Photo courtesy of the Holden Agency
Pictured, during the 1940s, at the agency’s former office location at 23 Center St. in Brandon, are principles Alice Farmer, Mildred Leffingwell and Newton Smith.
MIDDLEBURY — Today’s Holden Insurance Agency—with offices in Rutland and Middlebury—was founded in 1868 by Vermont Gov. Ebenizer Ormsbee (R) of Shoreham.
According to Holden Vice President Steve Kellogg, agency founder Gov. Ormsbee had a varied, impressive career.
The governor served in the Civil War (as one of Brandon’s “Allen Greys”), as lieutenant governor, as state’s attorney, as a teacher and as a U.S. Internal Revenue assessor.
In 1891, Democrat President Grover Cleveland appointed Ormsbee, a staunch Republican, as a negotiator with the Paiute Indians at Lake Pyramind in Nevada.
