Dr. Joseph P. Root, who was one of the early physicians of Wyandotte, then a part of Leavenworth County, was born at Greenwich, Massachusetts, April 23, 1826, and died at Kansas City, Kansas, July 20, 1885. He was a member of the Connecticut-Kansas Colony, better known as the Beccher Bible and Bifle Company, which settled at Wahaunsee. He organized free-state forces and in every way identified himself with the early history of the torritory. As chairman of the Free-State Executive Committee, he located the road from Topeka to Nebraska City, thereby securing a safe route of travel for free-state immigrants. Doctor Root was sent East as agent to obtain arms and other assistance for the free soilers of Kansas and was very successful in his mission. On his return he located at Wyandotte and was there elected a member of the Council. In 1861 he was elected the first lieutenant-governor of the state; served in the Second Kansas as surgeon and was medical director of the Army of the Frontier. At the close of the war he returned to Wyandotte and resumed the practice of his profession, but was appointed minister of Chile in 1870. At the close of his term of office he again located in Wyandotte, of which he was a resident until his death, July 20, 1885.
