal agents of the company, notably his father, that he gained that comprehensive knowledge of the life assurance which guided him in the inception of his life-work.  He listened to their experiences ; from the reports he gathered the most valuable information  obtainable ; he learned to appreciate the labors of soliciting agents.  He studied the theory as well as the practice of life assurance. and thoroughly understood the relation between buyer and seller, the assured and the assurer.  He noticed that the existing companies could not accept all the business offered to them, some having limited their risks on a single life to $5,000.00; while the limit of the Mutual Life Company was $10,000.00 and its agents were frequently compelled to go elsewhere to place many of their applications.  In these facts he saw that there was room for another company to catch the large overflow if business.  Reflecting upon them, he sought and followed the advise of his father.  Thus destiny reserved for the youngest of the three who traveled from the Catskill to New York in 1850 the great work of founding the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, in 1859.

    His father deserves at least a passing notice.   He had become the representative of Mutual Life in Boston, where he subsequently managed with great success a general life assurance agency, offering risks to the Mutual, the Equitable, the Washington, and other companies that were competent to accept them.  His activity is described in a letter to his son : " I come to my office on State Street at eight o'clock; I work with all my might; at two o'clock I dine; I work until half-past six o'clock; I go home tired in body and mind; I rest, and dose; and retire to bed at half-past none; arise at five; at half-past five I mount a spirited horse with a good friend, and we dash off ten miles, returning in one and a half hours."  He did as large a business (considering the circumstances of this time) as any life assurance agent is doing to-day.  In a letter to his son, April 8, 1863 he says: " I rejoice at the continued success of your company.  I have just looked to see what amount I have sent you in cash, which is considerable in bearing you forward:

                                    Year                        Premiums

                                    1859                        $11,527.87

                                    1860                        $11,395.70

                                    1861                        $21,905.54

                                    1862                        $25,453.09

                                    1863 to March 31      $9,260.12

                                                                    $79,542.32

    One loss by death, $3,000.  It needs great wisdom and carefulness in your management to secure a steady onward movement.  Relapse and reaction are formidable to encounter."  In a letter of November, 1863, he says to his son: " I have done about one fifth of your entire business, policies and cash receipts.... : :Let me ask:  Is there not danger in paying too great commissions?  It shows itself, of course, in expenses."

    His letters show that he had peculiar qualifications for business in which he was engaged.  "DEAR HENRY," he writes in 1863: " I sent you a  splendid application for $10,000---C.C. Chadwick, a retired gentleman of wealth.  He had $10,000 in the Mutual and $10,000 in the New England.  I met him this morning as I came down-town.  I said to him : I would like to show you that you cannot invest money in a way that is safer beyond a contingency, where it will work out so large a result to yourself if you reach the age of sixth-five, as in an endowment policy of the Equitable Life Assurance Society.  If I establish that fact I shall expect your prompt action with reference to that result.  He smiled and said: Very well, I'll see.  I went to his counting room without delay, and showed him what I had proposed to show.  He promptly replied : "You may as well make out the papers."  In another letter he says: " Dear Henry ; I took application today in high quarters for $50,000.  I send you $20,000.  One State Street gentleman, Gage, the great ice-shipper, came in saying, ' I have seen your circular ; I want to inquire about it.'  I never saw him before.  I took his application for $20,000.

    The relations between father and son were such as might exist between an elder and a younger brother.  In a public acknowledgment of his father's services the son paid tribute in these words: " In the beginning of our enterprise I constantly consulted my father, and it was to a large extent owning to his advise, based upon his great experience, that no mistakes were made in our early history."

    During his clerkship with the Mutual Life young  Hyde connected himself with the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, one of the most prominent congregations in the city, then occupying an edifice on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Nineteenth Street.  Its pastor was Rev. James W. Alexander, D.D., eldest son of Professor Archibald Alexander of Princeton, and here he made the acquaintance of a number of men of substance and high standing, some of whom afterwards became directors of the Equitable Society.  But with the pastor's son, James W. Alexander, then a junior at Princeton College, there sprang up a friendship which increased in firmness with passing years.  In his reminiscences he says: " Mr. Hyde, during part of this early interval, lived in East Twenty-sixth Street, and for a short time I. being a bachelor in New York without family connections living there, became a fellow-occupant of the same house.  He was then working night and day, and had nothing on his mind but the Equitable, unless I made the exception that he became engaged to be married, and was married in March 1864, I being one of the groomsmen on that occasion.  The fashion in those days was not, as it is now, to have a best man and ushers, but simply to have groomsmen equal in number to the bridesmaids who waited upon the bride."

    Mr. Hyde is described at that time as being " Tall in stature and strong in limb, handsome in feature and singularly bright in expression.  His mouth was peculiarly expressive.  His eyes, which were dark, and gleamed from beneath heavy eyebrows, arrested instant attention.  They were keen, alert, and it is scarcely a figure of speech to say that they pierced like a sword."  He impressed his individuality upon the social life around him, and even at this early period he showed in his daily walk and conversation a peculiar power to charm and persuade men.

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