C. E. Losee
C. E. Losee, one of Lima's well-known, substantial and representative citizen, who is identified with a number of local enterprises, has been a capable locomotive engineer for the past 29 years, since 1881 having had the passenger run between Lima and Tipton, Indiana. Mr. Losee was born at Saratoga Springs, New York, April 18, 1851, and is a son of Thomas V. Losee.
Thomas V. Losee has also been a railroad man nearly all his life, but now lives in retirement at Lima, aged 80 years. He was a master mechanic in the Pennsylvania Railroad shops at Indianapolis for a number of years, for three years was a master mechanic with the Indianapolis Bloomington & Western Railroad, and for nine years general foreman of the shops of the Lake Erie & Western Railroad at Lima. He married Helen L. Lyons and they had four children, the two survivors being ; C E., of this sketch, and Mary, wife of Charles Wolf, of Lima.
When C. E. Losee was two years of age, his parents located at Dayton, Ohio, moving two years later to Indianapolis, where he lived until he was 20 years old. From the age of 15 years he has been engaged in railroad work, beginning as a fireman on an engine of the present Pennsylvania system and working in this capacity for three years. He was then employed in the office of the road for two years, when he became an engineer on what is now the " Big Four" Railroad, running an engine from March, 1872, until March, 1880. Later he became connected with the Lake Erie & Western road, and then located at Lima, which has since been his place of residence.
In October, 1883, Mr. Losee was married to Bertha Romer, a daughter of the late Joseph Romer, who was born in Germany and came to Lima, in 1866, where he worked at his trade of shoemaker. Four of his nine children still survive, namely: Anna, wife of Henry Frueh, of the Lima Brewery; Emma, wife of J. L. O'Connor, of Lima; W. J., a merchant tailor, of St. Louis, Missouri; and Mrs. Losee. Mr. and Mrs. Losee have two children, Florence and Marie, the former at home, the latter attending school in Toledo. Mrs. Losee is a member of St. Rose Catholic Church.
Fraternally Mr. Losee is a Knight Templar. He is interested in a number of successful business enterprises of the city, being on the board of directors of The Metropolitan Bank of Lima and The Crystal Ice & Coal Company, and is a stockholder in the home telephone company