Frank Albert Root

Background

Frank Albert Root was born on 3 July 1837 in Binghamton, New York, the son of Albert Berthoud and Marinda (Boyden) Root.

Career

He served an apprenticeship in a printer's shop at Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, and in 1853 set out as a journeyman.

Four years later, April 21, 1857, he arrived in Kansas Territory, with which region he was thereafter chiefly identified. Between 1857 and 1861 he worked successively on the Herald of Freedom (Lawrence), the Chindowan (Quindaro), the Weekly Highlander (Highland), and the Champion (Atchison). Between 1861 and 1863 he was assistant postmaster at Atchison, then became express messenger and later local mail agent at Latham Station, Colorado Territory, and after that, mail agent on the Denver division of the Overland Stage Line.

He was associated with F. G. Adams in publishing the Free Press (Atchison), 1865-1868, and after the Free Press was consolidated with the Champion, was associated with John A. Martin until 1869.

He was owner or part owner successively after 1869 of the Telegraph (Waterville), the Courier (Seneca), the Express (Holton), and the Times (North Topeka), and at the last two places held the office of postmaster.

He established the Review-Express at Gunnison, Colorado, and conducted it from 1880 to 1886, then returned to Topeka, Kansas, where he published the Mail (North Topeka) from 1886 to 1893. Root traveled extensively, in addition to frequent changes from one paper to another, thus acquiring a quantity of first-hand information on the West.

He possessed a natural talent for descriptive writing, and wherever he went recorded carefully his observations in diaries or in voluminous letters to newspapers.

After retiring from active publishing in 1893 he devoted his time largely to gathering additional information from participants in the making of the West, and from other sources, and embodied much of this material in an authentic book, The Overland Stage to California (privately printed, Topeka, 1901), published in association with William E. Connelley.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Overland Stage to California

    (The Overland Stage to California This book, "The Overland...)

Connections

On October 21, 1864, at Atchison, Kansas, he married Emma Clark, daughter of John Hawkins and Margaret (Allen) Clark.

Father:

Albert Berthoud Root.

Mother:

Marinda (Boyden) Root.

Wife:

Emma

On October 21, 1864, at Atchison, Kansas, he married Emma Clark, daughter of John Hawkins and Margaret (Allen) Clark.

business associate:

John A. Martin

business associate:

William E. Connelley