Wendell — When Mallie C. Todd hooked up with R.B. Whitley to create a new insurance company in this fledgling little town, he probably wasn’t concerned about giving rise to a timeless institution.

Instead, the two men were responding to a market trend that saw banks in rural communities open insurance offices. Because banks typically only required insurance on debt, most insurance companies weren’t interested in doing business in small towns where there wasn’t much debt.

But the banks that loaned out debt considered it to be in their best interest to insure their loans, so they often created insurance arms.

Today, 100 years later, that company, still called Todd & Scarboro, stands as the longest continuously operated business in Wendell.

What began as Todd & Whitley in 1907, soon became Todd & Richardson when Whitley sold his interest to Ruffin Richardson. In 1931, Richardson sold his interest to Walter Scarboro and the famous name was born. Anticipating part of what would become law decades later, Todd and Whitley opened a separate company to operate its insurance business. The company remained housed inside the Bank of Wendell, where Todd was the cashier or what we call today the bank president, until the 1950s when federal laws required that banks get out of the insurance business.

The law forced Todd & Scarboro to move into new quarters, which it did, purchasing office space across the street from the Bank of Wendell.

The Todd and Scarboro families remained involved with the company for most of the next 50 years, developing relationships with local customers and rolling with the changing tides of the insurance industry. As 2007 comes to a close, the company is bringing to an end its year-long celebration of a century in business. Current owner Dene Castleberry, and his minority partner Rodney Maye, are careful to protect the name they’ve come to own. But they also appreciate the company’s heritage.

They hosted a 100-year anniversary celebration earlier this year, inviting relatives of the Todd and Scarboro families to an event to honor the founders of the company.

Mallie Todd and Walter Scarboro’s portraits now hang in the office lobby in the company’s new office in Knott’s Square. In today’s insurance environment, Castleberry says it’s his job to educate clients and serve their needs before they ever make a claim.

“I’d say that the most important time for us to provide customer service is when the client comes in to buy insurance. We need to make sure we understand what their needs are so they don’t end up making a claim and don’t have what they need,” Castleberry said.

Maye agrees, but he adds that providing good customer service at the time a claim is made is also important.

“We need to be there as much as they need us when they have a claim,” Maye said.

Both men say the company’s longevity is due in part to its long-standing willingness to invest in equipment and technology. The company employs seven full-time staff members, about the same number of people it did 20 years ago.

“We’ve grown since then, but we’ve kept up with the technology far better than a lot of companies our size, so we’re able to do more with the same number of people,” Castleberry said.

The company has also kept its customer base intact by creating a line of succession that has given customers a sense of normalcy even in times of change.

When Scarboro was nearing the end of his career, the company brought in Alton Staples. That was in 1970. Staples learned the business inside out as a minority partner, then gradually took over complete ownership of the company.

In 1992, he brought on Castleberry as a minority partner. Over the years, Castleberry moved into an ownership position as Staples moved toward retirement. In 2002, Castleberry obtained the remainder of the company and in 2004, Casteberry brought Maye on as a minority partner. Maye, the junior member of the team, said he didn’t realize the company was nearing its 100-year anniversary, but he says the company had long been a household name in his family.

“My father had his insurance with Todd & Scarboro for as long as I could remember, until I went to work with Farm Bureau,” Maye said.

His father’s insurance now is with Todd & Scarboro again.

And those kinds of long-term relationships are important to Maye and Castleberry. They suspect their predecessors would approve. “They were part of this business every day for more than 50 years,” Castleberry said. “They built this company’s reputation and we’re realizing the fruits of what they began.”