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MAN OF THE MONTH
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him. He began selling insurance in dead earnest, and in the first six weeks earned more than his teller's job would have paid him in six months.
He was so successful, in fact, that he took off for Europe with an Ellin' wood friend named Jim Barrow. By riding a cattle train and later a cattle boat, the two boys got from Kansas to England and back to New York for nine dollars apiece. Tom left home with $150, and after tvv'o months on the Continent he had more than half of it left.
Back in America at the Christmas season, the boys split up. Jim went back to law school at K. U. Tom saw the century turn in Boston, then toured Philadelphia, Washington and Pittsburgh. He stopped in Middleport to see his grandmother, and met an attractive neighbor girl there, Francis Downing. She was 14 years old, so it wasn't much of a match. Not then. But seven years later he met her again at a Middleport wedding, and asked her to marry him. Not knowing how
much he loved extra company at the dinner table, she accepted.
The Grants have four children. Their daughter Frances is unmarried and travels a great deal. She has just returned from Venezuela, and is busily working out the itinerary of another trip. Lucy is now Mrs. Clarence C. Gather. She lives in Larchmont, New York and has two daughters. Esther
is Mrs. Douglas Williams. She lives in Kansas City, and has a son. Bill Grant, the only boy in the family, is back from five years in the Navy as a destroyer officer and Lighter-Than' Air pilot. With his wife and daugh' ter, he too lives in Kansas City. He is in charge of the re-insurance depart' ment of the Business Men's Assurance Company.
That company, the Business Men's Assurance, is a concrete example of what can be accomplished by one man with ambition, ability and vision.
On a morning in 1908, Tom Grant sat at his desk in the office of Grant & Barrow, life insurance agents. A circular in the morning mail caught his eye. It announced that the Inter' State Accident Association was mak' ing memberships available to business and professional men at the rate for' merly offered only to travelers. In effect, it was a $25 policy for $10. The circular suggested that life in' surance salesmen might find it a prof' itable sideline.
Tom lost no time in giving it a try. He crossed the hall and accosted a friend. "If you could get an accident policy on the same terms as a travel' ing man, would you take it?" he asked.
"Sure," said the friend, "but I can't get one."
"Yes, you can!" Grant told him. "Sign here."
In the next few months. Grant ex' perimented with the accident policy. His success was phenomenal.
Years later, the president of InterState told a group of friends about Grant. "We sent him one application blank with our original circular. We