Leadership

In 1881, Dryden became head of the company he helped found six years prior. He grew the company from less than $4 million in receipts in 1879 to more than $17 million in receipts by 1899, and from 1 million policies in 1885 to 10 million in 1911 by tapping the mass market for life insurance. In 1875, less than 2% of Americans had life insurance, which was considered a luxury item. By 1899, that number had grown to 17%. Dryden also pioneered “industrial” life insurance by making small industrial policies available to factory workers for only pennies a week.