Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/37

 LOOMIS

LOOMIS

explorations through Bolivia, Peru, and Chile in 1^53; was professor of natural science in the University at Lewisburg (Bucknell university), 1854-58, and president of the university, with the professorship of philosophy and ethics, 1858-79.

In 1864-65 he raised

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>,000 for addition- al endowment of that university, and in 1878 accomplislied at his own expense the grading of the col- lege campus. He joined the 28th Penn- sylvania volunteer militia as a private and served as chap- lain of the regiment during the emergency of Lee's invasion of 1862. The next year he served as nurse and surgeon on the Gettysburg battlefield. In April, 1870, he was a delegate to the National Baptist Educational convention in Brooklyn, N.Y. Before this body he read a paper on an assigned topic, which paper was published in full in the Pi'oceedings of that year. Besides drawing the working plans of the Baptist church edifice at Lewisburg, Pa. (dedicated in June, 1870), and superintending, free of all charge, the •erection of the same, he was the largest single contributor to its building fund. He was ap- pointed by President Grant in 1870 a member of the board of examiners to the U.S. Military aca- demy for 1871, but absence in Europe and Asia, 1871-72, prevented him from serving. In 1879 he made an extended stay in Paris, and in 1889 again traveled in England and on the continent. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Waterville college in 1838; that of Ph.D. from Lewisburg university in 1854, and that of LL.D. from Rochester university in 1858. He was mar- ried Jan. 16, 1838, to Sarah Anne, daughter of Moses Freeman. She died March 3, 1852. He was married secondlj'^, Jan. 17, 1854, to Mary, daughter of Deacon Edward Gilbert. She died July 16, 1872. He was married thirdly, Aug. 20, 1873, to Augusta, daughter of the Rev. Charles Tucker. His eldest son. Freeman, A.B., 1866, A.M., 1868, D.B., 1868, Ph.D., 1889, became a professor of modern languages and litei'ature in Lewisburg university in 1871. President Loomis was the author of various essays, lectures, pamphlets, ser- mons and scientific articles on current political, literary, and educational topics published m newspapers; and of Elements of Geology (1852) and Elements of Anatomy and Physiology (1853). He died at Lewisburg, Pa., June 22, 1898.

LOOMIS, Lafayette Charles, educator, was born in Coventry, Conn., July 7, 1824; son of Silas and Esther (Case) Loomis, and a descendant of Israel Loomis, three of whose sons served in the Continental army, 1776-84; of Sergeant Ben- jamin Case, minute-man and neighbor of Capt. Nathan Hale, and of Joseph Loomis. the immi- grant. He was graduated from Wesley an uni- versity, A.B., 1844, A.M., 1847, and was the co- founder and associate principal with his brother Silas L. Loomis of the Adelpliian academy at Broc- ton, Mass., 1844-50, one of the first academies in New England to be conducted independent of ec- clesiastical supervision and control. He was a teacher in Mount Hollis seminary, Holliston, Mass., in 1851; vice-principal of the Irving insti- tute at Tarrytown, N.Y., in U52, and principal in 1853. He was professor of natural science and belles-lettres in Wesleyan Female college, Wil- mington, Del., 1854-57; president of the college, 1857-58, and principal of Lafayette institute, Washington, D.C., 1859-63. He was graduated from Georgetown college, D.C., M.D., 1863; and was acting assistant surgeon of the Army of the Potoniac in 1864. He was president of Wheeling Female college. West Virginia, 1865-68; and pro- fessor of physiology at Howard university, Wash- ington, D.C., in 1868. He studied and traveled in Europe, 1875-95, and occasionally lectured on art. He was married Oct. 1, 1847, to Esther Lucretia, daughter of Calvin Lincoln of Holliston, Mass., and secondly Oct. 20, 1870, to Mary, daughter of Dr. Thomas Williams of Canandaigua, N.Y. He is the author of: Mizpah, Prayer and Friendship (1858); Mental and Social Culture (1867), which was subsequently printed for the blind; Index Guide to Travel and Art in Europe (1882); My- self: the Great Teachers of Mankind on the Na- ture of Mind and the Laws of Life; The Founders, Defenders and Benefactors of the Great Republic (MS. 1901), and contributions to magazines.

Looms, Mahfon, inventor, was born in Op- penheim, N.Y., July 21, 1826; son of Nathan and Waitie J. (Barber) Loomis; grandson of the Rev. Josiah and Susannah (Howes) Loomis, and a des- cendant through Dyer and Nathaniel from Jona- than Loomis. He was graduated from the Penn Medical Institute, Philadelphia, Pa., M.D. and D.D.S. after studying under Dr. Joseph Pan- coast (q. v.). He invented a combination of teeth and plate in one solid piece and all of the same material, which he patented in the United States and Europe. He practised dentistry first in western New York and then in Proc- tor county, Va. In 1865 he perfected plans for telegraphing without wires between distant points, and called his discovery or invention the Aerial Telegraph. In 1868 he succe.ssfully de- pionstrated the practicability of wireless tele-