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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
Francis Hanmer Loring, engaged in the real-estate and abstract business in Oskaloosa, is a representative citizen and a veteran of the Civil war, whose life record has at all times been characterized by high ideals and manly principles. He was born in Centre Belpre, Washington county, Ohio, July 9, 1832. His father, Oliver Rice, also a native of Centre Belpre, was born January 20, 1790. The grandfather, Daniel Loring, removed from Sudbury, Massachusetts, to Marietta, Ohio, where he arrived on the 1st of January, 1789, with the second party that followed the advent of General William Putnam, who opened the northwest territory, penetrating into that region in the preceding year. Daniel Loring settled at Centre Belpre, where he secured land by allotment, after which he gave his attention to general farming. He was also justice of the peace, a position of considerable honor and prominence in those days. The farm which he developed was the birthplace and home of his son Oliver and it was there that Daniel Loring died in 1823. He was a revolutionary soldier and a pensioner of the war. Oliver Rice Loring, father of our subject, was a farmer by occupation. Under the old system of judicial procedure in Ohio he sat on the common pleas bench for fifteen years. In connection with five others he organized the First Universalist church at Centre Belpre, this being the first organization of that denomination west of the Alleghany mountains. He was a stanch supporter of the church, ever active in its work and doing all in his power to promote the moral development of his community. He enlisted for service in the war of 1812, but was in no active battles. His political support was given to the whig party and he strongly endorsed the principles advocated by Henry Clay, Distinctively a man of affairs, he wielded a wide influence in the community where he resided and his support was given to every movement for the general good. He did everything in his power to advance intellectual and moral improvement and to uphold the legal and political status of his community and his effort were of direct and permanent benefit. He married Miss Frances Howe and unto them were born three children: Daniel Warren, who was born in 1821 and died in 1898; Lucy R.; and Jesse D. Daniel W., born in Belpre, came to Iowa in 1851 and in March, 1853, wedded Mary K. Soule, of Marietta, Ohio. In the same year they came to Oskaloosa, where Dan- iel W. Loring followed merchandising until his death. All of his children are now deceased with the exception of one son, Frank, who is a merchant at Sac City, Iowa. The daughter became the wife of Rev. Martin L. Edwards, a Universalist minister. They lived at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where her death occurred in 1870, when she was forty-six years of age. Jesse D. Loring was born in 1826, became a resident of Oskaloosa in 1853, followed mer- chandising here and died in 1871. After losing his first wife Oliver R. Loring married Miss Orinda Howe, a very distant relative of his first wife. She was born in Poultney, Ver- mont, January 20, 1799, and died in April, 1889, at the very advanced age of ninety years. Oliver Rice Loring, her husband, died in the year 1873, at the age of eighty-four years. She was a daughter of Peter Howe, who re- moved to Washington county, Ohio, in 1803 and settled on the Muskingum river at Rain- bow, four miles above Marietta. He, too, served with the patriot army in the Revolution- ary war. He was a member of the celebrated Howe family which numbered many loyalists or tories and also many distinguished patriots. Peter Howe was a farmer and he reared a large family, including Mrs. Orinda Loring. The daughter was a member of the Universalist church and a most estimable lady. By her mar- riage she became the mother of nine children, of whom five died in childhood. The others are: Francis H., of this review; Delia M., the wife of Edward Morris, a minister of the Uni- versalist church living on the old homestead at Centre Belpre, Ohio; Eletha, who became the wife of Augustus W. Ford, who removed to Logan county, Iowa, in 1863, and there fol- lowed banking, his wife dying a short time after their arrival in this state; and Corwin, who joined the Forty-seventh Iowa Infantry during the Civil war, becoming a member of Company C at Oskaloosa in 1864. He died in the service of camp fever at Helena, Arkansas, when twenty-three years of age. Francis H. Loring pursued his education in the common schools of Belpre, Ohio, and in the Liberal Institute at Marietta, Ohio. He taught school for five terms and remained upon the old home farm, assisting in its cultivation and development, until the 26th of July, 1862, when he also responded to the call for aid, en- listing at Belpre, Ohio, as a member of Com- pany G, Ninety-second Ohio Volunteer Infan- try. He was mustered out at Camp Chase, Co- lumbus, Ohio, June 25, 1865, after nearly three years of active field service. He was first with the Army of West Virginia, but during most of the time was with the Army of the Cumber- land and he participated in the engagements of Resaca, Dalton, Kenesaw Mountain and At- lanta, and was with Sherman on the famous march to the sea. The last battle of importance in which he participated was at Bentonville, North Carolina. He was very fortunate in that he was never wounded nor captured nor was he reported off duty during a single day of his three years service. Soon after entering the army he was commissioned captain of his company and during the last year of the service was on detached duty, being in command of a battalion of four companies in the Eleventh Ohio Infantry. He received his commission as major by brevet after the close of the war. When the country no longer needed his serv- ices Major Loring returned to his old home in Ohio and in August, 1865. came to Iowa, set- tling in Oskaloosa, where he embarked in mer- chandising, in which he continued until 1885. He then engaged in the life insurance business until 1898 and during that time made his resi- dence in Waterloo for four years. Returning to Oskaloosa, the Cowan, Hambleton & Loring Company, abstract and real-estate dealers, was organized, and Mr. Loring has since been one of the partners. They have a large clientage and their business has assumed extensive and profitable proportions. On the 24th of January, 1863, Mr. Loring was married to Miss Delia N. Armstrong, who was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, in 1839, but at the time of her marriage was living in Belpre, Ohio. She was a daughter of James Armstrong, a railroad contractor and a pioneer of Columbiana. who was also a steamboat oper- ator. For about thirty years Major and Mrs. Loring traveled life's journey together and were then separated by the death of the wife on the 31st of August, 1893. Five children had been born unto them: Elizabeth M., who died in 1896, at the age of thirty years; Charles M., who was born in 1869 and is assistant treasurer of the J. I. Case Plow Company at Racine, Wisconsin; Caroline A., living in Dallas, Tex- as; Mabel H., the wife of Archibald S. Powell, a route agent for the Wells-Fargo Express Company, stationed at Colorado Springs, Colo- rado, by whom she has one child, Francis L., now four years of age; and James Warren, dispatcher in the office of the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Interurban Railroad, in Cedar Rap- ids, Iowa. Mrs. Loring was a member of the Congregational church and was a most estima- ble lady, devoted to her family and her friends, so that her death was the occasion of deep and wide-spread regret. Mr. Loring is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity and belongs to Phil Kearney post, No. 40, G. A. R., of Oskaloosa, of which he was one of the first commanders. He has been grand treasurer of the grand lodge of Masons, grand high priest of the grand chapter, R. A. M., and was grand commander of the Knights Templar of Iowa. His position in the Masonic circles in the state is thus indicated, for he has been honored with high and important offices. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, but he is without aspiration for of- fice. In no duty of citizenship, however, is he remiss, for he has a public-spirited interest in the general welfare and does all in his power as a private citizen for the welfare of his county, state and nation.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy