Record Group 4: W. Frank Hipp Papers, 1885 - 1970
Scope and Content Note
The W. Frank Hipp Papers (Record Group 4 of the Liberty Corporation Archives) contains bills, canceled checks, a cash book, clippings, correspondence, income tax returns, insurance policies, an investment account journal, ledgers, legal documents, a line drawing, lists, memos, minutes, photographs, plats, receipts, reports, stock certificates, telegrams, and other material for the period 1885-1970; the bulk of the papers are dated between 1925 and 1943. The record group is arranged alphabetically by folder title, with cancelled checks and financial volumes following. The material in the papers were created as a result of Hipp's business activities, his relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Carolina and Newberry College, interactions with other members of the Hipp family, and the settlement of his estate.
The business papers include correspondence, an investment account journal, minutes, reports, stock certificates, and other material concerning investments and stock purchases in such companies as Dunean Mills of Greenville, SC; the Hypoborite [pharmaceutical] Syndicate in Columbia, SC; the Placentia-Richfield Central Oil Company of California; and Spartanburg County Mills of Spartanburg, SC, as well as material documenting the progress of drilling and the financial problems of the Welsh Oil Company /Corporation of Welsh, LA. Some of this material, such as the investment account journal, date to the period when Hipp ran his investment office in Greenville. The sale of ¼ interest in the Newberry, SC agency for Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California by general agent Robert Norris to Hipp in 1909 and ½ interest, in 1910, the assignment of renewal commissions by Norris to the National Bank of Newberry in 1912, and the correspondence, telegrams, and legal documents relating to the legal case that arises from assignment are also part of this collection. There is material relating to real estate transactions in Jacksonville, FL; Richland County, SC; Lavinia Avenue in Greenville, SC; and most notably Northgate Heights, a housing development in Greenville where General Electric "New American Homes" (New American Demonstration Home Building Program) were constructed. The Northgate material includes correspondence relating to its construction, interior decorating and landscaping, and plats of the development.
Most of the family correspondence has to do with requests from family members to Hipp for business, financial, insurance, real estate, and tax advice, as well as for financial assistance. There are also exchanges of family news. Among the correspondents are Harriet Fulmer (a niece of W. Frank Hipp), Paul S. Halfacre (brother of W. Frank Hipp's first wife), Ruth Graham Halfacre (his wife), Carroll D. Hipp (W. Frank Hipp's brother), Dorothy Hipp, Francis Hipp, Lois Hipp Kennedy (W. Frank Hipp's sister), Ella Frances Kennedy, (her daughter), Robert C. Kennedy (her husband), G. Harold Hipp, George C. Hipp, Herman Hipp, J. C. Hipp, and J. W. Hipp. In addition, there is correspondence between Hipp and Dr. Paul Ringer of Asheville, SC, reporting his treatment of Dorothy [Dot] for tuberculosis during the period 1933-1935, and a 1934 school paper on South Carolina history by Boyd Calhoun Hipp.
Nearly a quarter of the collection relates to the settlement of Hipp's estate from 1943-1948; his sons Francis and Herman Hipp were the estate's executors. These files contain correspondence about stocks and dividends; with banks concerning the closing bank balances and loans/notes and the retirement of bank certificates/dividends; with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the South Carolina Tax Commission regarding estate taxes; and with G. Richard Shafto on the valuation of radio station WIS. Among the other estate records in the collection are bank deposit books and statements, bills, a cash book, disbursement records, documents concerning the 1941 reinsurance agreement between Liberty Life Insurance Company and Surety Life Insurance Company, a ledger, probate court and other legal documents (such as the determination, sale, and distribution of estate assets), lists of assets, federal and state tax, returns, and valuations. There is also some material on the settlement of the estate of Hipp's father, J. C. Hipp.
The material concerning the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Carolina and Newberry College includes correspondence regarding the purchasing and refinancing Synod and College bonds (especially those Hipp holds), the sale of Summerland College property, and the finances of the Synod and College; there is correspondence with both James C. Kinard, the President of Newberry College, and the Reverend Edgar Z. Pence, the President of the Synod (in Little Mountain, SC). In addition, there are clippings about the College, financial records, Board of Trustee meeting minutes, a mortgage indenture, pledges by Hipp to various College funds, reports regarding a contract to create a sustaining fund for College using an insurance policy with Unity Life Insurance Company in Columbia SC, and a collateral note between the College and Hipp and The Citizens and Southern Bank of South Carolina (Columbia, SC), with information about payments of interest to Frances McFayden Hipp after W. Frank Hipp's death.
The collection also includes biographical information on Hipp (including a copy of his death certificate); correspondence relating to college loans he made to Mary Faith and Edward F. Irick of Elloree, SC, and Ernestine Bodie of Ridge Spring, SC; 1943 letters to Francis Hipp, in sympathy on his father's death and congratulations for becoming president of Liberty Life; items concerning appliances for, repairs to and insurance on the Hipp house on McDaniel Avenue; income tax forms for Hipp and daughter Dorothy (Gunter); Masonic demits, 1926-1927; and material relating to the insurance policies of W. Frank, Boyd Calhoun, and Francis Hipp.
