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Loomis Grave Toppled
By Hank Hufnagel in the Clarion News
As my wife and I were walking past the cemetery the other evening, we were surprised to see that the gravestone of Capt. J. B. Loomis had been tumbled to the ground. It could be that this is part of some renovation of the monument, but we suspect that more likely it is the handiwork of some young warts on society. Whatever the cause, the sight of his toppled gravestone brought the man once again to mind:
John Loomis was Clarion's first stableman, opening his business in the early 1840s and prospering with the town. In his autobiography, John Campbell, a prominent attorney in those early years, recalls a bright, starlit night one February when he came over from Brookville with Loomis in his two-horse sleigh. They started after dark and by the time they got up the first long hill, the horses were as white as ganders with the frost. It was the coldest night he had ever traveled. When they got to Strattanville, the thermometer was twenty-seven degrees below zero. They made it to Clarion safe, both being well protected by warm clothing and buffalo robes, but from Campbell's eyes up to where his hat reached on his forehead, the skin was sore for days afterwards.
While in Clarion, Loomis married the former Rebecca Corse who was first to "minister to female fashionable wants as a milliner and mantua-maker, at the Forrest House." In other words, she was a maker of hats, dresses, and cloaks.
Loomis and his wife prospered and in 1845 purchased the Forest House. They added a third floor, renamed the place the Loomis House, and soon made a name for themselves among the traveling public.
Loomis also rose to prominence in the community, and in 1861 was vice-president of the Committee of Safety, an organization dedicated to helping enlist local men to fight in the Civil War. Loomis contributed more than mere words, however. By September of that year he had recruited a cavalry company, had been given the rank of captain and was leading his company south, first to Philadelphia and then on to fight in the battles of Deserted House, Bottom's Bridge, Jarrett's Depot, Stony Creek and Reams's Station.
It was prior to this last engagement that Sam Strattan noticed Captain Loomis had lost his hat and was wearing a white handkerchief around his head. Stratton went up to him and said, "Captain, I am a little superstitious and think that your head covering is a bad omen. And, besides that, it makes a very conspicuous target."
Loomis replied, in his quiet way, "Oh, I guess there is not much significance in your theory."
Yet, in one short hour, Strattan saw Loomis being taken to the rear, his body pierced by several bullets and the man quite dead. A Lt. McFadden buried him near Reams's Station in Virginia. It was June 29, 1864.
In the fall of 1865, shortly after Strattan had returned from the war, Mrs. Loomis asked him what he knew of the circumstances of her husband's death. She and McFadden shortly thereafter visited her husband's grave in Virginia and had the remains exhumed. They were found to be in a good state of preservation and he was easily recognizable. The body was brought back to Clarion, where, after appropriate ceremonies at the Loomis House, it was taken to the cemetery. The funeral procession was escorted by Guth's Brass Band, who played mournful dirges, and was made up of a very large group of citizens and comrades-in-arms. At the cemetery, the body of Capt. John B. Loomis was lowered to its final resting place with Masonic and military honors.
Loomis's wife and sons carried on the business, and today the Capt. Loomis Hotel still maintains traditions that the Loomis family started. The G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) post in Clarion was named the Capt. J. B. Loomis Post, #205 to honor the man.
That is what I know about the life of John B. Loomis. Does it not seem right that the American Legion, the VFW, the Loomis House, local government or the cemetery association should take immediate steps to restore and re-erect the gravestone of this worthy man?
Old News of Clarion County