Duxbury & Hermans celebrates 80 years

MILLERTON — Millerton’s cornerstone business, Duxbury & Hermans Insurance, located at 66 Main St., is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.The business was founded in 1932 by Irene Pulver Duxbury and has remained family-operated for four generations. Duxbury was a member of the Millerton Grange and had sold grange insurance prior to opening her own business.Sarah K. Hermans is the current office manager and is proud to be a part of her great-aunt’s legacy.“Back in those days women didn’t own their own businesses, especially something like an insurance agency. She learned about selling insurance through the grange and was doing it from her own house. She decided to take it out of her home and that’s how the business began,” she said.Duxbury partnered with her niece’s husband, Walter C. Hermans, who soon after purchased the business from Duxbury.In 1971 Herman’s son, John L. Hermans, joined his father, who eventually retired in 1979. The family kept with the business, adding John’s wife, Martha Losee Hermans, to the staff to handle the finances.Sarah admits it was not her original plan to join the family line of work.“I always wanted to go into radio. That’s what I went to college for. I worked for a while in that field but it just didn’t pan out for me. So coming home I came into the business as the office manager,” she said.She was also able to take her knowledge of new technologies to help bring the agency into the technological age.“When I worked in radio it was a time when everything was going from reel to reel over to MP3s. So in working through that changeover I learned a lot and was able to bring that knowledge here. Coming in I helped bring the business up to date with modern technology,” she said.Duxbury & Hermans is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It closes for lunch between noon and 1 p.m.For further information, call 518-789-3633 or go to www.duxburyandhermans.com.

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