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, Root 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; 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
• Coronet, 1867
• Triumph, 1868
• The Prize (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church & Co., 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