Elijah Root - History

From: History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers

Elijah Root was born in the town of Georgia, Vt., on the 2nd of May, 1807. …He was a very skillful mechanic, and inherited his taste for mechanical pursuits from a long line of ancestry. The subject of this sketch attended the common schools of his native town, but owing to the death of his father before he had reached his second birthday, he was obliged to think and act for himself at an early age. In pursuance of a time-honored custom in the family, he learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner. In February 1827, he aided in the construction of the steamer “Franklin” in St. Albans Bay, as a journeyman. Upon applying for this position he was asked to give a recommendation of his skill and fidelity from a previous employer. He had just been in the employment of a carpenter by the name of Seymour Eggleston, of Georgia, on a church in Keeseville, NY who gave the following letter: “ This may certifiy that the bearer, Elijah Root, has been employed by me the past summer as a journeyman carpenter and joiner; that I have had a fair opportunity to test his faithfulness and skill both in my presence and absence, and that notwithsatnding I have employed many excellent journeymen ,yet I can cheerfully say that I never employed one with whom I have been more perfectly satisfied than with him. In short, I consider his honesty, integrity, industry and ability umimpeachable, and I can cheerfully recommend him as a first-rate gentleman who may wish to employ one of his occupation. Georgia, February 24, 1827. Syemour Eggleston.”

With this flattering introduction, well-deserved, the youn man started out to make a place for himself among strangers, wiht a determination wich would falter at no obstacles, and would be only stimulated by difficulties. In the following fall he came to Shelburne Harbor in the employment of the old Steamboat Company, as a carepnter. The “Phoenix” was at that time undergoing extensive repairs. Mr. Root, with seventy-five other caprteners and oiners, was at work upon her. At this time occurred a circumstance which was undoubtedly the cause of a favorable turn in his business life. The overseers observed that when the bell rang for dinner and at close of day, all the other workmen dropped their tools and left as soon as possible, while he went carefully to the stoves, pushed away the shavings, and left the boat free from the dangers of fire. As a consequence of this he was placed in charge of the stoves on the boat. This was his first office of trust. When the “Phoenix” was completed he alone of the seventy-five workmen was retained for permanent service in the company.

In the spring and summer of 1828 he went out with t steamer “Pheonix, Cpatain Harrington, as carpenter and koiner, and in the season followng was employed in the same capacity and by the same company on board the “Congress” commanded by Captain Lathrop. His employers, observing his remarkable ingenuity and facility in engineering, requested him to “make friends with the engineer,” which he accordingly did, and with such success, that in three months he was deemed competenet to take the place of an unsatisfactory engineer upon the same steamer. From that time until the fall of 1832 he had charge of the engines on board the Congress and Phoenix succesively. On the 1st of September, 1832, in conseunce of overwork and exposure he was striken with an aggravated attack of typhus fever, from which he did not revoer until the opening of the next season, and was given light work, such as superintending the work of the engineers in the company’s line. In this department his duties gradually multiplied, and from that time until his resignation, a period extending over more than half a centry, he was practically chief engineer of the steamboat company and its successor, the Champlain Trasportation Company. During all this time his fidelity and ability were never called in question, but on the contrary repeatedly received the compiments of his employers. Every hoat in the service of the comapny was inspected each week by Mr. Root, and its engineer charged with the necessary instructions.

From 1838 to 1871 Mr. Root held the government office of inspector “of boilers and machinery of all vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam, under an act of Congress approved ont he 7th day of July, 1838.” He was re-appointed by George S. Boutwell, secretary of the treasury, under an act approved February 28, 1871, and hed the office until 1882, when he resigned on account of failing health.

He was in all the relations of his life a man of marked characteristics, such as accuracy, thoroughness, completeness, strict economy, and conscientousness. In his work. about the house, and in his moral and poitical opinions, everything was manifestly genuine and devoid of sham. …

When he first removed to Shelburne Mr. Root lived on the end of Shelburne Point. He came to the farm now occupied by his widow in 1848. Here, in less than two years after the time of his retirement from active business, on the 3d day of August 1883, Mr. Root passed away.

He was not a politician in any sense of the owrd, though as a citizen he always had a lively interest in current political affairs, upon which he entertained enlightened and decided opinions. From his position as a member of th eold WHig party, he naturally stepped into the ranks of its successor, the Republicah party, with which he was afterwards identified. He never held public office, excepting that of representative in the Legistlature from Shelburne for three years from about 1850. Heearly took an active interest in the affairs of the Methodist Episcopal Churck of his town, and was ever ready and willing to give it the benefit of his counsel and substantial assistance.