lawyer, educator, politician, b. Canaan, Columbia County, N.Y. He graduated from Williams College (1821), studied law, and was admitted to the bar (1824). In 1845 he moved to Wisconsin, settling in Prairieville (now Waukesha), where for a time he was principal of Prairieville Academy. In 1846 he was instrumental in founding Carroll College in Waukesha (an outgrowth of Prairieville Academy), and was professor of rhetoric and languages there (1846-1848). A Whig, he was a member of the second state constitutional convention (1847-1848), where he served on the committee on education and school funds and was instrumental in writing the state constitutional articles on education. In 1848 he was elected first state superintendent of public instruction and served in this capacity from Jan., 1849, to Jan., 1852. Root was also instrumental in organizing the Univ. of Wisconsin, was a member of the first board of regents, and persuaded John W. Sterling (q.v.) to leave Carroll College to begin the first classes at the university. He was state assemblyman (1852), and in 1853 moved to St. Augustine, Fla., where he served as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church until his death. Wis. Mag. Hist., 29; M. M. Quaife, Attainment of Statehood [Madison, 1928]; Madison Wis. State Journal, Aug. 3, 1887.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]