"In 1887, when Henry Clay Beck founded the Chattanooga Abstract Company, his family was already firmly established in the newly created city known as Chattanooga. His father had been owner of a quarry that was located on the present site of the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club. Stone from that quarry was used, among other projects, to build the piers of the Walnut Street Bridge, as well as the steeple of the old Centenary Methodist Church downtown and the wall around the Hamilton County Courthouse.
Beck served as Hamilton County Register at that time, and he saw an opportunity to pursue a business that was in its infancy. Prior to that time, when someone purchased property, research was done by an abstract agency and given to a lawyer. The lawyer simply offered an opinion whether the deed was secure.
There was a need in Chattanooga for a company that would insure titles to property. So, in 1890, Beck created Title Guaranty and Trust Company of Chattanooga to join the Chattanooga Abstract Company which was founded in 1887. Title Guaranty was the first title insurance company south of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Title Guaranty and Trust Company of Chattanooga continues today in the building it constructed in 1925, next to the original site, and at its locations on Lee Highway and Cleveland. The Title Guaranty and Trust Company of Chattanooga offers title and escrow closing services for both residential and commercial properties in TN and Georgia."
