Background
Amos Ives Root was born on a farm near Medina, Ohio, the son of Samuel Homer and Louisa (Hart) Root and a descendant of John Roote who settled at Farmington, Connecticut, in 1640.
Apiarist entrepreneur inventor author
Amos Ives Root was born on a farm near Medina, Ohio, the son of Samuel Homer and Louisa (Hart) Root and a descendant of John Roote who settled at Farmington, Connecticut, in 1640.
His early days were spent on the farm and in the local schools, with two winter terms in an academy at Wellsville, Columbiana County. A nervous and sickly boy, he decided to follow some other occupation than farming.
He entered the employ of a local jeweler and at the age of twenty-one started a watch-repair shop of his own which soon expanded into a jewelry manufacturing business. One day in August 1865 a stray swarm of bees passing through the air attracted his attention, and from that time on he was a student and breeder of the bee. In 1869 he began the manufacture and sale of beekeepers' supplies, later abandoning his jewelry business, after seventeen years, to give his entire attention to the bee industry. He perhaps did more than any other man in America to commercialize beekeeping. By 1876 he had twenty men working on bees and bee supplies. Later the work of the A. I. Root Company required a force of a hundred or more employees. Root himself, primarily a business man, did very little scientific work, but he popularized the results of the scientific work of C. C. Miller and Lorenzo L. Langstroth , introducing the Langstroth method throughout the world. He built and perfected the first comb foundation machine and the first simple hive without porticos, and was the first to put out comb honey section boxes holding a pound of honey. In January 1873 he began the publication of a monthly periodical, Gleanings in Bee Culture, which he edited till 1890. From 1865 to 1887 he wrote profusely on the general subject of bees, ABC of Bee Culture (1877; subsequent revisions under slightly altered title) being perhaps his best-known book. In the late eighties his health broke down and he found it necessary to spend a large amount of time out of doors. He established a vegetable garden of about ten acres, experimented with new plants, and was one of those responsible for the introduction of the Grand Rapids lettuce. He was author or co-author of several books on such subjects as strawberry, potato, and tomato culture, and from his press at Medina issued other volumes on agricultural subjects, for some of which he supplied editorial additions. Ability to write, business tact, and above all a restless energy and intensity of spirit characterized him. Brought up in a God-fearing family, he drifted in his early manhood into the skepticism of Ingersoll and Tom Paine, but in the seventies was converted, returned to his Congregational allegiance, and almost immediately took up Sunday-school work. In 1875, he started the "Our Home" page in Gleanings in Bee Culture, in response to his burning desire to help human beings live better and happier lives. He was one of the founders of the Anti-Saloon League. To foreign missionaries he sent Gleanings in Bee Culture free of charge. For a long time he offered to send a bee smoker to any reader who would quit the use of tobacco. In 1909 he began a crusade in his paper against whiskey advertisements in newspapers. During much of his early life he was in poor health, but about 1895, having established a successful business, he began to allow himself more leisure and thus regained his health and with it the quiet spirit which marked his later life.
A nervous and sickly boy, he decided to follow some other occupation than farming. During much of his early life he was in poor health, but about 1895, having established a successful business, he began to allow himself more leisure and thus regained his health and with it the quiet spirit which marked his later life.
He married Susan Hall on September 30, 1861, and for many years his son was associated with him in business.