ROOT, Ephraim Henry (1828-1906) and Hezzy (1832-1913)

President of the Michigan Conference from 1872 to 1876, and holding a number of other church leadership positions, Ephraim Root, of Wright, Michigan, became a Sabbathkeeping Adventist in 1858. His wife, Hezzy, took the same stand within a year or two. Within months of E. H. Root's becoming a Sabbatarian in 1858, the first meetinghouse in Wright was built on his land. In 1868 the first officially designated Seventh-day Adventist “camp-meeting” was held on the Root farm.1EGWLM 883.3

In 1861 Ephraim Root was elected elder of Wright church, and in 1874 he was ordained to the ministry. Root's administrative skills led to his serving frequently on the Michigan Conference executive committee from 1869 till the end of the century and holding the conference presidency 1872-1876. During the 1870s and 1880s he was heavily engaged on both district and state levels in the leadership of the Michigan Tract and Missionary Society, and for some years in the 1870s he served on the board of the Western Health Reform Institute.1EGWLM 883.4

The Whites stayed with Ephraim and Hezzy Root on numerous occasions when visiting Wright. The best known of these visits was a six-week stay December 1867 to January 1868 while James White was recovering from his first major stroke. Ellen White wrote of the Roots, “We were kindly received by this dear family and as tenderly cared for as Christian parents can care for invalid children.”1EGWLM 883.5

See: Obituary: “Ephraim Henry Root,” Review, Jan. 17, 1907, p. 23; obituary: “Hezzy Streeter Root,” Apr. 10, 1913, p. 358; SDAE, s.v. “Michigan Conference”; Arthur Whitefield Spalding, Footprints of the Pioneers (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1947), pp. 196, 197; search term “E. H. Root” in Review and Herald online collection, www.adventistarchives.org; Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 570.1EGWLM 884.1