TALLADEGA — Talladega Insurance Agency is comfortably the oldest insurance agency in the state, and it has solid proof of being the third oldest in the state.

The local agency can trace its roots back to 1858 with an original canceled cashiers check – still framed and hanging on the wall of the agency – for $100 drawn on the Talladega Insurance Company account and signed by James G. Huey, who is believed to be the agency’s founder. The check, number 203, is dated Dec. 21, 1858, is believed to be the oldest proof of the agency’s establishment. But based on the check number, current owners Bill McGehee and Boyd McGehee believe the agency is much older than that.

Bill initially contacted a few researchers last year because of the agency’s upcoming 150th anniversary.

Boyd said when Alabama Independent Insurance Agents Inc. researched to find older insurance agencies, the representative who contacted him could only find two businesses that were slightly older than Talladega Insurance Agency.

The oldest continuously run insurance business in the country appears to be C. T. Lowndes & Company Agency founded in South Carolina in 1850. The second oldest appears to be Cool Insuring Agency founded in New York in 1857.

“We are almost convinced we go back further,” Boyd said. “But you can only go by what you can prove and we are stuck with 1858. If only we could prove that we go back a little further I think we should at least be in the running for second oldest. But it is still an impressive tenure for us to have been around for 151 years.”

Part of the secret to this long-running success has probably come from the business being family-owned and run since the 1920s, spanning four generations.

Turner Joel Jones purchased the Talladega Insurance Company and renamed it the Talladega Insurance Agency in the ‘20s before bringing his brother, George Jones, on board to help out.

By the 1950s, William (Billy) Boyd McGehee Jr. was working as a pharmacist for his family in Montgomery, but decided it was time for a change. He moved with his wife to Talladega and began working for her father’s business, the Talladega Insurance Agency.

In 1974, Billy’s son William (Bill) Boyd McGehee III came to work for the Talladega Insurance Agency after spending time in Atlanta working for the Great American Insurance Company. Today, Bill is president and owner of the agency.

Boyd, Bill’s son, is the newest family member to join the team, having come on board in January of 2004.

“We like to think that we know what we’re doing and that we provide a good service,” Bill said. “We care about the business. We will write just about any kind of policy you can think of. When KFC decided to do a promotion at the Speedway that someone could win $100,000 if they came within one one-thousandth of a mile per hour of the person’s speed who won pole position, we helped them with that policy. We work with a variety of companies in Alabama to provide policies for our clients because everyone has different needs.”

In everything from moving to new locations – the agency has been in its current location since August of 1972 – to becoming automated, Talladega Insurance Agency has shown a willingness to try new and different things over the years if it meant keeping the company fresh and alive.

Bill said with eight employees at the most, the way the company handles so many different policies with various companies is to work “smarter not harder.” The agency went automated early on and has been paperless for quite some time now.

Boyd has also brought new ideas in by having a consultant come in with fresh perspectives on how to improve the agency and do things even more efficiently.

“Anybody should be proud to be around for even 10 years,” Boyd said. “Just like any business, we have suffered our share of adversities over the years and have worked harder and harder to stay. We do what we have to do, like all businesses, to make our way. It seems we have successfully figured out a way to withstand time and get to the next level.”