A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
Robert Keating was a twin to Langford Keating but when their mother died in 1866 Robert was selected to be adopted and raised by her father, Francis H. Root, who wished for an heir to perpetuate the family name.
Robert dabbled in banking, starting from the top. He had been a director and member of the executive committee of the Bank of Buffalo and became vice-president of that institution when it merged with Marine Trust, at which time he became a member of the board of Marine. He had also been a director of the Market Bank, a trustee of the Fidelity Trust, of the Commonwealth Trust of New York, and of the Ellicott Square Company.
He was the eponym of and chief investor in the Root Building in downtown Buffalo.
His business acumen was expended chiefly in managing the Root estate much of which was invested in real property.
About 1888 he married Emily J. Davis, the daughter of the Townsend Davises of #596 Delaware. Emily died in 1917 and Robert never married again, so that the perpetuation of the Root name had not gone very far.
The year following the death of his wife Root served overseas as a captain in the Red Cross (during World War I). His sociabilité embraced both Buffalo and New York. He had been dean of the Saturn Club and president of the Country Club. He belonged to the Buffalo Club, and to the Union League and the Strollers Club of New York.
He died in Miami in 1923, at the age of fifty-seven, of pneumonia supposedly contracted while surf-bathing. He had taken several companions from Buffalo aboard his yacht for two weeks of fishing. He was buried from his home, Rev. Cameron J. Davis of Trinity presiding.
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
AncientFaces - Family History Photos
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