556 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



spend a good deal of time traveling over 

 it, before you have any fair conception 

 of it. Of course v^rhen I say Medina, 

 every bee-keeper knows I am talking 

 about the establishment of A. I. Root. 

 Just how much money is involved in the 

 concern, I don't know, but I suppose I 

 might have known if I had asked, for 

 friend Root never seems to have any 

 secrets, but I know that some years ago 

 $100,000 were in it, and I suppose it 

 has been growing ever since. 



Perhaps I would better say before 

 going any further, that this is meant to 

 be a biographical sketch of Amos Ives 

 Root, but in dealing with such an erratic 

 customer, I can't be expected to follow 

 any of the biographical rules, but will 

 say some things about him with no 

 special thought of close connection, only 

 trying to tell what I think I would be 

 interested in hearing if I had not before 

 heard it. At different times I have spent 

 quite a number of days at Medina, and 

 I believe I know Mr. Root fairly well. 



But I'll try to follow ordinary custom 

 long enough to tell some of the things 

 that I could not learn by personal obser- 

 vation, and if you want to know just 

 how much of what I say is original, and 

 how much is stolen, you can refer to 

 page 956 of Gleanings for 1888, where 

 a sketch written by Ernest is to be 

 found. Of course you know that Ernest 

 is the oldest son — but there, I'm all out 

 again, for I ought first to tell about A. I. 

 himself. 



Well, he was born " in a log house 

 about two miles north of his present 

 business," and that's as near to the date 

 of his birth as I can get from the afore- 

 mentioned sketch, but I think it was 

 about '38 or '40. He was a frail child, 

 and his father had little hopes of raising 

 him, although the neighbors assured 

 him his wife would not let him die. 

 Among his early hobbies were poultry, 

 windmills, clocks, electricity, chemistry, 

 etc. He did not take kindly to feeding 

 pigs, or, for that matter, general farm 

 work, although he took particular de- 

 light in gardening. One of the jobs he 

 disliked was churning. So, to cater to 

 his mechanical turn, and at the same 

 time get out of a disagreeable task, he 

 rigged a windmill, and let the wind 

 bring the butter. 



At the age of 18, a craze for chemis- 

 try and electricity led him to make a 

 lecturing tour, in which he gained no 

 great amount of wealth, but did gain 

 that which was afterward of greater 

 value to him — a knowledge of human 

 nature. A further addition to this stock 

 of knowledge was gained by his experi- 



ence as "schoolmaster" in a tough 

 country school, where for some time the 

 larger boys had made good their threat 

 that they would " lick and put out " any 

 teacher the directors might select. But 

 this time the slender young man, Root, 

 by virtue of a wise use of what physical 

 strength he had, and a still wiser course 

 as a tactician, "licked," and made 

 friends of the bullies. 



His next hobby was clock-work and 

 jewelry, and without capital, he literally 

 worked himself into a business so large 

 that the firm of A. I. Root & Co. em- 

 ployed over a dozen men and girls in the 

 manufacture of gold and silver rings, 

 chains, etc., from -^200 to $500 in coin 

 being weekly used up in this way. 



In 1861 he was married to Miss Susan 

 Hall, and io his wife he very justly at- 

 tributes much of his success in life. 

 Quiet and unassuming, keeping herself 

 always in the background, none the less 

 she is a real power, and a power always 

 for good. There are five children in the 

 family. Ernest is now nearly 31, then 

 comes Maud (Mrs. J. T. Calvert), then 

 the two girls, Constance and Caddie, 

 then the youngest son, Huber. 



In 1865, the capture of a runaway 

 swarm of bees started Mr. Root into bee- 

 keeping. Being one of the intense sort, 

 he went into bee-keeping with all his 

 might. Not long after this, I made my 

 first visit to Medina, having learned 

 about Mr. Root in some way through 

 the American Bee Journal,, to which 

 he contributed some unique, practical 

 and very readable articles over the nom- 

 de-pluine "Novice." A short time be- 

 fore a fire had destroyed his store, his 

 jewelry business was crowded into his 

 house, and another visitor there at the 

 time, made beds rather scarce, so I slept 

 that night with Mr. Root. While get- 

 ting ready for bed he talked about the 

 possibilities of a sugar-bush in connec- 

 tion with an apiary. After we got in 

 bed the subject was continued, and we 

 talked about it, at least he did, until 

 it was pretty late, and when I went to 

 sleep he was talking about a plan to 

 have a bee-hive under each maple-tree, 

 with a spout of some kind to let the sap 

 run directly into the hive so the bees 

 needn't fly at all. 



That settled me in my opinion of him 

 in one respect, and I've never seen oc- 

 casion to change my opinion. He's a 

 hobbyist — one of the hobbyest of hobby- 

 ists. 



The next morning he showed me his 

 bees, and I showed him how to smoke 

 bees by blowing with my mouth on a 

 burning brand. Smokers were then un- 



