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BIOGRAPHIES
 Source:
A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio
- Vol. II -
by G. Frederick Wright
1916
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Orville Root |
ORVILLE ROOT.
For more than half a century Orville Root has been
an active factor in the life of Lorain County, as a
farmer, county official, and banker. His
family were among the very old settlers in the
vicinity of Sheffield, and the ancestral line of the
Roots extends back through nearly three centuries of
American History.
The
original spelling of the name was Roote,
and John Roote, a son of
John Roote, of Badby, Northamptonshire,
England, came to America with a company of Puritans
and was one of the first settlers of Farmington,
Connecticut, in 1640. From the beginning he
was a prominent citizen of the town, and his will
indicates that he was a weaver by trade. One
of the old records states: "Both John
and his wife were in full communion with the
Farmington Congregational church." He died in
1684, leaving an estate of $4,095. In 1640
John Roote married Mary,
daughter of Thomas Kilbourne, of
Wood Ditton, England. With her parents she
came to America in the ship Increase in 1635, and
died in 1697. The successive generations down
to the present citizen of Lorain County may be
indicated briefly as follows: 1. John
and Mary (Kilbourne) Roote, of Farmington,
Connecticut; 2. Thomas and Mary (Gridley)
Roote, of Westfield, Massachusetts; 3.
Ensign Joseph and Sarah Root, of
Westfield, Massachusetts; 4. Colonel Aaron
and Jerusha (Steele) Root, of Sheffield,
Massachusetts; 5. Henry and Mary (Day) Root
of Sheffield, Ohio.
Mr. Orville Root was born at
Sheffield, Ohio, in 1837. His father
William Henry Root, was born at Sheffield,
Massachusetts, June 11, 1803, and was brought when
little more than a child to Northern Ohio. He
became a farmer, had only a common school education,
was a member of the Congregational Church, and voted
with the whig party until its dissolution and was
afterwards a republican. He served as county
auditor of Lorain County from 1854 until 1860.
His wife, Fanny Day Root, was born
April 3, 1805, at Sheffield, Massachusetts, and in
1816 with her father and mother, John and
Lydia (Austin) Day, came to Sheffield,
Ohio. Her ancestor, Robert Day,
came from Wales in 1634 on the bark
Elizabeth, first settling in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and afterwards in Hartford
Connecticut.
The early
life of Orville Roote was spent in
Lorain County during the '40s and '50s, in which
time he completed his education in the Elyria High
School. Farming was his regular vocation for
many years, and he was gradually acquired other
extensive interests, chiefly as a banker, in which
capacity his name is well known throughout the
county. From 1878 to 1888 he filled the office
of auditor of Lorain County, having gone into that
office less than twenty years after his father's
last service in the same position. He is a
republican in his political affiliations.
Mrs. Root is a member of the
Congregational Church of Lorain, Ohio.
On April 3, 1878, at Sheffield, Ohio, he married
Sarah Ann Howes, daughter of
William E. and Elizabeth Howes, of
Elyria, Ohio, but formerly from Northamptonshire,
England. Mr. and Mrs. Root
have two children, Frances Elizabeth,
born at Elyria, Oct. 27, 1880, a graduate of wells
College, and from the Western Reserve Library
School, married Mr. Albert K. Hibbard,
of Cleveland, Ohio. They have two children:
Robert Root Hibbard and
William Loomis Hibbard.
Harriet Maria Root, born at Elyria Aug. 27,
1885, is a graduate of Wellesley College.
Source: A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio
Vol. II - publ. 1916 - page 567 |
NOTES: |
