Orland S. Loomis, Progressive lawyer and state official, was born in Mauston, Wisconsin in 1893. While enrolled in the Mauston schools he worked as a newsboy, farm hand, and store clerk. After attending Ripon College he was graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in 1917, and set up practice in Mauston. Almost immediately he entered the army and spent eight months overseas in World War I.
Throughout his career, during which he served the state as assemblyman, senator, and attorney general, he maintained law partnerships in Mauston. In the twenties Loomis was city attorney for Mauston and was a special prosecuting attorney for Juneau County. In 1929 he was elected to the Assembly as a liberal Republican, and in the sessions of 1931 and 1933 served in the state Senate. He was a member of the judiciary committee and of the interim committee on the needs of education. In 1933 he presided over the Senate.
As a legislator Loomis made an impressive record. There is evidence that he was intelligent, earnest, and hard working; and was instrumental in securing laws aiding farmers, railroad laborers, veterans, and schools. He developed a special interest in the regulation of public utilities and in the municipal ownership of utilities, and made his most effective contribution in the utility field. As a practicing lawyer he represented many municipalities in cases involving public ownership.
In 1935, as a result of his legislative record relating to the Progressive power program for Wisconsin and his active opposition to private ownership of public utilities, Governor Philip La Follette named Loomis as the first state director of the Rural Electrification Administration. When he resigned in July 1936 to run for the office of attorney general, 41 farm electric cooperatives had been organized and 22,000 farmers had applied for electricity. He represented Wisconsin at the World Power Conference in 1936.
After being defeated in 1934 as a candidate for attorney general, Loomis was elected to this office in 1936, but he was again defeated in 1938. In 1940, as the Progressive candidate, he was defeated by the Republican, Julius P. Heil, in the race for governor by only 12,000 votes. Two years later he unseated Heil by 105,000 votes. Within a month of his election, and before taking office, Loomis became ill and died (December 7, 1942). Correspondence shows that during his last month he was most active in meeting with advisers for the purpose of budgeting and planning what he considered to be needed reforms in the state government.
In 1934 when the Progressive Republicans broke away from the Republican party to form the Progressive party, Loomis was a delegate to the convention at Fond du Lac. Later, as attorney general, he fought in behalf of Progressive legislation such as the state labor law, industrial codes, and the Wisconsin Development Authority. By 1940 Loomis had become the acknowledged leader of the Progressive Party and the party was rebuilt around his person. He was the only Progressive in 1942 to be elected to a state-wide office.
On graduation from law school Orland Loomis married a home economics teacher, Florence Ely, and they had three children. At the time of his death the oldest, Robert, was serving in the U.S. navy, John was a student at Ripon, and Laura Jean was in junior high school.
