Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Faith Marie Loomis Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

RICHARD CLAYTON LOOMIS

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

Richard Clayton Loomis, owner of the R. C. Loomis Drygoods Company and one of the leading merchants of El Dorado, heavy taxpayer and active civic chieftain, was born at Fiskburg, Kentucky, twenty miles from Cincinnati, Ohio, December 14, 1873, and is the scion of a long line of Kentucky, Virginia and New England forebears, dating back to the Sixteenth century. Mr. Loomis, although a native of Kentucky, in actuality is a product of Kansas and of El Dorado, in that he was only nine years old when his parents removed to Butler County. He was educated in the local schools, graduating from the El Dorado High School. His present substantial citizenship was an easy forecast even in his youth for, at the age of 19 years, he launched out for himself and became a clerk in one of the pioneer and, at that time, the principal department store of this section. Eight years later, or at 27 years of age, his ability attracted the attention of the great Marshall Field Company, Chicago, and he was offered and accepted a position with that firm as a traveling salesman. He remained with Marshall Field Company until 1906, when he accepted a similar position with the Landesman-Hirscheimer Company, of Cleveland, Ohio. He continued with this company until 1922, twelve years ago, when he quit “the road” and established the R. C. Loomis Drygoods Company, at 104 South Main Street, where he immediately entered into and now is doing a most lucrative business in a high grade department store. During Mr. Loomis’ experience as a traveling salesman, he made seasonal trips to virtually all the great cities of the United States and became familiar with the habits and customs of the people of every section of the country, and because he continued to make El Dorado his headquarters throughout this time and manifest a most laudable interest in civic affairs, his ideals and his progress became valuable factors in the growth and development of the community. It is a well known fact that he has been identified with every forward movement initiated by the local business men and served equally as industriously and patriotically in the ranks or as a leader. He helped organize the Chamber of Commerce and for many years was a director of that institution, receiving the highest vote of the membership of 1920. He has been constantly active for good roads, improved streets and was one of a group of other progressives who successfully handled the campaign for the erection of the El Dorado hotel and otherwise solved the problems that confronted the local citizenship during the “Oil Boom of 1915-20” when El Dorado went through the hectic transition from a small country town to a thriving, bustling city. Mr. Loomis is one of that splendid group of El Dorado business men who have registered a hundred percent local civic pride and progress. And, in addition to his membership in the Chamber of Commerce and Credit Men’s Association, he is affiliated with the Country club, is a charter member of the Rotary club and high in the councils of the National Drygoods Retailers Association. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, with memberships in Patmos No. 97, and the Wichita Consistory. He is a communicant of no church, but true to his ancestral line he believes in the Baptist faith. In politics, he is a Democrat. The Loomis family in America dates back to Colonial New England when the first settlers arriving from Essex County, England, landed in Massachusetts. Members of the family served in the Indian wars and in the Revolution from Massachusetts. Following the war of 1812, Joseph Loomis moved into Virginia, where he was a planted. Shortly before the Mexican War, his son, Joseph, Jr., crossed the mountains into Kentucky, and with his family settled in the Blue Grass region, just south of the Ohio River. Among the children of Joseph, Jr., born in Kentucky, was John Loomis, grandfather of Clayton Loomis. John Loomis developed into one of the most extensive tobacco and cattle growers of that entire section, but with thousands of others, became a victim and suffered heavy losses because of the horrors of the War between the states. Enos Loomis, son of John Loomis, was born in Kenton County, Kentucky, grew to manhood there and married Delilah E. Read, native of Fiskburg, who became the mother of the subject of his sketch. They came to Kansas in 1883, locating on a farm near El Dorado, where he engaged in farming. Seven years later, he removed to El Dorado and continued to reside here until his death in 1907. Mrs. Loomis was born at Fiskburg and was the daughter of William Walker Read and Hannah (Reigner) Read, each of whom was a native of Kentucky. William Walker Read’s father was Benjamin Read and his wife was Margaret (Thornton) Read, great-grandparents of Clayton Loomis, and both natives of Kentucky. Hannah (Reigner) Read was the daughter of Augustus Baptiste and Margaret (Fisk) Reigner. It is of historic interest that Margaret Fisk, great-grandmother of Clayton Loomis, was the daughter of Dr. Joseph Fisk and that Fiskburg was named for his father’s family. The Fisks, as were the Reigners, Reads and Loomises, were among the best known and wealthiest families of that section during the pre-Civil War era. Clayton Loomis married Faith M. McGinnis, of El Dorado, August 25, 1920. Mrs. Loomis was born in El Dorado, educated in the local schools and now is and has been for years among the leaders of society, women’s club work, patriotic activities, and identified with many other laudable movements. She is the daughter of Walter F. and Ida May (Surdam) McGinnis, both natives of Kansas and children of pioneer Kansans. Mrs. Loomis’ grandfather was Dr. James A. McGinnis, who was born in Vermillion County, Indiana, and who came to Kansas, in 1854, settling in Coffey County. He was an influential factor in the development of Coffey County as has been his son, Walter F., father of Mrs. Loomis, in the development of El Dorado and Butler County. The McGinnis family was founded in America in the early part of the Eighteenth century of John McGinnis, who emigrated from Antrim County, Ireland, to Pennsylvania. Since that time, they have been in the vanguard of pioneer America as the Great West, from the Appalachians to the Cascades, has been slowly, perilously, but thoroughly claimed to civilization. The McGinnises were in the World War, the Mexican, the Civil, the War of 1812 and twenty-two members of the family, brothers and cousins, served in the war for American Independence. A more detailed review of the ancestral lines (McGinnis and Surdam families) of Mrs. Loomis appears in this volume in the sketch of her father, Walter F. McGinnis, Sr. Two children have been born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Loomis: Faith Marie, who died in infancy, and Richard Clayton, Jr., who was born January 18, 1928.