Erie Insurance started out with the vision of two men to create an insurance company like no other… one that emphasized customer service above all else. This is the story of that vision—the journey that took ERIE from its humble roots in 1925 to a FORTUNE®?500 company with over 5,000 employees and 5 million policies in force today.
Our founders
The Early Years
The two founders – H.O. Hirt and O.G. Crawford – had a plan, which they wrote on a 10-cent tablet (today’s equivalent of a business prospectus), but they needed money. It took 3 months and 20 days – about the length of one Erie winter – to raise the $31,000 they needed, winning over 90 stockholders with their hand-written business plan, their tenacity and their true belief in what they were about to do.
On April 20, 1925, the Erie Insurance Exchange was born – one of the first policies written was on H.O.’s own Dodge touring car. The company’s mantra became “The ERIE is Above all in SERvIcE,” with the “erie” raised in the word service. That still serves as the company’s tagline today.
Evidence of this service was that customers were encouraged to call collect. And if a policyholder had a problem with a claim, he or she could make a phone call directly to H.O. Hirt.
After only three years, ERIE was already expanding. A second office was opened in Pittsburgh in 1928. The company took its first steps outside of Pennsylvania in 1953 when it opened a branch in Silver Spring, Maryland.
At the same time ERIE was expanding its territories, it also expanded its product offerings. In 1934, ERIE introduced the “Super Standard Auto Policy.” It included many features that have since become industry standards. Fire insurance was added in 1940, and inland marine in 1954.
ERIE Expands
The company was going strong and growing. Within the first two decades, Erie Insurance went from a two-man show to a nationally recognized company.
To provide our Policyholders with as near perfect protection, as near perfect service, as is humanly possible, and to do so at the lowest possible cost.
Symbols of ERIE
Preserving Our Past
Chairman of the Board Tom Hagen, a student of history like his father-in-law, H. O. Hirt, has taken an active role in the revitalization of Erie’s historic neighborhoods and restoration of some of the city’s treasured homes and public buildings.
He’s earned several awards for his efforts, including the Otto Haas Award for outstanding individual achievement from the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Society. The top award honors individuals and organizations for preserving historically and architecturally significant properties in Pennsylvania.
Our work to simultaneously preserve and further develop the neighborhood around our Home Office shows that companies can provide for the needs of a modern business, while respecting and honoring the history of a community.