My Genealogy Hound

JAMES H. LOONEY, Sr., familiarly known as “Judge” Looney, is one of the oldest insurance men of the state, and is very popular wherever known. He also holds the office of Insurance Inspector, and has charge of the counties of Pettis and Benton, and parts of Saline and Moniteau. His business transactions have brought him in contact with a great number of people, and his energy and integrity have made him very popular as a servant of the public.

Our subject’s native state was Tennessee, for his birth occurred near Rogersville, April 6, 1828. The Looneys were of Scotch-Irish descent, and were among the pioneer settlers of Virginia. Grandfather Michael Looney was born in that state, and for the greater part of his life was engaged in tilling the soil. His youngest son. Judge John Looney, was the father of our subject, and was born after the removal of the family to Tennessee. He was also a farmer and cultivated a part of the old homestead, which consisted of fourteen hundred acres, and which he divided among his children. His birth occurred in the year 1789, and he lived a long and useful life, dying in 1881, at the age of ninety-two years. He was a member of the County Court for over forty years. In politics he was a Whig, and religiously was a member of the Baptist Church. A very prominent and popular man, it is said he died not having an enemy in the world.

Before her marriage, our subject’s mother was known as Elizabeth Johnson, and her birth occurred in the same locality as did that of her husband. Her father, James Johnson, was born in Virginia, and being one of its early settlers, aided in developing its agricultural resources. He died at the advanced age of ninety-five years, and his daughter’s death occurred in her ninety-first year. She was the mother of nine children, all of whom grew to mature years, and seven of whom still survive, our subject being the third eldest.

J. H. Looney grew to manhood on his father’s farm, receiving but poor advantages in an educational line, but he made the most of his limited opportunities. Remaining at home until twenty years of age, he managed to save some of his earnings, and thus was enabled to enter Washington College, of Washington County, Tenn. There he pursued his studies for one year, when he returned to the farm. In 1854 he emigrated to Pope County, Mo., and then spent some time in traveling, during his trip covering the greater part of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. He finally located near Bolivar, where he taught school, and later clerked four years.

At the close of his clerkship, our subject embarked in merchandising, in which he continued with great success until the breaking out of the war, when he was obliged to discontinue the business. He farmed for two years, and then, in 1862, volunteered, enlisting in Company G, Seventh Missouri Infantry, and was mustered in at Bolivar as a private. He served for two years, skirmishing along the frontier in Missouri and Arkansas. At the end of his term of service, he organized another regiment, known as Colonel Mitchell’s Regiment, in which he served as Quartermaster. With his regiment, he helped to drive Price out of the state, and was afterward stationed at Springfield, where he remained four months and where he was mustered out of the service.

Locating in Sedalia in the spring of 1865, Mr. Looney clerked in this place for several years and then opened a grocery store on east Main Street, continuing in that business until 1873. During that year he sold out, and became an agent for eastern capitalists in making contract loans. He made loans of over $200,000 in this and adjoining counties, and gradually worked into the insurance and real-estate business. In 1885 he became Insurance Inspector, and has held the position ever since. He owns a farm of twenty-five acres adjoining the city on the east, but makes his home in the city. He is President of the Dempsey Machine Company, of which organization he was a charter member.

Miss Ianthe McLean became the wife of our subject, the marriage ceremony being performed September 1, 1859, at Bolivar, Mo. She was a native of Tennessee, but spent her girlhood years in Bentonville, Ark. To this union there were born six children, five of whom are living. P. J. is engaged in the livery business. Belle, Mrs. Owens, is living at home, as is also Mamie, the next in order of birth. James H. is a clerk in the depot of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, and Mack is a clerk in a real-estate and abstract office in Sedalia. Ralph died at the age of twenty years. Judge Looney has filled many public offices, and has ever won the hearty commendation of the public in his disposition of affairs. He was City Assessor for two years, receiving his appointment from Mayor Stevens, and was chosen City Collector by G. L. Faulhaber, holding the position one year. He is a member of the Christian Church, having united with that body in 1859, and has been a Deacon in the congregation for twenty-five years. Socially he is identified with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and politically is a Democrat.