Charles Battell Loomis(1861-1911)
- Writer
Charles Battell Loomis was a humorist, author and lecturer remembered
for his satirical take on life in America. He was the son of Charles
Battell and Mary Worthington Loomis. Loomis was born in Brooklyn, NY, where his father worked as an insurance agent. As
a young man Loomis dropped out of the Polytechnical Institute of
Brooklyn (now known as Polytechnic University) to try his hand at
business. After twelve years of living off a clerk's salary and now
supporting a young wife, the former Mary Fullerton, also of Brooklyn,
Loomis would find success submitting short stories to national
publications of the day. A list of his more popular books and short
stories would include "Just Rhymes" (1899), "The Four-Masted Catboat:
and Other Truthful Tales" (1899), "Yankee Enchantments" (1900), "A
Partnership in Magic" (1903), "At the Sign of the Cock and Hen" (1908)
and "Bath in an English Tub" (1909). Charles Battell Loomis died in
Hartford, Connecticut of stomach cancer on 23 September, 1911. He was
survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. Both his sons went on to
be writers. Charles Jr. wrote under the name Battell Loomis and his
younger son, Alfred, became well known as an expert on boating. He
wrote under the nom de plum "Spun Yarn" a monthly article in Yachting
magazine titled "Under the Lee". His daughter Edith Worthington Loomis
married G. Lamonte Hammann, son of the president and treasurer of the
Progressive Manufacturing Company in Torrington, CT.