Other major correspondents in this collection include Thomas F. Ball, Angus E. Bird, Eugene S. Blease, John Carradine, Butler B. Hare, Leon LeGrand, and Carroll J. Ramage.
Material relating to W. Frank Hipp may be found in Record Groups 2 (Southeastern Life Insurance Company Records), 3.1 (Liberty Life Insurance Company Legal Department Records), 3.2 (Liberty Life Insurance Company Pre-Corporation Records), 7.1 (Cosmos Broadcasting Corporation Records), 8.1 (Communications Department Photographic Records), 8.2 (Communications Department Biographical Information) and 11.1 (The Liberty Corporation Historical Research Material).
Oversize material, an oversize cash book, and photographs were removed from the collection and placed in oversize or photographic storage.
Dates
- 1885 - 1970
Biographical Note
W. Frank Hipp was born on August 24, 1889 in Greenwood County, South Carolina, the son of John Calhoun and Alice Pathena Wheeler Hipp. He was educated in the Newberry County public school system and graduated with honors from Newberry College in 1907, doing post-graduate work in economics at Vanderbilt University from 1907-1909.
In 1911 he became a general agent for the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company in Newberry, and in 1912 he became a general agent in Spartanburg for the Southeastern Life Insurance Company. He contracted tuberculosis in 1916 and spent the next two years in Newberry, Aiken, and in North Carolina recovering his health. Hipp then moved to Greenville where he opened a textile securities investment office in 1918. According to Southeastern Life Insurance Company records he remained employed with the company as a general agent until 1919. In that year, on October 13th, he and a group of investors founded The Liberty Life Insurance Company, a weekly premium insurance business; Hipp was named as its president.
The Liberty Life Insurance Company began selling ordinary life insurance in 1923 and by 1929 had reached $1 million in premium income. In November of the following year Hipp purchased Columbia radio station WIS and by 1932 also owned WCSC in Charleston. The year 1930 also saw the creation of Independence Insurance Company to sell health and accident insurance to low income and African-American workers.
Hipp gained controlling interest in the Southeastern Life Insurance Company in 1931 after the failure of Roger Clark Caldwell's Bank of Tennessee and Associated Life Companies in 1930; he was elected the company's president in 1933. The Independence Insurance Company transferred all of its life insurance business to Southeastern Life and suspended selling health and accident insurance, ceasing operations in 1939. In that same year Southeastern's insurance in force reached $52.3 million and The Liberty Life had $75 million of insurance in force and $5 million in sales.
The Liberty Life Insurance Company and Southeastern Life operated independently until January 1942, when they were merged under the new name of Liberty Life Insurance Company. Southeastern had already begun selling weekly premium insurance in 1940 and that same year Hipp purchased the First National Bank Building in Charlotte, North Carolina, the last asset of the "old" Southeastern Life Insurance Company. Hipp purchased 25% of The Liberty Life stock held outside of his immediate family. All of the debit business of the Liberty Life was transferred to Southeastern's 1905 charter and was reorganized into the industrial division of the new company. The Liberty Life ceased to sell insurance but remained an active company under the name of Surety Life Insurance Company, which retained certain paid-up life insurance, some real estate and the two radio stations as assets. It also received an annual payment of 5% of the premiums collected by the industrial division of the new Liberty Life.
Hipp married Eunice Jane Halfacre on December 29, 1909 and they had five children: Francis M., Herman Neel, Boyd Calhoun, William Hayne and Dorothy Hipp. They separated in 1936. He married Frances McFayden on December 4, 1941 and they had one child, Jean Gail. Hipp served on the Trinity Lutheran Church council, was active in the Lutheran Synod of South Carolina, was a member of Newberry College Board of Trustees, president of the Association of Insurance Companies of the Carolinas, and director of the Greenville Community Chest. W. Frank Hipp died of a heart attack on January 3, 1943 in Greenville.
Extent
3.33 Cubic Feet (including six volumes, a line drawing, photographs (one oversize), and oversize material)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Introduction
The W. Frank Hipp Papers consist of correspondence, estate records, financial volumes, legal documents, a line drawing, photographs, plats, and other material relating to W. Frank Hipp, the Hipp family, and Newberry College. Record Group 4 holds research potential in the areas of twentieth century South Carolina economic history, the history of the Hipp family, and the history of Newberry College. The collection is comprised of material from Special Collections accessions 98-37 and 99-104. James Cross and Kristina Cathcart processed the W. Frank Hipp Papers in 1999; James Cross prepared this register in 2000.
Creator
- From the Collection: Liberty Corporation (other_unmapped, Organization)
Repository Details
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository