William Henry Root and his wife Helen “Lizzy” Elizabeth “Sissy” (Burns) Root, well known Laramie business family
It is likely that William Henry Root and his wife Helen “Lizzy” Elizabeth “Sissy” (Burns) Root were known by every Laramie person at the turn of the 20th Century. Colonel Billy Root, as he was often called in the local newspapers (though it is unclear why he was referred to as Colonel since no military record has been found), was an outspoken and highly regarded individual. He also had a reputation for his wit and humor and is credited for encouraging Edgar Wilson “Bill” Nye (1850-1896) in his profession as a humorist who was known as the editor of the Laramie Boomerang newspaper.
Helen along with her brother-in-law Chauncey Root were well known for operating the Root’s Opera House, which earned national fame during its time. Unfortunately, as far as newspaper reporting goes, it seems Helen did not receive as much local attention until after her husband’s untimely death in 1903. She was mentioned periodically for participating in social events, but it was usually “Billy” Root’s activities and advice that was printed in newspapers. Management of the opera house is usually listed as W. H. or Chauncey until 1903. After W. H.’s death, Helen is often referred to as the manager and other times, Chauncey.
W. H. Root was born some time in 1848 in Lebanon, New Jersey, to Aaron and Sarah Root. He had two siblings (that were mentioned), Chauncey B. Root (born 1851) and Hattie E. Root (born 1863). By 1860, according to the census records, Aaron moved his family to Omaha, Nebraska, where he operated a hotel. According to W. H.’s obituary, the Roots “kept the best hotel in the frontier town, as it then was,” exaggerated in true newspapering fashion.
According to Root’s obituary, his father Aaron was contracted with the Union Pacific Railroad in 1859 (this date is likely incorrect since the Pacific Railroad Act was not passed until 1862) to “grade through the Red Desert,” a term often used for the Wyoming landscape during the 19th Century. At some point William joined his father on the railroad though unlikely that he helped complete the work at age 11 as his obituary says; more evidence that the 1859 date is unlikely.
Aaron moved his family to Chicago sometime in the early 1870’s where they remained until the late 1880’s. It was during this period that W. H. operated as a “bull-whacker” or a freighter, moving goods in a wagon pulled by oxen. An article published in the Boomerang February 5, 1901, says that he was also a “stage driver, a superintendent of a district road, a scout, guide,” and a hunter. By the mid 1870’s W. H. and possibly his brother Chauncey moved to Albany County, Wyoming. His obituary says that he operated Paradise Ranch, located five miles south of Laramie.
The October 15, 1877, edition of the Laramie Weekly Sentinel reported that “Billy Root’s affianced arrived from the East last night, rather unexpectedly, as the announcement of the day of her arrival had failed to reach him. He happened to be at the train, however, with his buggy, in which he took the young lady at one [sic] to the residence of N. F. Spicer, and called in the preacher.” The 1880 census lists Chauncey, W. H., and Lizzie living near the Big Laramie River. W. H. is listed as a “farmer,” Lizzie is “keeping house,” and Chauncey is “cashier in bank.” Chauncey Root was the cashier for Wyoming National Bank of Laramie for approximately 10 years, the same bank Edward Ivinson began and was later president.
W. H. Root’s obituary claims that he moved to Laramie (actual town) in 1877 where he built the building that became Root’s Opera House, but according to a Laramie Weekly Sentinel article on May 11, 1889, the building was the original school house in Laramie, organized by Jane Ivinson and other early pioneers. By 1879 the building was converted into Blackburn Hall (not clear by who) for use as a public stage and meeting space. In June of 1884, the building was repurposed by W. H. as an “agricultural implement repository.” Root displayed his stock of “buggies, carriages, wagons, and farming implements of all kinds,” to Laramie and surrounding areas. By 1885, he was licensed to sell Studebaker wagons and advertisements for other brands are found in all newspapers until 1889.
By 1890, W. H. used the building as a holding place for wild animals from Wyoming to sell back East or across the Atlantic. Many of these animals were sold to wealthy men with large estates. An article in the Daily Boomerang on January 24, 1894, tells of an elk that W. H. captured and took to England by ship “and placed in Sir Peter Walker’s park.” The elk was photographed, and the story of its journey across the Atlantic was told in a London newspaper and allegedly published in “leading papers of the world.” Another article in the Boomerang September 15, 1891, W. H. advertises “Wanted, six porcupines, four antelope, 100 prairie dogs.” Many other ads between 1890 and 1894 advertise for wild animals W. H. has captured or is looking to.
Not only did W. H. deal in wild animals of Wyoming but traveled to Africa and China and other locales for exotic skins and animals for various purpose. A Boomerang article published in February 5, 1901, says that “Colonel Root has filled orders for nearly all the great menageries and zoological gardens in the world,” including the famed P. T. Barnum.
