Andrew Jackson Loomis
Andrew Jackson LoomisInitially after the war of insurrection began, many states organized military units with a 3 month duration. They actually felt that would be all the longer the hostilities would last. Quite possibly if the Northern states had quickly defeated the Confederates in a major battle right off, that would have helped. Not the case. Enlistment in new units were eventually extended to 3 years. Andrew Jackson Loomis joined Company E of the 8th Illinois Infantry for 3 months.
8th Regiment, Illinois Infantry (3 months, 1861)
Organized at Springfield, Ill., and mustered in for three months' service April 25, 1861. Moved to Cairo, Ill., and duty there till July, 1861. Expedition from Cairo to Little River June 22-23 (Cos. "B" and "C"). Mustered out July 25, 1861. Most personnel were remustered in the 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment (3 Years). Pvt. Andrew Loomis did not re-enlist.
Regiment lost 3 by disease during service.
Andrew Loomis and his family were true western pioneers. Andrew was born in a log cabin near the town of Hillsboro, Missouri, on April 24, 1833. His father went for the doctor and left his Grandma Miller with his Mother. A raging, roaring thunder storm came up, and his father lost his way. The doctor did not arrive until long after Andrew did. The family remained there about 11 months. When the Blackhawk War was over, the family went to Fort Clark, Illinois, which is now Peoria, where they lived for thirty years.
In 1855 Andrew married Miss Ellen C. Smith, of Peoria. The couple had eight children, three boys and five girls. Lester Grant Loomis was born on August 3, 1863, in Peoria, Illinois, the fifth of the couple's children.
Andrew Loomis answered President Lincoln's first call for Civil War volunteers, and enlisted in Peoria in 1861. He put in his 3 months of mandatory duty, and got out. In 1863, the year of Lester's birth, he traveled from Illinois to California, sailing from New York by way of the Isthmus of Panama. In 1864 he returned from California and then moved his family to Omaha, Nebraska territory, where he was in the mercantile business.
In 1874 he moved with his family to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles, and later had mining interests at Reno, Nevada, where he resided for several years.
Andrew Loomis ran a general merchandise store in Milford, California, for a time before moving to Blaine, Washington, in 1883, very close to the border with Canada. He homesteaded 160 acres near Haynie, about 10 miles southeast of Blaine, and spent the remainder of his life in the Blaine area. He died in Blaine on June 3, 1915, and is buried in the family tomb in Blaine Cemetery.
Many of the Loomis family followed Andrew west and settled in California and around Blaine, Washington. His son, Captain Lester G. Loomis tired of the politics in Los Angeles, sold his city home and moved his family to the remote wilderness of the San Gabriel mountains above LA in 1913. It was a large working spread known locally as the Loomis Ranch.
Sons Henry and Charles built the Opera House in Blair. Henry was in politics and ran for president in 1892. The Loomis golf course was constructed by the family.
Source:
http://loomisranch.org/page7/page29/page29.html accessed 8 MAY2011
To read events in Andrew's own words during his last years read:
The Last Diary of Andrew Jackson Loomis, Blaine, Washington, 1912-1915
Richard Clark, Editor
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=andrew+Jackson+Loomis+journals&btnG=Goo
gle+Search&aq=f&oq=
Civil War Film M539 roll 54
http://loomisranch.org/page3/page2/page2.html
Compiled by L. L. Kimmel [5th cousin 6X removed]