FEBRUARY 3, 1736

The “Friendly Society for the Mutual Insuring of Houses Against Fire” was organized in Charlestown,by Charles and William Pinckney.  but was short lived. Four years later, the devastating Great Fire of 1740, destroyed over 300 buildings and bankrupted the company. However, the “Friendly Society” was the first fire insurance company established in the American colonies. 

In 1752, Benjamin Franklin brought together a group of Philadelphians to create the first North American property insurance company. Franklin named the company The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Franklin’s company was more successful, and is often cited as the first fire insurance company, but it was sixteen years later than Charlestown’s ill-fated, short-livef Friendly Society.

At one point Charlestown had more than a dozen Fire Insurance Companies that issued metal fire markers to policyholders which signified their property was insured against fire damage. For owners the markers served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies it served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.

Local legend will tell you that a fire company would not extinguish the fire of a building without a marker since they would not be paid. That is false. Charlestown ordinances required all fire companies to respond to any conflagration. There was, however, a reward system for the first company on the scene of a fire, paid by the city.

Today you will see “fire mark plaques” on buildings throughout the city. Most of them are reproductions.

Fire markers on various Charleston buildings.

1833

The tracks of the Charleston & Hamburg Rail Road crossed the Edisto River at a station called Midway, half the distance to Hamburg – sixty-five miles from Charleston.

1863

Henry Laurens Pinckney died, and was buried in Circular Congregational church yard.

Henry Laurens Pinckney. From Abbeville Institute

The son of Charles Pinckney (signer of the U.S. Consititution) and Eleanor Laurens Pinckney, he attended South Carolina College (Univ. of South Carolina and practiced law in Charleston. Pinckney served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives (1816–1832). He founded the Charleston Mercury in 1819 and was its sole editor for fifteen years. Between 1829 and 1840, he served six terms as intendant (mayor) of Charleston.

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