Court of Honor


The Court of Honor followed a pattern fairly typical among successful fraternal benefit insurance societies; that is, among societies that did not actually collapse through mismanagement or unrealistic starry-eyed actuarial assumptions.

The Court of Honor was organized in Springfield, Illinois, in 1895, with an elaborate ritual. It prospered principally as an insurance company (in 1920 there were over 75,000 benefit members and only 2,300 social members), and then transformed itself into a regular life insurance company. In the early 1920s it changed its name to the Court of Honor Life Association, and in 1924 reincorporated simply as Springfield Life Insurance, after its headquarters city. In 1934 it merged with Abraham Lincoln Life, and in 1934 it was reinsured with Illinois Bankers Life.


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