Leaving his home in Fairview, Joe Root moved to Presque Isle while still in his adolescent years — Presque Isle wasn't declared an official state park until 1921. Joe was one of the first permanent inhabitants to the peninsula, the only other resident was the lighthouse keeper who resided at the park during the late 19th century, he often had his tomatoes swiped by Joe.
Joe built a number of shacks in various parts of the peninsula to suit the particular activity of any given day. He built his shacks out of driftwood and packing crates, and anything else that washed up on shore. He hunted and fished to support himself. Raw fish was a big part of his diet. When a dead cow washed ashore on Presque Isle, without cooking the animal, Joe reportedly consumed the animal without using any implements to eat it. He also ate local wild plants such as wild cattails, duck potatoes, spatterdocks, rice, blueberries, dewberries, and wild strawberries. He would also occasionally panhandle picnickers, charming them into sharing their lunches.
Joe Root was a favorite with the local children, entertaining them with ventriloquism and stories about his friends. He called these friends the Jee-Bees, alternatively known as either GBs or jeebies. They were invisible nature spirits who spoke to Joe, he claimed they could accurately predict the weather. During long winter nights, Joe would walk to Erie to spend some time at the local poorhouse. Locals could sometimes see him walking on State Street with either a fishing net or a cane pole.
The birth year of Joe Root is uncertain. He could have been born either in 1880 or 1858, his date of birth is unknown, 1858 seems most likely since most of the stories about Joe begin around 1880. When he was a young man, Joe became a fisherman's apprentice and later a fisherman when he decided to make Presque Isle his permanent residence. Joe Root was considered the King of Presque Isle by some, others just called him the crazy old hermit who lived out on the peninsula. In reality, he was a homeless man struggling with mental illness whom the public embraced and sometimes exploited.
Little is known about his childhood. There are two different versions: one was that his mother was a circus person named Froney Goodbye who traveled with a circus out of Dayton, Ohio; the other, that he was the son of Susan Root who lived much of her life in the county poorhouse. Root supposedly live with his mother, Susan, and grandmother in a shack along the Erie Extension Canal. The only thing that is known is that he did live near the canal for awhile.
Another story about his early life puts him in Fairview when he was nine years old where he worked with Gilson Johnson, apprenticing to be a fisherman. While in Fairview he stayed with Mary Johnson in her home near what was then the canal locks at 12th and Poplar streets. When he was not apprenticing he would help around the house around the house in return for room and board.
An adolescent, he became a wanderer and began to spend a great deal of time on Presque Isle, for a short time as a self-employed fisherman. In 1897, when Mary Johnson passed away, he became homeless and moved permanently out onto the peninsula. He would live there from Spring until the cold weather forced him off the peninsula. He would then move to town to become a winter resident of the county poorhouse. When spring arrived he would then move back to Presque Isle.
When living on the peninsula, he had at least four shacks. He would move from one shack to another, making it difficult to know where to find him, keeping one step ahead of the local Constable, who went by the name of Officer Siebel.
Shaving his gray beard only at Christmas, Joe didn’t or wouldn’t bathe. He had a filthy, eccentric appearance, but he managed to make friends among the townspeople, including the police. He got into trouble with the police though when he was arrested for stealing some fishing tackle from a local boat owner. While in the county jail awaiting trial, Joe hired the warden to be his lawyer for a $4,862.83 fee. The judge rejected his attorney and appointed a public defender to handle the case. During the trial Joe began behaving strangely in court. Convinced that Joe Root was mentally ill the judge acquitted him. But Joe refused to leave the jail where he was being well fed. He eventually left the jail and returned to his driftwood shack on the Peninsula.
Occasionally visiting town, Joe would discuss strange ideas. Bar patrons would buy him a drink or two while listening to his schemes to make money, such schemes as a hot air balloon factory at the peninsula, or a circus on Presque Isle bay. Joe was always coming up with irrational moneymaking proposals. No one ever invested in any of his schemes.
Most of the time, even on the hottest day of the year, Joe wore four or five pairs of pants and bib overalls, all at the same time. The several pair of pants he wore covered the many holes in the other pants and the bib overalls that he was already wearing. Also he wore an worn out felt hat, a vest, and sometimes a shirt, or not.
Children were fascinated by Joe Root. Battling mental illness over his entire life, while living on the peninsula, his eccentric hobo look disturbed many parents of the children whom were regular visitors to the peninsula. Joe would make himself an uninvited guest at picnics on the peninsula. The adults remember him for picking a bunches of wildflowers and trading them for a beer or a sandwich whenever possible.
Eccentric, but harmless, appears to be the consensus regarding the legacy of Joe Root. Joe's eccentricity though may have been his downfall. It is said that Joe was the victim of a scheme to have him removed from his beloved Presque Isle, for fear that he would claim squatter's rights to the peninsula. Joe was accused of being involved in a violent altercation, resulting in him being removed from Presque Isle, under a shroud of secrecy, and committed to the State’s Mental Hospital in Warren, Pennsylvania, on April 14, 1910. He died at the hospital two years later. Mentally ill, an eccentric vagrant, or the peninsula’s first naturalist, his importance or role in the history of the peninsula may be a matter of an opinion, but he undoubtedly knew the Presque Isle better than anyone else at that time. Suffering from myocarditis and manic depressive psychosis, Joe Root passed away on October 29, 1912. His remains was sent to the Anatomical Board in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is buried at the Old Fellow Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even after his death the legend of Joe Root continues into immortality.
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| Joe Root holding a snake (1907) |
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| Joe Root sitting on a dock. |
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| Joe Root best man at a wedding in Presque Isle. |
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| One of Joe Root’s Shacks (1905) |
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| Joe Root’s Death Certificate. |
