Daring to Dream
Our History
1920's
1927 – Herman Wittwer launches Farmers Mutual Automobile Insurance Company on October 3rd in Madison, WI.
1930's
1930 – The company establishes the National Mutual Casualty Company, focused on protecting non-farmers.
1933 – National Mutual and Farmer’s Mutual merge, and Farmer’s Mutual enters Minnesota.
1935 – Farmers Mutual establishes the State Farm Mutual Insurance Company of Madison, Wisconsin, which quickly becomes the state’s fastest-growing windstorm company.
1940's
1948 –State Farm Mutual of Madison is renamed Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Wisconsin.
1950's
1957 – Farmers Mutual introduces sickness and accident insurance – and receives forty applications on the first day alone.
1958 – The company introduces homeowners insurance and opens the highly successful American Family Life Insurance Company, which expands to ten states within the year.
1959 – Farmers Mutual enters the age of the computer. The room-sized RAMAC 305 could process a week’s worth of applications and 1,000 renewal notices in just 2½ hours.
1960's
1963 – With one final name change, American Family Mutual Insurance Company, S.I. is born.
1965 – The now-famous, oft-hummed and forever recognizable jingle is copyrighted by American Family.
1970's
1975 – American Family introduces Commercial Lines and becomes the fifth-largest mutual auto insurer.
1977 – The company celebrates 50 years in business with 2.3 million policies and 2,360 agents.
1980's
1981 – American Family reaches a new milestone of financial strength, with assets surpassing $1 billion.
1985 – The company establishes American Family Brokerage, Inc. to serve policyholders by finding insurers to cover hard-to-place risks.
1987 – A centralized CAT program is developed, in order to efficiently help customers affected by catastrophic storms and disasters.
1990's
1992 – Policyholders’ surplus exceeds $1 billion. Construction of national headquarters is completed.
1994 – American Family rolls out its one-of-a-kind catastrophe trailer.
2000's
2005 – American Family and the Green Bay Packers raise more than $1 million for breast cancer prevention, treatment and research through the sale of pink Packers caps.
2007 – American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, celebrates its grand opening, with American Family serving as the lead donor.
2010's
2011 — American Family launches the "Dreams Protected" campaign, challenging people to reflect on the most valuable thing they can ever own — their dreams.
2012 — American Family Insurance acquires the Nashville-based Permanent General Companies and other subsidiaries of the PGC Holdings Corp.
2013 – American Family brings Homesite, a Boston-based direct homeowners insurance provider, into its portfolio.
2017 – American Family installs Wisconsin’s largest rooftop solar installation to date with nearly 4,500 panels atop its National Headquarters building in Madison.
2017 – In its 90th year, American Family Insurance is the fourth largest Wisconsin-based company, and ranks 315 on the Fortune 500 list nationally with revenue of $8.8 billion. Including Homesite and The General, the company has more than 10,000 employees and nearly 3,000 agents.