“No business could even survive for 75 years much less prosper as has ours unless it had some very fine friends and customers.” said Henry Benton a half a century ago. The same can be said from the same family now that the business is 125 years old.
Seven out of 10 new employer firms survive at least two years, half at least five years, a third at least 10 years and a quarter stay in business 15 years or more. Now lets talk about the Benton-Luttrell Company that had its founding 125 years ago.
The company was founded in 1890, only a few years after the City of Van Alstyne came to be such an existence. 125 years later, longtime friends Bill Benton and Roger Luttrell operate the company which is one of the oldest sustaining real estate and insurance companies in the State of Texas.
R.S. Fulton founded the agency in 1890. In 1896, he purchased the Reynolds & Duncan Agency established in 1892. Soon after 1900, W.D. Benton, a nephew of Fulton’s, began a career with Fulton in the insurance and real estate business. He was also secretary of the Leader Publishing Company and for the City of Van Alstyne. The agency continued to grow with the purchase of the Evans Insurance Agency in 1917.
W.D. Benton and R.S. Fulton continued to operate the agency together until the death of Mr. Fulton in 1942. W.D. Benton purchased the agency and ran it until his death in 1945. It was then that his son Henry Benton, who was in the Army Air Corps in England flying B-24s over Germany and returned home after WWII to begin his career in the insurance business. Prior to his return from the war, his sister, Billie Whitaker ran the agency for seven months. Henry Hynds, father-in-law to Henry Benton, took over the real estate operation in the mid-1950s. After Henry Benton’s death in 1966, his wife Jane Hynds Benton began to operate the insurance agency and continued to do so until their son Bill Benton would take over after returning from Texas Tech. Bill Benton was also active in the real estate business with his grandfather Henry Hynds and in 1983 purchased the real estate operation after Hynds death.
In 1994, the Benton Agency and the Luttrell Agency of Howe merged operations. Roger Luttrell and Bill Benton have been good friends since their college days at Austin College, where they met before Benton transferred to Lubbock.
The two added the Harold Brown Agency in Sherman in 1996 and now have a presence covering Sherman, Howe and Van Alstyne, with their “world-headquarters” in Van Alstyne.
With the anniversary of the company, they plan on celebrating by giving away $125 per day by randomly drawing a name from their extensive client list which totals over $750 million in premium revenue. Back in 1965, the agency gave away a 25-inch Zenith color television and onthe 100th anniversary, they gave away a 32-inch color television. In keeping with the tradition, they will draw for the grand prize of a 60-inch flat screen HDTV on Nov. 30.
Now that the history of the company and the celebration plans are in place, lets talk about the two individuals that are now responsible for the longtime success of the local company.
When one thinks of Bill Benton, they usually first think of Van Alstyne and when one thinks of Van Alstyne, they usually first think of Bill Benton. He is a 1973 graduate of VAHS and as stated, his family roots in that city are well documented.
“My heritage with both of y grandfathers and my dad and my great grandfathers were very active in the community.” said Benton.
“They were very civic-minded which is obviously part of my heritage. I’ve felt that calling. But secondarily, the community has blessed us with their patronage and so I feel like I need to give something back. That’s what I feel my responsibility is and when we pass through time, we want to do our best so that hopefully those that follow us will care as much about the next generation as the ones before us cared about us.”
Luttrell, a Honey Grove native, and Austin College graduate initially came to Van Alstyne in the early 1980s as a football coach. After a short career in coaching, he bought the Howe Insurance Agency strictly on faith. Luttrell and Benton both tackled the technology aspect of both real estate and insurance businesses and capitalized on it.
“It didn’t scare us and fortunately our employees weren’t scared of it.” said Luttrell. “That was huge.”
With both partners were young and in the middle of the software renaissance of the 1990s, they took a paper and store-front business and made them more efficient through technology.
“You may purchase all the computers you want, but this will always remain a ‘people helping people business’.” said Luttrell, quoting a mentor of his.
The office relocated in 2000 from Downtown Van Alstyne to the present location in the shopping center located at the corner of US 75 and Van Alstyne Parkway. The conference table reflects what is important to the company. It is full of mementos and historical artifacts of Van Alstyne. The office also holds, what Benton says, is the best set of employees front to back that he could imagine.
“Our staff is so customer focused. said Benton. “that’s the highlight of what we do. When Roger joined, he and I had different kind of skill sets. His best skill set is something that I lack and hopefully that’s been the other way around. Our partnership has – the word amazing gets overused, but we’ve been very blessed and it’s worked from day one.”
The relationship between the two partners has always been a friendly one, even when Luttrell was a die-hard supporter of the Howe Bulldogs while with the Howe Insurance Agency. Back in the days of the Howe/Van Alstyne football rivalries, it was not uncommon for the loser’s house or business to be toilet papered by the other.
“Part of this company’s DNA is the Howe Insurance Agency.” said Benton. “All of that customer base is as much a part of this as any.”
Luttrell spent three terms (nine years) on the Howe ISD Board of Trustees as well as one term on the Howe City Council. Meanwhile, Benton has been on everything in town except the school board. He even served on the fire department.
When asked what the key was to having such a long and successful business, Benton said that you have nothing without great customers that trust you and want to do business with you.
“If you don’t have a staff that understands that responsibility and cares about the customers, then you don’t have anything.” said Benton.
Maybe our descendants will win a television the size of the AT&T Stadium jumbo-tron in 125 years. Who knows who will take over the reigns for the next century of the company, but so far for this local business, it’s been about family, community, customers and employees. Apparently, that is the recipe to run a successful business for 125 years.
