Founded in Charleston (Hatley Village) in 1835, by a number of prominent Sherbrooke businessmen, including Samuel Brooks, C. F. H. Goodhue, Otis King, and others, the Stanstead and Sherbrooke Fire Insurance Company operated successfully for over a century and a half, making it one of the longest-running Eastern Townships companies.
The company's first president was J. Jones.
Known at first as the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of the Counties of Stanstead and Sherbrooke, the company moved from Charleston to Lennoxville in 1836, and then to Sherbrooke in 1844.
Over the years of its operation, the company expanded its interests into several major Canadian cities, including Montreal, Quebec City, and Toronto.
The Stanstead and Sherbrooke Fire Insurance Company operated until the 1980s, when it was absorbed by the Commercial Union of Canada, based in Toronto, Ontario.
To this day, the splendid nineteenth-century red brick and sandstone former headquarters of the Stanstead and Sherbrooke Fire Insurance Company still graces historic Dufferin Avenue in Old Sherbrooke.