The Kentucky Insurance Company was chartered in 1802 to provide insurance coverage for riverboats and barges on the inland rivers of the state. The insurance company began business on April 1, 1803 and located its offices on Main Street, between Mill and Broadway. The bank's charter also authorized the issuance of notes and it quickly entered the banking business. The firm's first President was William Morton, with John Wesley Hunt (see Profiles) as one of the directors.
In 1816 James Prentiss, a New England speculator, acquired the company's charter and flooded the region with worthless notes. After Prentiss fled, the firm failed in 1817.
References:
William M. Ambrose, First Security National Bank & Trust Company (1835-1992), Limestone Press, Lexington, 2007.
