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Home  Web of Dowds Dowd - Insurance |
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Written by Steven Dowd
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The story of the Dowd Agencies is a proud and enduring saga. It spans more than a century and includes chapters that run from impoverished Ireland to Major League Baseball to the beaches of Normandy.
In 1865, James J. Dowd, of Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland, bid goodbye to his beloved but poor country.
He, his wife and fourteen children immigrated to the land of opportunity, settling in Holyoke, Massachusetts |  |
One of those fourteen children, also named James J. Dowd, teamed with a partner to form the Keane and Dowd Insurance Agency in Holyoke.
A year later, they began an affiliation with the company now known as Firemans Fund, a relationship that continues unbroken to this day.
The new insurance company prospered in the Paper City. In 1910, anticipating the day his son would join the agency, Mr. Dowd adopted the new name James J. Dowd & Sons.
However, young James J. Dowd II had other plans than to join his fathers agency. A gifted athlete at Holy Cross College, he embarked on a professional baseball career.
After signing a "lucrative" $2,200 contract with the Cincinnati Reds in 1916, the promising pitcher had his plans changed forever when the elder Dowd passed away. His son returned to Holyoke to run the family business.
The next three decades were thriving years for the now-prominent insurance business. In 1926 the agency constructed its own building in downtown Holyoke, the Lincoln Building on Suffolk Street, built by James Dowd II and his father-in-law, Edward Sheehan.
In 1947, James J. Dowd, Jr., a veteran of the Normandy D-Day invasion, joined the firm founded by his grandfather. Another World War II veteran, John E. Dowd, entered the family business in 1951.
This third generation guided the business through continued prosperity for the next quarter-century.
The sudden death of John E. Dowd in 1974 brought the fourth generation of the family into the firm, when James J. Dowd III came on board. Eight years later, John E. Dowd, Jr. entered the agency.
The two Dowd cousins have been joined by Robert W. Gilbert, Jr.
to form a leadership group that has experienced unprecedented growth. The agency proudly celebrated its centennial year in 1998.
Use this link to visit the Dowd Insurance Agencies web page |
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