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Dallas and Dexter and Company have grown side-by-side, through good times and bad. Dexter has been there through fires, floods and tornadoes, as well as oil field discoveries and the creation of the integrated circuit. Reading Dallas's history you realize that Dallas is a financial center. And Dexter Insurance is Dallas.
History/Timeline
March 1, 1876
George Dexter arrives from Canada to open his agency in the small town of Dallas, Texas across the street from two saloons. George soon figures out how to insure them. Dallas needed an insurance agency. Outlaws and train robberies were common.
1878
His brother, Charles Dexter, joins the agency. Dexter is writing coverage for the area’s leading businesses, insuring everything from farm wagons to cowboy saddles to the expanding saloon business. Clients also included other high risk businesses such as upholsterers, book binderies, grain elevators and photograph galleries.
1880
The first telephone line in Dallas links the water company to the fire station. Fire insurance becomes practical.
1884
Dexter forms a the Dallas Board of Underwriters along with five competitors to publish block by block listings of the fire risks and rates assigned to each downtown building. Hazardous occupancies (read saloons) commanded higher rates. This move helps standardize insurance rates for the first time.
1890
Dexter is the first agency to offer much needed home fire insurance to Dallas residents. Incredibly, tornado insurance is a hard sell.
1893
A nation-wide financial panic stalls Dallas's growth. Banks close,
cotton prices drop drastically, the lumber and flour markets all but vanished.
People began to leave the city. Charles buys out his brother’s interest,
who returns to Canada.
1898
The city begins to recover and grow again. Dexter continues to grow, insuring the rapidly expanding commercial base.
1900
Horseless carriages first arrive in Dallas requiring a whole new kind of insurance. Dexter insures them.
1907
Charles’ oldest son, George joins the firm.
1908
Trinity River flood leaves four thousand people homeless, and
property damages at $2.5 million. Dallas is completely dark for three
days, all telephone and telegraph service is down, and rail service is
cancelled. Oak Cliff can only be reached by boat. Dexter clients are covered.
1910
Dallas population stands at a whopping 42,000.
1911
One of twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks locates in Dallas insuring its future as a financial center. Dexter insures it.
1915
Dexter insures the brand new Southern Methodist University as it opens its doors.
1920
Dexter writes the policy for the leading fashion store in the southwest, Neiman-Marcus.
1921
A huge fire destroys a downtown block of Dallas. Customers like Everts Jewelers, are able to start repairs six hours later thanks to their Dexter policy.
1925
Love Field is built as an aviation training field for WWI pilots. Dexter insures it in 1927 when the city buys it.
1930
Oil was struck 100 miles east of Dallas, launching its growth as a petroleum capital. Dexter devises new insurance coverage for this booming market.
1942
Dexter writes “War Insurance Policies” for Dallasites
concerned about “enemy attack”.
1948
Dexter and Dallas experience post WWII bounce. Dallas begins expanding northward as vets come home and more companies relocate regional and national offices here.
1958
Texas Instruments announces the first electronic circuit. Dallas banking, real estate, insurance, manufacturing, and high tech industries explode. Dexter adapts to the new environment with new coverage's and plans.
1969
Neiman-Marcus and other leading Dallas companies make Dexter's blue chip clientele the envy of the Southwest.
1976
Dexter celebrates 100 years in business as the oldest insurance agency in Dallas.
1980
Dexter & Company acquired by Lamar Hunt and group of investors.
1983
Dexter & Company acquired by Southwest Savings, owned by
the Caroline Hunt Trust Estate. Dexter begins writing risk protection
coverage on mortgage portfolios.
1990
Dexter acquired by William Davis and Robert Carter, grandsons
of two of the early employees and John Fitzgerald.
2001
Dexter celebrates 125 years of defining risk management protection.
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