Biographical Sketch of B. F. Loan, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO

>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
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B. F. Loan was born at Hardensburg, Breckinridge County, Kentucky, in
1819, and in 1838 he removed to Missouri.  He chose the law as a pro-
fession and was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Buchanan
County.  In 1861, when the rebellion broke out, he took an active part
in military affairs, and was appointed Brigadier General.  In 1862, he
was elected to a seat in the Thirty eighth Congress, and served during
his term as a member of the joint committee on military affairs, with
Wade, Chandler and Julia, and he was one of the most active members, 
and served as a memeber of the committe on Pacific Railroads, Freedmen,
and debts of loyal states.  He was re-elected a member of the Thirty
ninth Congress, and was his own successor in the Fortieth Congress, 
and was chairman of the committe on Revolutionary pensions, and on 
that of Freedmen's affairs.  In 1869, he was appointed visitor to West
Point.  As a public sprited citizen he was ever identified with the
best interests and substantial progess of the city.  Soon after comm-
encing the practice of his profession, he began to develop those 
natural and acquired gifts which made him, ere his decease, one of its
foremost leaders.  He rose rapidly, and from the first his professional
work was of a high character.  His mind was singularly clear and comp-
rehensive, and he was noted for his accurate and precise methods of
work.  In matters of legal doubt his opinions had great weight with
his professional brethren, for they knew how profound and accurate was
his knowledge of law, and how clear and exact were his mental processes.
His study was as thorough as it was broad, and his opinions were ten-
aciously adhered to when arrived at.  He was the intimate friend and
trusted adviser of many of the leading citizens who have contributed
to bring about the commercial greatness of St. Joseph.  At the bar, in
the active exercise of his profession, he always attracted attention.
An excellent advocate, an impressive speaker, his legal opponents,
bearing in mind his wide and accurate knowledge of the law, never un-
derestimated his strength, and the result was that Mr. Loan's mental
weapons were ever kept bright and his versatile abilities constantly
active.  His reading, outside the realm of his profession, was very
extensive, and he was a well informed student of history and general
literature.  Extremely social in his nature, he possessed the rare
gift of attracting friends and the still more rare gift of keeping
them.  A lawyer, with too high a sense of honor to urge an unjust
cause, a moralist without fanaticism, and a careful business man, who
recognized personal integrity as the first obligation to his associates
and to society, his loss is a serious one to those circles in which he
was a wise and steadfast friend, and to the city in which for so many
years he filled an honorable and useful citizenship.

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