Francis Butler Loomis (July 27, 1861 – August 4, 1948) served as the

United States Ambassador to Venezuela The following is a list of United States ambassadors, or other chiefs of mission, to Venezuela. The title given by the United States State Department to this position is currently ''Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.'' The a ...

from 1897 to 1901 and the

United States Ambassador to Portugal Bilateral diplomatic relations between the United States and Portugal date from the earliest years of the United States. Following the Revolutionary War, Portugal was the first neutral country to recognize the United States. On February 21, 1791 ...

from 1901 to 1902. He was the United States Assistant Secretary of State from 1903 to 1905 when he was appointed as the acting United States Secretary of State. His son was Major general

Francis B. Loomis Jr. Francis Butler Loomis Jr. (June 21, 1903 – December 31, 1989) was a decorated officer of the United States Marine Corps, who reached the rank of major general. He is most noted as executive officer of the 1st Defense Battalion during the ...

Biography

He was born on July 27, 1861. He began his career as a newspaperman in his hometown of Marietta, Ohio, editing the ''Marietta Leader'' while a student at Marietta College. A year following his graduation in 1883, Loomis became a reporter for the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

'' and later assumed a campaign press relations position. He returned to Ohio to serve as state librarian for two years (from 1885 to 1887). It was during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison that Loomis first entered government service as consul at

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

, and at

Grenoble, France lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

, until 1893. For the next three years from 1893 to 1896, Loomis returned briefly to journalism as editor of the '' Cincinnati Daily Tribune''. President William McKinley appointed him Ambassador to Venezuela in 1897 and to Portugal in 1901. A year later, he was recalled to Washington, DC, and was appointed Assistant Secretary of State. On the death of Secretary

John Hay John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was Un ...

, he served as acting Secretary of State briefly in 1905. During his State Department tenure, he became associated with the reorganization of the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

, serving as a charter member. His commissions included final negotiations which resulted in the acquisition of the

Panama Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...

, service as special ambassador to France to receive the body of John Paul Jones and Special Envoy Extraordinary to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, arranging the visit of the U.S. fleet to that country in 1908. Shortly before World War I Loomis returned to private business as foreign trade adviser to the

Standard Oil Company Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

serving until retirement. He died on August 4, 1948, in the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

area in California.

External links

Biography at Marietta CollegeGuide to the Francis Butler Loomis Papers: microfilm, 1897–1939
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loomis, Francis B. 1861 births 1948 deaths 19th-century American diplomats 20th-century American diplomats Politicians from Marietta, Ohio United States Assistant Secretaries of State Ambassadors of the United States to Venezuela American newspaper editors American male journalists American newspaper reporters and correspondents New-York Tribune personnel Ambassadors of the United States to Portugal Journalists from Ohio Acting United States Secretaries of State