New oil fields were discovered...
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New oil fields were discovered in central Michigan in the 1930s and great tracts of land lying north and east of Mt. Pleasant had come under contract with the oil companies. Hundreds of new families, mostly roustabouts and other unskilled labor, flocked to the location. They moved shanties of all sorts onto open fields and into the woods as their shelter. Some built simple houses. Everyone knew they would soon make big money for the first time in their lives. All this meant that they bought a new car, or a different secondhand car. You could be pretty sure that it needed public liability and property damage insurance. As a college student, I had a part-time job with Mr. T.U. Fuller who was a general insurance agent. His office handled many forms of insurance. My job was to go out into those oil fields and find those oil well families and sell them the insurance they needed. But Mr. Fuller, strict in everything, was triply so about how I announced myself to the prospects. To keep legal, I was not to say that I represented the Michigan Mutual Liability Co. The most I could lawfully say was that I represented Mr. Fuller. I was not licensed by the State Insurance Commissioner as a trained insurance agent; nor was I bonded. Mr. Fuller was, so I represented him, not the insurance companies. -- Hoornstra
