James G. Batterson

James Goodwin Batterson (23 February 1823 in Bloomfield, Connecticut – 18 September 1901 in Hartford, Connecticut) was an American designer and builder, the owner of New England Granite Works from 1845 and a founder in 1863 of Travelers Insurance Company, both in Hartford, Connecticut. He introduced casualty insurance in the United States, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Insurance Hall of Fame (1965).

He was prepared for college but did not attend (he was later awarded honorary degrees of M. A. from both Yale University and Williams College); instead he immersed himself in his father's business in quarrying and importing stone, briefly studied law, then opened a granite and marble company. Batterson spent several years in Egypt, and was recognized as such an authority of Egyptology, he became honorary secretary of the Egyptian Exploration Fund. While in Europe he studied art and wrote poetry. In England he was impressed with the record and success of the Railway Passenger Assurance Company, and resolved to gather a group of progressive men to launch a similar venture in the United States, the Travelers Insurance Company. He remained in charge until his death in 1901.

Before the Civil War he designed and built the monument to Gen. William J. Worth, New York City (1857). after the war Batterson supplied many cemetery and civil monuments.

As chairman of the Connecticut State War Committee in the Civil War he served as a construction consultant for the Union.

As Batterson was a leading supplier of granite and other construction stone, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him building contractor for the Library of Congress building in Washington D.C. Batterson also constructed the Masonic Temple in New York City and the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford, designed by Richard M. Upjohn. He also constructed the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Building, Hartford, the Mutual Life Insurance Building, New York, the Equitable Life Insurance Building, New York, and the William K. Vanderbilt residence Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island. He had granite quarries at Westerly, Rhode Island, and at Concord, New Hampshire, and introduced mechanical granite polishing.

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