The 'Daisy' Who Insured Tacoma
A Tacoma insurance man mortgaged Southeast Tacoma lots at $90,000, then told assessors the same ground was worth a fraction of that.
The Wildcat West Coast Insurance Company of Tacoma was a suspicious organization from its inception. It appears from the records in the auditor’s office that the lots in Southeast Tacoma, which were mortgaged by Brother Ithurial Mulligatewny Howell at $90,000 as security for $40,000, were assessed to $50 each, but he appeared before the board of equalization and declared that $20 each was their full value. Subsequently they were reduced to $18 each by the horizontal reduction in the assessment by the state board. Brother Howell is a daisy. So is his insurance company.
“Brother Howell is a daisy. So is his insurance company.”
Insurance schemes and property overvaluation are old Puget Sound stories; Tacoma’s 1891 'wildcat' company shows how speculative real estate and shaky finance have long traveled together. The details of assessment appeals still echo in today’s fights over valuations, mortgages, and who bears the risk when a promoter’s numbers collapse.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.