Root’s mu­sic­al tal­ents were ev­i­dent at an ear­ly age. By the time he was 13, he was proud that he could play a tune on as ma­ny in­stru­ments as his age. In 1838, Root moved to Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts, where he stu­died un­der George Webb. In 1845, he moved to New York Ci­ty, play­ing the or­gan at the Church of the Stran­gers, and teach­ing mu­sic at the Ab­bott In­sti­tute for Young La­dies. In 1850, he toured Eur­ope for a year. Af­ter­ward, he start­ed work­ing with Low­ell Ma­son, at Bos­ton’s Acad­e­my of Mu­sic. In 1851, Root be­gan com­pos­ing. In 1859, he be­gan work at his bro­ther’s com­pany, Root and Ca­dy, in Chi­ca­go, Ill­i­nois. In 1872, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chi­ca­go award­ed him an hon­o­rary Doc­tor of Mu­sic de­gree. He had two sons, Fred­er­ick and Charles T. Some of his best known se­cu­lar songs are The Bat­tle Cry of Free­dom; Just Be­fore the Bat­tle, Mo­ther; The Old Folks Are Gone; A Hun­dred Years Ago; Old Po­to­mac Shore; Ro­sa­lie, the Prair­ie Flow­er; The Va­cant Chair; Ha­zel Dell and There’s Mu­sic in the Air. His other works in­clude:

• The Young La­dies Choir, 1846
• Academy Vo­cal­ist, 1848
• Flower Queen, can­ta­ta (words by Fan­ny Cros­by), 1848
• Daniel, can­ta­ta, 1852
• The Pil­grim Fa­thers, can­ta­ta, 1854
• Belshazzar’s Feast, v, 1855
• Festival Glee Book, 1856
• Haymakers, can­ta­ta, 1856
• Sabbath Bell, 1856
• The Hay­mak­ers, 1857
• Diapason, 1860
• Cabinet Or­gan School, 1863
• Musical Cur­ri­cu­lum, 1864
• Silver Lute, 1865
• The Dove, a Col­lect­ion of Mu­sic for Day and Sun­day Schools, Ju­ve­nile Sing­ing Class­es, and the So­cial Cir­cle, with Ben­ja­min Han­by (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Root & Ca­dy, 1866)
• Coronet, 1867
• Triumph, 1868
• The Prize (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church & Com­pa­ny, 1870)
• Forest Choir, 1871
• Model Or­gan Meth­od, 1872
• Glory, 1872
• Choir and Con­gre­ga­tion, 1875
• First Years in Song Land, 1879
• Palace of Song, 1879
• Song Tour­na­ment, 1879
• Chorus Cas­tle, 1880
• Under the Palms, Sun­day school can­ta­ta, 1880
• David, the Shep­herd Boy, Sun­day school can­ta­ta, 1881
• The Realm of Song, 1882
• The Choic­est Gift, Sun­day school can­ta­ta, 1883
• Pure De­light, 1883
• The Sto­ry of a Mu­sic­al Life, 1891, an au­to­bi­o­gra­phy

• Hall, pp. 29-35
• Jones, pp. 147-49
• New York Times, Au­gust 8, 1895
• Nutter, p. 464

1. Along the Riv­er of Time
2. Altogether Love­ly
3. Behold the Bride­groom Com­eth
4. Clear as Crys­tal
5. Come to the Sav­ior
6. Inasmuch
7. O the Way Is Long and Wea­ry
8. On This Plea­sant Sab­bath Day
9. She On­ly Touched the Hem of His Gar­ment
10. Thou Art My Rock
11. Why De­lay?
12. Why Do You Wait?

1. Coventry
2. Ellon
3. From the Deep Star-La­den Sky
4. Jacinta
5. Jewels
6. Knocking, Knock­ing, Who Is There?
7. Lowry
8. My Fa­ther Knows
9. O Where Are the Reap­ers?
10. Rialto
11. Ring the Bells
12. Rosedale
13. Savior’s Face, The
14. Shining Ci­ty
15. Sinclair
16. Suffer Lit­tle Child­ren
17. Suffer the Child­ren
18. Tramp, Tramp, Tramp
19. Turn Not Away
20. Varina
21. We Are Watch­ing
22. We Come in Child­hood’s Joy­ful­ness
23. Yes, We’ll Meet in the Morn­ing