The Agnew and Soseman families met in March, reminiscing about the start of their insurance business.
David and Liz (Soseman) Kistenmacher spent a day at Middleton Plantation in Charleston, S.C., with Bill Agnew of Summerville, S.C., and Byron and Bette (Agnew) Vanier of Aiken, S.C. Bill is a volunteer tour guide at the plantation. Their fathers, Floyd Soseman Jr. and William Agnew were partners in Agnew-Soseman Insurance Agency.
David has never met the Agnews.
David and Liz are the third generation in the insurance agency, as Kitty D. Soseman (Liz’s grandmother) started selling “State Auto” insurance in 1920. It was a service of the Motor Inn Ford Garage established by Floyd W. and Kitty Soseman, following World War I.
William Agnew, a salesman at the garage, became a partner in the insurance business in 1947 and retired in 1973. Floyd Jr. joined the firm in 1955, following his graduation from Grinnell College and two years in the Army.
In 1987, Doug Soellner joined the agency as a producer. In 1988, Ardell Downs merged his agency with Agnew-Soseman and, in 1991, Don Buell and Farmers Mutual Insurance became associated with the agency.
David and Liz joined the agency 1994. They are both Galva-Holstein and South Dakota State University graduates and moved back to Holstein from Sioux Falls, S.D. David was a CPA for Henry Scholten and Company, a public accounting firm, and Liz was a Surety Bond Underwriter for Western Surety Company, now CNA Surety. (April 23, 2014)