Biographical Sketch of Col. Joseph Loomis, 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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Col. Joseph Loomis, was born in Colebrook, New Hampshire, in August,
1826, and received a good common school education, and at the age of
fourteen commenced his railroad career by shoveling snow from the track
of the Boston and Lowell Railroad, March 4, 1840.  After working stead-
ily for two years, he entered the machine shop, where he mastered the
trade, and then was appointed conductor on a passenger train, which he
held until 1853.  In that year he came West and received a position as
conductor on the Michigan Central, where he remained two years, and 
then was appointed Depot and Train Master in the new Central Depot, on
Lake Street, Chicago, where he remained until 1857.  In 1859, he was
appointed General Freight Agent on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad,
serving one year; was appointed Master of Transportation.  On June 4,
1861, the railroad men under his charge were formed into a regiment,
and he was made Lieutenant Colonel, and remained through the war in
charge of the railroad, and also of the regiment.  In 1865, he was
appointed Superintendent of the Quincy & Palmyra Railroad, and the 
Quincy Transportation Company.  In 1868, he started the transfer of
boats from Blair Crossing for the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad, re-
maining three years.  He then went to Carondelet and had charge of the
Missouri Pacific transfer boats; in 1877, he took the position of 
Superintendent on the Smoky Hill Division of the Kansas Pacific, and
remained two years, finally coming to St. Joseph in 1879.  He married
Nancy F. Watkins, in Lowell, Massachusetts.  They have one adopted
daughter, Julia, aged sixteen.

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