An article titled “Hair Raising Adventures While Tiger Hunting in Manchuria,” from the Daily Boomerang, February 5, 1901, tells a story of W. H.’s tiger hunt in Manchuria [Northeastern China] in 1888, in search of tiger skins for a London dealer. It is a story worthy of any writer of adventure novels. The story is not only interesting in its action-packed narrative but takes place in a region rife with colonialism. It also serves as a historical narrative which includes characters such as Russian surveyors, various hunters from around the United Kingdom and Europe, and native Chinese prisoners from a village with a corrupt mayor. The Russian surveyors just happened to be in the same region planning a route for the Chinese Eastern Railway, a shortcut on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
By November of 1894, the building was converted into an opera house. An advertisement in the Boomerang lists W. H. Root as the manager. The opera house hosted lectures, the Uncle Tom’s Cabin troupe and various other performances in 1894 alone. From 1894 until W. H.’s death in April of 1903, the management of the opera house is listed as either W. H. Root, Chauncy Root or Helen Root. Helen is listed more frequently as her role in the opera house increased.
From about 1884, when W. H. began his business on 3rd street until his death in 1903, there are various articles about his opinion on subjects. He spoke several times in support of the gold mining industry putting forth his evidence as well as the oil industry. There is even an article on how to deal with wolves on your property. It is evident that W. H.’s advice was sought out on these subjects, but he must have been an overall likeable guy. Here is what a newspaper reporter from the Cheyenne Leader had to say:
Like a balmy summer zephyr, Col. Bill Root was an object to look upon. Indeed to be strictly accurate he was a revelation of manly beauty and a gorgeous exponent of the highest art in tailor made clothing. He came upon his friends like a ray of sunlight on a murky day and they at once struck work so as to dally with the blithesome Bill until the evening twilight had projected itself far into the western main… Col. Bill Root will do; he will always do and Laramie may be proud to claim him as its own…
So, the article continues for a half column.
“Bill” Nye’s reputation as a humorist was well-known during his lifetime, even rivaling Mark Twain. Less known, W. H. also had a reputation for his wicked humor; he wrote for the North Western Stock Journal under the pen name “Long Feller.” His poor wife was often the center of Bill Nye and W. H.’s jokes. Mary Bellamy even commented on the duo jokesters in “Women Winning in Wyoming”: “Mrs. Root can give interesting accounts of many jests perpetrated by these two famous wits and practical jokers, she being the victim in many cases.”
It seems reasonable that both men at various times were also at the other end of practical jokes. A humorous story told in the Laramie Weekly Sentinel on April 22, 1878, describes a “young man who wore eye-glasses like a locomotive head-light, and a suit of clothes made of some stylish figure like the pattern of one of those stripped awnings,” and his companion saw the curious W. H. Root [referred to as William Horatio Root] standing at the end of the platform. The travelers thought they had discovered an oddity worth asking about. “Root, attired in his usual careless and easy style, wearing a chip sundown and a huge pair of Mexican spurs… stood there twisting his camel’s hair moustache and looking dreamily out over the snow-clad hills” was “totally unmindful of the eager gaze of the two young swells with the checker-board clothes and the cream-colored whiskers… He asked Judge Blair ‘who that vewy fewothuth [sic] looking fellow with the stwange [sic] hat might be, you know?’” Judge Blair replied, in all seriousness:
That is one of the most desperate characters, probably, that we have on the plains, or, in fact, west of the Missouri river. He is known about here as Wicked William of Wyoming the Bold, Bad Man from Bitter Creek; or, The Bloody Buster of the Black Hills. He is all right if you don’t get him irritated, but if you stir him up, and call him a liar, and slap him across the face two or three times, he will organize the most ghastly and imposing array of cemetery fruit that you ever saw. Of course he don’t look like a bad man, but I assure you that it is a common thing for him to kill eighteen men out of a possible twenty. Up to within a few years he has always employed his own Coroner and Undertaker, but now times are more quiet, and he has discharged them. Ostensibly he is the advance agent of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Junior, but I think he is looking for someone to plant under the spring cactus. He tells me he is looking for a man who parts his hair in the middle. He thinks he will hash up his bloody career with a man who parts his hair in the middle and never drinks anything stronger than chocolate.
According to the story, the young men disappeared after the story was told and “all this time William Horatio Root stood there talking in his unctuous, oleaginous way about Louis Napoleon Jr, and there wasn’t a thought of death or destruction in his heart as big as a mosquito’s ear.”
It can be said that William H. Root was a big personality. Many claimed he knew everyone and was liked in equal measure. His humor earned him recognition, not only in America but also throughout Europe and possibly elsewhere. His advice was sought by many and published in newspapers and journals.
By Konnie Cronk
Root’s first Laramie Business. Source: Laramie Plains Museum
Root’s Opera House on Second St in downtown Laramie. Laramie Plains Museum.
Only known image of William Root. Laramie Plains Museum.