Medina's Connection to the Wright Brothers

 Soaring From Bees to Planes.....

Orville and Wilbur Wright
 photograph from the Library of Congress

 

   August 19th will commemorate Orville Wright’s 150th birthday and it is the date the United States fittingly celebrates Aviation Day!

 
   The Wright Brothers have a fascinating history and connection to Ohio. Yet how many know the connection they have to Medina, Ohio? 

   

Library of Congress image

Most of the nation became aware of their first flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina soon after the event.

A. I. Root 
www.rootcandles.com

One of the most intrigued persons was one of Medina’s renowned citizens, Amos Ives (A. I.) Root.

For those of you who are not familiar with A.I. Root, he is the founder of the A. I. Root Company aka Root Candles. It is said Mr. Root was working as a jeweler on the Medina Square when he saw a swarm of bees fly by the store. He told a young man in the store he would give him a dollar if he caught the bees and brought them back to him. The bees were successfully caught and A. I. Root became occupied with the business of beekeeping and quickly became one of the nation’s most renowned experts on the subject. He also published Gleanings in Bee Culture a periodical on the beekeeping business and a few other interesting topics.

Mr. Root had a very inquisitive mind and was always interested in new inventions. He was the first person in Medina to own a velocipede (bicycle), he bought an automobile soon after they were made available, and was fascinated by the Wright Brothers and their “heavier than air flyer”.

Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1 March 1904, p. 241
Internet Archives, archive.org

In the March 1, 1904 edition of Gleanings in Bee Culture he talks about when he spoke to a group of boys in his Sunday school class about the fascinating men from Dayton, Ohio. 

He also told the boys he was going to be at the Wright brother’s next experimental flight. 

In fact, before this story was even published he had sent a letter to the brother’s requesting permission to see a flight experiment at the Huffman Prairie field just outside of Dayton, Ohio.

 

Library of Congress digital image
Permission to use by the Root Candles company

The Wright brothers did not disappoint him and Mr. Root let them know his appreciation. 

 

Library of Congress digital image
Permission to use by the Root Candles company

Library of Congress digital image

According to Ian Mackersey's The Wright Brothers, "On 20 September their performance took another leap when he (Wilbur) stayed up for 1 minute 35 seconds, successfully flying a complete circle traveling nearly four-fifths of a mile. The flight was watched by a beekeeper, Amos Root, to whom the world is indebted for a full account of the event. Root, hearing of the Wright's experiments, had, in a remarkable feat for 1904, driven the 175 miles in his primitive motor car from his apiary at Medina in northern Ohio in the hope of seeing the Flyer in the air.”

Some newspapers wrote little snippets about the flight trials. However, A. I. Root was the first person to write about the experience and publish it in a periodical. In the 1 January 1905, Gleanings in Bee Culture, he retold the events of the day in which he was an eyewitness....

Gleanings in Bee Culture
1 January 1905, p. 37

Gleanings in Bee Culture
1 January 1905, p. 37

After this momentous event, it seems he continued to visit and correspond with the brothers and stayed friends with them until the end of his life....

Medina County Gazette
2 Sept 1910, p 5

A. I. Root sitting in a Wright Brother's plane
Medina County Fair, ca. 1915

 

Medina County Gazette
29 Dec 1922, section 2, p 1

Mr. Root never stopped being interested in the new inventions of the time. His interest in wind power is written about in an article in the Medina Gazette. Do you think he was one of the first to own an electric car? 

If you want to know more about this fascinating Medina native, the Medina Library Virginia Wheeler Martin Family History & Learning Center has a copy of his book ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture a type of encyclopedia of beekeeping and his autobiography An Eyewitness Account of Early American Beekeeping in the local history room. The library also has copies of the Gleanings in Bee Culture from 1956 to 2016 and Internet Archives, www.archive.org, has digital images of the publication from 1873-1993. 

                            

Thank you to Root Candles and Brad Root, president, for allowing us to use some of the images for this blog. 

• Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/collections/wilbur-and-orville-wright-papers/
• Internet archives; www.archive.org
• Medina County Gazette, 2 September 1910, page 5; 29 December 1922
• Medina County Historical Society
• Root Candles; www.rootcandles.com
• The Wright Brothers, by Ian Mackersey, 2003, Chapter 16, Shattering the Five-Minute Barrier, (1904)