John Mason Loomis, son of Colonel James Loomis of Windsor CT, joined the crew of a merchant vessel, traveling to India and China on the East India trade routes while he was still a teenager and then commissioned a captain in the Connecticut Militia. In 1846, he took a clerk's job in a Wisconsin lumber business. Two years later, he bought the company, beginning a career that spanned five decades and three states. John raised the 26th Illinois Volunteer Infantry in 1861, became its colonel, and led the regiment in 57 skirmishes. His life after the Civil War was devoted to rebuilding his once successful Chicago-based business; he accomplished this with the great acumen that he also brought to community and veterans' associations. John helped to administer relief funds to victims of the 1871 Great Fire of Chicago and financially revived the Illinois National Guard.
In 1874, Colonel Loomis joined his three brothers and a sister to incorporate for the purpose of forming the "Loomis Institute", later to become the Loomis-Chaffee School, to help the education of boys and girls in Windsor, CT.
Colonel Loomis died on August 2, 1900. When his wife Mary died October 9, 1910, she left an endowment of $1,120,000 to the "Loomis Institute".
Photograph taken from THE LOOMIS FAMILY IN AMERICA page 318 and listed as No. 2537.
