Elihu Root was born on College Hill and came back to it
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and secretary of state was the son of a Hamilton math professor and grew up in Clinton.
By Owen Tafel
Elihu Root was born in Clinton on Feb. 15, 1845. His father, Oren Root, taught mathematics at Hamilton College, and the family lived on the Hill.
Root went to local schools, including the Clinton Grammar School, and graduated from Hamilton. After college he taught physical education for two years at Williston Seminary in Massachusetts and spent a year teaching at the Rome Free Academy before turning to law. In 1878 he married Clara Frances Wales. He practiced in New York City, where he became one of the best-known lawyers of his day.
His public career was long. He was secretary of war under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, then Roosevelt’s secretary of state, then a U.S. senator from New York. In both cabinet jobs and in private practice he helped build the American approach to international law. He headed the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and in 1912 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Root kept his ties to Clinton. In 1893 he bought a house in the village, now known as the Elihu Root House, which was named a National Historic Landmark in 1972. He died on Feb. 7, 1937.