State Farm Insurance's founder, George Jacob Mecherle, believed that farmers should pay less for auto insurance than urbanites should pay, so he decided to propose his idea to the insurance company he worked for. After disagreeing, Mecherle created his own insurance company with the philosophy of fair coverage at a fair price, and as the company that insures the most cars in the United States today with 75 million policies, we can assume that philosophy works.

Mecherle created the company, State Farm in an office in Bloomington, Illinois with business associates Minnie Jones and Verna Crusius. From the beginning, State Farm remained committed to promoting safety and good health as a major priority for all clients and employees and they demonstrated this with their milk giveaway program for anemic and under nourished employees during the Great Depression, and with the addition of their medical division in the 1930s.

One of the first companies of it's time to do so, State Farm went international in 1938 when R.E. Patterson opened a branch in Toronto, Canada. In the years following in the 50s and 60s, State Farm saw their biggest ever expansion period and captured the title as the nation's top auto insurer. Subsequently, State Farm expanded coverage to include homeowner's insurance, broadcasted its first network television advertisement and purchased their first computer.

The 60s and 70s for State Farm were slow but steady, with State Farm exponentially increasing philanthropic programs and events, creating their famous Special Disaster Service, contracting Barry Manilow to writer the company's theme song, and set up for a smooth projected growth period in the 80s and 90s.

As the 60th anniversary of State Farm insurance approached, the first State Farm agents' computer program was born and the company began to build itself a solid web-based structure. Following this, State Farm surpassed $100 billion in ordinary life insurance force in 1986, nearly doubling their force from the prior year.

Following the natural disasters of the early 90s State Farm drastically changed their policies to include 24/7 customer support and entered the internet world with the launching of their website and now currently supports a wide variety of coverage policies internationally.