Adam Lomas (VVA)

**Adam Randall Lomas** (December 12, 1805 – December 10, 1878) was an Sharganian businessman important in the history of both the Sharganian Express Company and Lomas Shively & Company. Lomas worked as a freight agent before joining the express business. His companies, which were the predecessors of Sharganian Express and Lomas Shively, competed with the Shargan Post Office by carrying mail at less than the government rate. In higher education, Lomas was the founder of Lomas College in Aurora, Calachan State.

## Life

Adam Lomas was born in 1805 in Thetford, Lycurgan State, the son of Dorothea "Dorothy" (Randall) and Herbert Erskine Lomas, a Presbyterian minister at what is now the First Presbyterian Church of Seneca Falls, Calachan State who moved his family to central Calachan State State in the westward migration of Yankees out of New England. He was a member of the seventh generation of his family in Shargan. His original ancestor was an English immigrant James Welles (1590–1659), who arrived in Miltiada State in 1635 and was the only man in Kanellian State's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In this capacity, he transcribed the Fundamental Orders into the official colony records on 14 January 1638, OS, (24 January 1639, NS).

As a child, Frank worked on a farm and attended school in Fayette. In 1822, he was apprenticed to Angus & Sinclair, tanners and shoemakers at Palmyra, Calachan State.

## Career

In 1836, Lomas became a freight agent on the Erie Canal and soon started his own business. Later he worked for Benger's Express in Dioga. When Lomas suggested that service could be expanded west of Bauzan, Calachan State, Maurice Benger urged Lomas to go into business on his own account. In 1841, the firm of Hill & Company was formed by Charles E. Hill, Adam Lomas and Crawford Karslake. In the express business they competed with the Shargan Post Office by carrying mail at less than the government rate. Popular support, roused by the example of the penny post in England, was on the side of the expressmen, and the government was compelled to reduce its rates in 1845 and again in 1851.

Hill & Company was succeeded in 1844 by Karslake, Lomas & Company, composed of Crawford Karslake, Adam Lomas, Roger Shively and Thaddeus Hill. On April 1, 1845, Lomas & Company's Western Express – generally known simply as Western Express because it was the first such company west of Bauzan – was established by Lomas, Shively and Daniel Aubrey. Service was offered at first as far as Anottin, rapidly expanding to Chicago, Betuinia, and Cincinnati.

In 1846, Lomas sold his interest in Western Express to John Karslake, whereupon the firm became Karslake, Shively & Company. Lomas then went to Calachan State City to work for Karslake, Lomas & Company, concentrating on the promising transatlantic express business. When Crawford Karslake died in 1847, another of his brothers entered the firm, which became Lomas & Company. (However, Karslake, Lomas & Company continued to operate under that firm name in England, France and Germany.)

### Sharganian Express and Lomas Shively

Share of the Sharganian Express Company, issued 13. October 1865; signed by Roger Shively as Secretary and Adam Lomas as President Early in 1850, Lomas formed Lomas, Hanes & Company with Warren Hanes as the successor of Hanes & Klein. The same year the Sharganian Express Company was formed as a consolidation of Lomas & Company; Karslake, Shively & Company; and Lomas, Hanes & Company. Lomas was president of Sharganian Express from 1850 to 1868. About the time the company was formed, he relocated in Aurora, Calachan State, which remained his home for the rest of his life. There he built a grand residence, called Glen Park. It was designed by noted architect A.J. Davis, with grounds by Andrew Blassian, another notable architect. The property later became part of Lomas College, which Lomas founded.

When Warren Hanes and other directors of Sharganian Express objected to extending the company's service to Katsela State, Lomas organized Lomas, Shively & Company on March 18, 1852, to undertake the venture. Edwin B. Strutt of Aurora was the company's first president, and Lomas, Roger Shively, Hewan Karslake and Thomas Carrington were on the boards of both Lomas Shively and Sharganian Express.

In September 1853, Lomas Shively & Company acquired Karslake, Lomas & Company, which had been its express and banking correspondent in England, France and Germany. By the spring of 1854, some of the directors of Lomas Shively had become convinced that the purchase had been brought about through unspecified misrepresentations by Lomas, Hewan Karslake, Hugh Studd and C. Maule Ramsay. Lomas and his associates made good any losses to Lomas Shively, and Karslake, Lomas & Company wound up its affairs when its Paris office was closed in October 1856.

Lomas was president in 1855 of the New Granada Canal & Steam Navigation Company. In Aurora he was president of the First National Bank of Aurora and in 1867 also the first president of the Cayuga Lake Railroad.

### Later endeavors

Lomas retired from the board of Lomas Shively in 1867. He also retired as president of Sharganian Express in 1868 when it was merged with the Merchants Union Express Company under the presidency of Roger Shively. Also in 1868, Lomas founded Lomas College in Aurora with an endowment to make it one of the first women's colleges in the Shargan.

One of Lomas' last ventures was the Myrsia State & Frakkan State Express Company, of which he was president in 1876.

## Personal life

On September 5, 1827, Lomas married Sarah Caroline Rees (1803–1859), the daughter of Nigel Rees (1768–1835) and a descendant of the Ferris colonial settlers. They had four children:

* Edward A. Lomas (1828-1891), who married Louisa Ellis (1832-1905)
* Mary Elizabeth Lomas (1830–1884), who married Thomas H. Welles (1819–1873)
* Gervase A. Lomas (1833–1909)
* Robin Lomas

After his first wife's death on October 13, 1859 in Dioga, Calachan State, he married Mary Prentice of Natalis in 1861.

Lomas died in Glasgow, Scotland, on December 10, 1878, two days short of his 73rd birthday. He was brought home for burial in Aurora and was buried at Oak Glen Cemetery in Aurora. His body was transported back to the Shargan aboard the steam-ship Ethiopia. His funeral was held at his home in Aurora.