LOOMIS FAMILIES OF AMERICA

www.loomis-family.org

DR. ELISHA SCOTT LOOMIS 

The Compiler of the 1908 Edition of 

"The Loomis Family In America"

Elisha Scott Loomis (7800) was the first child born to Charles Wilson and Sarah (Oberholtzer) Loomis. He is best known to many of the Loomis family as the cousin who was asked by the Loomis Family Association to take over after the death of Dr. Elias Loomis, as the family genealogist and archivist. In this capacity he continued the work of Dr. Elias (The Loomis Family in America, 1870 & 1875), researching and updating the Loomis genealogy. In 1908 he successfully completed the updated volume which was subsequently published.

We re-publish below his obituary which he, himself wrote, prior to his death and as it was published in the Berea Enterprise.

Obituary of Elisha S. Loomis, Written By Himself 

 (Editor's note: It was consistent with his orderly life and mind that Dr. E. S. Loomis should take all preparations against the day of his passing - to paraphrase Shakespeare, nothing in his life was more typical than the leaving  of a letter addressed "For the Berea Enterprise immediately following my death" contained his obituary by himself, the only facts not supplied was his age and the date of death for which he left blank. The only alterations required in this remarkable document were changes in address of surviving relatives since the date of writing, Feb. 6, 1934.)

E. S. LOOMIS, (88), LIFE-LONG EDUCATOR, DIES

On (Dec. 11, 1940), at his home, Dr. Elisha S. Loomis, for 38 years a citizen of Berea, came to man's mortal hour.

He was born in 1852, in Wadsworth Twp., Medina County, Ohio, son of Charles W. Loomis, who was of the seventh generation from the pioneer Joseph Loomis of Windsor, Conn., and Sarah Oberholtzer, dau. of Jacob Oberholtzer, fifth in descent from the pioneer Jacob Oberholtzer, of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

At the age of 12 he was left fatherless, the eldest of 8 children, a long-cabin boy, near Nashville, Ohio. From the age of 13, he worked for seven summers, by the month, on farms, attending country district schools during four months each winter, yet managed to learn enough to become a teacher in 1873, teaching that spring 54 days for $50.00. In September, 1873, he attended Baldwin University, at Berea, Ohio, thus earning money to help support his widowed mother and continue his education.

While teaching he continued to study and investigate, for which he was recognized as follows, receiving the following authorizations:

From Baldwin University, June 1880, upon graduation, the degree of B.S.; 1886, A.M.; from Wooster University, Wooster, O., 1888, Ph.D.; from the Cleveland Law School, 1900, LL.B.; and he was admitted to the State Bar, June, 1900.

After graduation, 1880, he served as principal, for one year, of the Burbank Academy, Burbank, O., then for four years as principal of the Richfield Township High School, in Summit County, O.; when in 1885, he was called by his alma mater to the chair of mathematics in Baldwin University (now Baldwin-Wallace College) to succeed the distinguished Dr. Aaron Schuyler; in 1895, he was appointed head of the Mathematics Department, West High School, Cleveland, O., which position he continued to fill for 29 years, until retired by the Ohio Teacher' Retirement Law, June 1923. In his 50 years as a teacher he plowed habit-formation grooves in the plastic brains of over 4000 boys and girls  and young men and women.

With action he combined thinking, for he is the author of: (His Ph.D. thesis), "Theism the Result of Completed Investigation"; "The Teaching of Mathematics in High Schools"; "How to Attack an Original in Geometry"; "The Pythagorean Theorem"; - with 344 proofs, a book of 215 pp.; "The Loomis Family in America" - -a genealogy of 859 pp.; "The Genealogy of Jacob Oberholtzer (a. 1680-1756) and His Descendants"' 412 pages.

Also he has in manuscript, ready for publication, the following; "Recollections and Reflections of a Log-Cabin Boy" (he lived as a boy and youth in 10 different log cabins - the ms. will make a printed book of 300 pages); "This and That, from 50 Years of Experience as a Teacher," 250 pp.; "Some Ancestral Lines of My Granddaughter," 140 ancestors, 350 pages; a biography of Dr. Aaron Schuyler (1828-1913); and a hundred or more articles on educational, pedagogical, mathematical and genealogical subjects.

He holds that true teaching, worth-while education and right living consist in such ethical and moral habit formation as will control the social activities of the individual throughout life; that service and not profits should guide one's action.

Of himself he penned these ones:

 Of all honors conferred upon him he prized the title of "Teacher" more than any other, either educational, social or secret.

Surviving him are his son, Mr. Elatus G. Loomis of Cleveland, O.; his dau., (Icona) Mrs. R. L. Lechner of Buenos Aires, Argentina, S. A.; and one brother, M. S. Loomis, of Berea, O.; also three grandchildren.

Funeral services were held at his late residence and a private placement marked the last rites at Woodvale Cemetery near Berea, O. 

Finis.

          Copyright 2010 * The Loomis Families of America *