My Genealogy Hound

Prof. George Root, the Missouri weather prophet, was born within 100 miles of Paris, France, April 11, 1837. He secured a good education in his native land, and made a specialty of meteorology and astronomy. In 1848 he came to New York, where he followed veterinary surgery until the late war. He enlisted in the Twenty-fourth New York Infantry, and served three years in his professional capacity most of the time. He then began his extensive weather observations, and in 1805 located in this county on a farm. Ten years later he bought his present estate of 120 acres, where he has since resided at his home, Pleasant Grove. He has devoted his entire time to making planetary and weather observations and forecasts, which have been published extensively in the metropolitan press of the United States. He was employed in 1883 by the Government as a tornado reporter. It may be said that all his prognostications have been fulfilled, notwithstanding the fact that he forecasts for a whole year in advance. The St. Louis Republican of April 21, 1887, contains a very interesting interview on this subject, in which the Professor states some excellent facts. By his first marriage, with Eliza Nicholson, he had two daughters, both deceased. She died ten years before the death of her children. Prof. Root married his present wife, Sarah Powers, in 1886. He is a Democrat, but of an independent order. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is recognized as very prominent in the sciences of meteorology and astronomy.