Orvis Milton Bloom, one of the well known oil producers living at Independence, Kansas, has been closely identified with the oil districts of the southwest for over twenty years.
He was born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, February 9, 1873, a son of A. W. and Rebecca (MacCracken) Bloom. His mother is now living at Independence. Mr. Bloom was one of a large family of children, and his brother, C. L. Bloom, has been one of the most successful oil operators in the southwest.
When O. M. Bloom was five years of age his parents moved to Fulton County, Indiana, and he attended his first schools there. Later they located in Bollinger County in Southeastern Missouri, and he continued his education in the schools there, and after 1885 was a student in the public schools of Linn County, Kansas, where his parents located. He spent the first sixteen years of his life on his father’s farms.
In the fall of 1888 Mr. Bloom went west to California, and at Red Bluff became foreman on a ranch that was known as the Walsh Ranch. He remained there 2½ years, then spent one winter in running a traction engine, and continued farming on the coast until March 14, 1894.
At that date he returned to Miami County, Kansas, and has since been active in the oil fields. He has been through all the grades of service, beginning as tool dresser and rising to contractor. His work has taken him into the Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas fields, and he is a producer of both oil and gas.
Mr. Bloom and his family reside at 203 South Fifteenth Street in Independence, and he owns a house and lot at 613 North Tenth Street. Politically he is independent, and he served as deputy sheriff at Bonner Springs, Kansas, during two administrations, one a republican and the other democratic. He is affiliated with Bonner Springs Lodge No. 366, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, the Royal Arch Chapter at Kansas City and the Knights Templar Commandery in the same place, and is also a member of Kansas City Consistory of the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite. Mr. Bloom belongs to Independence Dodge No. 780 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and was formerly identified with Camp No. 649, Modern Woodmen of America.
On April 23, 1900, in Independence, he married Miss Catherine Early, a daughter of B. P. and Catherine Early, who now reside in Coffeyville, where her father is in business. Mr. and Mrs. Bloom have five children: Margaret, who died in infancy; Francis Milton, born August 9, 1909; Mary Elizabeth, born October 9, 1911; Bernard Leroy, born December 23, 1913; and John Edward, born December 26, 1915.