Louis N. Loomis Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 526-527

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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HON. LOUIS N. LOOMIS. The people of South Dakota need no introduction 
to this gentleman. From the early settlement of the state he has given 
his support to every enterprise which was for the welfare of her 
people, and as a resident of Jerauld county, he is ever ready to aid in 
developing her resources. He makes his home in Alpena, but his 
financial interests are wide spread, and ID business circles he is 
recognized throughout that portion of the northwest as a gentleman of 
ability and integrity. 

Mr. Loomis was born in Chatfield, Minnesota, in 1857, the fourth of a 
family of seven children. His parents were natives of Massachusetts and 
Nantucket Island, Connecticut. His earliest ancestor to emigrate to 
America from England, Joseph Loomis, landed at Windsor, Connecticut, in 
1638. 

Our subject during his school vacations worked on a farm. At the age of 
sixteen years he learned the harness maker's trade from his father. 
After two years work at his trade in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, he went 
into the real estate and loan business at Milwaukee Junction, in 
December, 1881. Upon his being chosen probate judge in Miner county, in 
1882, he moved to Howard, South Dakota, but the following year resigned 
his position and went to Alpena, where he engaged in the real estate 
and loan business. He was elected register of deeds in Jerauld county 
in 1884, and was reelected in 1886, serving four years in that 
capacity. He returned to Alpena in 1888 and established the Bank of 
Alpena, which business he conducts at present. He and H. J. Wallace 
founded the bank at Wessington Springs, and our subject also owns one-
third interest in the Alpena Creamery. He has engaged extensively in 
the grain and elevator business, which he started in 1890, and has a 
line of ten elevators in Dakota and Iowa. He was admitted to the bar in 
South Dakota in 1886. He entered claim on a homestead and tree claim at 
Brookings, while at work at his trade at Dell Rapids, forty-five miles 
distant, and he walked to his claim and was his own housekeeper in an 8 
x 10 shanty, when he went to visit his farm. At Milwaukee Junction he 
also had a pre-emption, which he afterward proved up on. He is familiar 
with that entire district, and was a land locater curing 1881-82, using 
a compass as guide. He is interested in farming and cattle raising. He 
has about twenty five hundred acres of land, two thousand acres of 
which is in Alpena township, and one tract comprises twelve hundred and 
eighty acres. This is located south of Alpena, and on it he has two 
sets of buildings. He established the Alpena "Journal," which was the 
first paper printed in the town, and he sold the sheet in 1885. The 
building in which it was started was moved from Milwaukee Junction and 
was the first building on the town site of Alpena. 

Our subject was married in 1883 to Alice Nisbet, a native of Osage, 
Iowa. Her father was a farmer and blacksmith by occupation, and was one 
of the early settlers in Minnehaha county, South Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. 
Loomis are the parents of five children. 

Mr. Loomis was elected to the state senate in 1898, from Jerauld 
county, and has been prominent in political affairs, having been sent 
to each state convention from 1888 to 1898. He has been a member of the 
state central committee for four years, and served on the county 
committee in the early days. He takes an active interest in educational 
matters and has been school treasurer since the township was organized, 
with the exception of the four years he was register of deeds at 
Wessington Springs. In political views he is a Republican and is strong 
in his convictions. He fraternizes with the Masonic order and is a 
member of the Commandery at Mitchell.