Editing Elihu Root (section)

==Early life and education==
Elihu Root was born on February 15, 1845, in [[Clinton, Oneida County, New York]], to Oren Root and Nancy Whitney Buttrick, both of [[English American|English]] descent.<ref>''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time'', Volume 11 page 15</ref> His father was a professor of mathematics at [[Hamilton College (New York)|Hamilton College]].

Elihu studied at local schools, including the Clinton Grammar School and the [[Williston Seminary]], where he was a classmate of [[G. Stanley Hall]], before enrolling at Hamilton. He joined the [[Sigma Phi]] Society and was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]] society.<ref>[http://pbk.rutgers.edu/history.shtml History of the Society] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709093431/http://pbk.rutgers.edu/history.shtml |date=July 9, 2009}}, Rutgers.edu, accessed October 9, 2009,</ref> After graduation, Root was an instructor of physical education for two years at Williston Seminary and taught for one year at the [[Rome, New York|Rome]] Free Academy.{{Citation needed|date=March 2018}}

Despite his parents' encouragement to become a [[Presbyterian minister]],{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} Root moved to New York City in 1865 with his brother Wally and sought a career in the law. He enrolled at [[New York University School of Law]] and earned money teaching American history at elite girls' schools.{{sfn|Jessup|1938|p=54}} At the time, most law students in the United States applied for admission to the bar after one year of study, but Root stayed on for a second year, essentially a private tutelage under Professor [[John Norton Pomeroy]]. He graduated in 1867 with a [[Bachelor of Laws]] and was admitted to the bar on June 18, 1867.{{sfn|Jessup|1938|p=61–62}}