In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was published, President Calvin Coolidge delivered the first inaugural address heard coast to coast on the radio and a Ford Model T retailed for less than $300.
William R. Karschner & Sons
That same year, an insurance dynasty in Pennsylvania first opened its doors. Three generations later, that business, the William R. Karschner & Sons agency, shares a centennial celebration with the insurance provider with which it is inextricably linked.
Kris Karschner doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t hear about the virtues of Erie Insurance.
“I didn’t know there was any other insurance company but ERIE as a kid,” Kris says. “ERIE was all I ever heard about from my grandfather.”
Although his great-grandfather, the agency’s namesake, started the business, it was his grandfather, William “Rod” Karschner, who first signed a contract that started the agency’s relationship with ERIE in the mid-1940s.
The alliance has made Karschner one of ERIE’s longest-standing agency partners.
But the relationship has meant much more than a simple business affiliation for the Karschner family. Rod maintained a close relationship with ERIE Founder H.O. Hirt, and Kris’s father Gerald worked as a claims adjuster at ERIE for 13 years before taking the reins of the agency.
To this day, Karschner holds ERIE in high esteem.
“ERIE has really been like family to us,” said Kris, who serves as the agency's principal along with Mark McKosky, Nick Folk, Kevin Hoskins, Nathan Karschner and Barry Karschner.
Like ERIE, Karschner hasn’t stopped growing. It insures Customers in Pennsylvania and New York and maintains four offices in three Pennsylvania counties.
“We’ve come a long way,” Kris said. “And we owe it all to ERIE, because without them, we wouldn’t be near the agency we are.”
Much like ERIE’s founders, the agency’s forerunners established, a commitment to the trusted principles of service that has been key to its success.
“We’ve kept the same philosophy that my grandfather had: providing excellent service by returning every phone call, every email, every text every day,” he said.
“It’s not complicated, it’s just a matter of doing those simple things that pay off in spades.”
A higher level of service
Perhaps no account demonstrates ERIE and Karschner’s shared commitment to service quite like a trip Rod made to Providence, Rhode Island, with a claims adjuster and a Customer in August 1962.
As legend has it, a Customer was in a serious auto accident in Providence. Needing to immediately get home to Galeton, Pennsylvania, the Customer left his car, under the impression it was a total loss. However, an independent adjuster who was contracted through ERIE to appraise the damage determined it could be repaired for about half the value of the car.
Disappointed with his assessment, the Customer asked Rod Karschner and ERIE claims adjuster Ike Carrier to travel to Providence to verify the independent adjuster’s appraisal. So the three of them set out for Providence by chartering a plane from a nearby airport.
With about 65 miles to go, they ran into poor weather, and the pilot was unable to locate an airfield. With fuel running low, they crash-landed in a swampy area in Weymouth, Massachusetts, just 50 feet from a house. The plane was completely destroyed, but miraculously, no one was seriously injured.
After an off-duty police officer agreed to drive them to the body shop in Providence for $20, Rod, Ike and the Customer got a better look at the car and agreed it wasn’t a total loss. At the Customer’s insistence on getting home immediately, the crew borrowed a car and drove through the night back to Galeton.
News of the voyage made its way to Hirt, who called it proof “that ERIE will go to an extreme” to prove its claim of being Above All in SERvIcE.
Even if your Agent and claims adjuster won’t risk life and limb, ERIE’s servicing of claims remains unequaled among other insurance providers, according to Kris. He credits ERIE’s superior claims service with easy accessibility to claims adjusters and management, underscoring ERIE’s commitment to the personal touch.
Keller-Brown Insurance Services
In 1899, Eli Benjamin Keller co-founded what would eventually become Keller-Brown Insurance Services. From a modest start in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, the agency has grown into a five-generation family legacy.
And despite being in business for more than 100 years at the time, one of the agency’s key changes occurred 25 years ago.
“One of the best things my parents did for the legacy of this business was to get our ERIE contract in 2000,” said Sarah Brown, the president and CEO of Keller-Brown Insurance Services, and the great-great-great-granddaughter of Eli Keller.
Sarah’s mother, Joy, represented the fourth generation to join the business, followed by Sarah’s father, Jeff.
“They really grew (the business) between the two of them,” Sarah reflected.
The agency relocated to Shrewsbury in 1984. It now occupies the historic Odd Fellows Hall, a building constructed in 1853 that serves as an enduring symbol of the agency’s deep roots and forward-looking approach.
Keller-Brown’s partnership with Erie Insurance has been a cornerstone of success. “There’s a lot of similarities with ERIE’s values and ours,” Sarah said. In 2023, Keller-Brown was recognized with ERIE’s Agency of the Year Award for its outstanding community involvement.
Like ERIE, Keller-Brown’s commitment to providing compassionate support to Customers recovering from misfortunes is central to its identity.