User talk:Thomas Trahey/Sandbox 3

John Mason Loomis was a nineteenth century businessman and lumber tycoon of Chicago famous for helping develop the city of Ludington, Michigan. He was a Colonel in the American Civil War and a leader for charitable causes.

Early life and education
Loomis was born at Windsor, Connecticut on January 5, 1825. He is of English descent. His parents were James and Abigail Loomis. His father was a native of Windsor who was a farmer, merchant, and miller. His mother was a native of Greenfield Hill, Connecticut. She was a descendant of a family who had large number of successful medical doctors.

Loomis attended public schools of Connecticut as a child. He worked in his father's store when he was a teenager and there received his initial business training.

Personal life
Loomis's father admired a seventeenth century Major by the name of John Mason who served under Sir Thomas Fairfax. John Mason became a famous officer of the colonial forces in the Indian Wars of New England after he immigrated to America. Because of John Mason's military aptitude he gave his son that name, therefore becoming John Mason Loomis.

Loomis married Miss Mary Hunt in 1849. She was the daughter of Milo Hunt of Chenango County, New York.

Loomis and his three brothers and sister lost all their children tragically one way or another within their lifetimes. They decided then with their resources to form the Loomis Institute that would help educate young boys and girls. They incorporated the Loomis Institute into the Loomis Chaffee School in 1874. It is a New England boarding and day school in Windsor, Connecticut, that gives free education of those between twelve and twenty years of age.

Loomis was on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. It was a Chicago charity for those left homeless and destitute after the fire of 1871. He gave money and time to this charity and other similar charities for twenty years.

Loomis retired in 1885. He died on August 2, 1900.

Military service
Loomis entered the American Civil War as Colonel of the 26th Illinois Infantry Regiment in August 1861. They participated in the Battle of Island Number Ten, the Battle of Iuka, the Siege of Corinth, the Siege of Vicksburg, the Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, the Second Battle of Chattanooga and the Battle of Farmington, Tennessee.

Business career
Loomis took over an existing lumber merchant business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1848 at the age of twenty-three. He was successful at the business and in 1852 moved the business to Chicago. He later became a partner with James Ludington of Milwaukee and their firm they had was called Loomis & Ludington. They ran a successful lumber business until 1861 when Loomis entered the American Civil War as a Colonel. When he left his military service in 1864 and returned to Chicago he found his lumber business had been destroyed. Since he was interested in this type of business he became a commission merchant. He was successful at this and later became a partner with John McLaren, naming his firm John Mason Loomis & Company. His company on South Water Street was for many years the leading lumber firm of Chicago. Loomis became the treasurer of the Pere Marquette Lumber Company of Ludington when it was formed in 1869. Through his efforts and others of the lumber company the Mason County, Michigan, seat was moved from the village of Lincoln in Mason County to the city of Ludington. Loomis along with Delos L. Filer pledged $1,000 towards a building for the county offices in Ludington which was finished being constructed in 1874. Loomis became the president of this lumber company in 1879. The lumber company had produced salt in Ludington through his efforts of figuring out that distilling brine could produce usable salt. Other entrepreneurs followed his technique and because of the local salt industries and the local lumber companies the city of Ludington was developed.