Theodore Roosevelt

EARLY LIFE 

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was born into a wealthy aristocratic family of Dutch and Scottish descent on October 27, 1858, at 33 (later 28) East 20th Street in New York City.

His father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr (1831-1878), was a New York City philanthropist, merchant, and partner in the glass-importing firm Roosevelt and Son.

His mother Martha Bulloch (1834-1884) was a homemaker and former southern belle who was raised on a Georgia plantation and had Confederate sympathies.

Theodore had an older sister Anna and younger brother Elliot and sister Corinne. Future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a niece of Elliot.

Known as “Teddie”, he was a sickly, delicate, asthmatic child. To overcome this Theodore undertook a strenuous regime of daily exercises.

Teddie was given strong coffee and puffs of cigar as a child to 'help' with his asthma.

Also to improve his health Teddie's parents took him to Europe 1869-70. They spent Christmas in Rome where Roosevelt kissed the hand of Pope Pius IX.

From 1872 to 1873 the Roosevelt family traveled in Egypt, the Holy Land, and spent several months in Dresden, Germany. "Teedie" also climbed to the top of the pyramids.

As a child and teenager Teddie was interested in natural history although he was so near sighted he could study only the things he “ran against or stumbled over”.

His lifelong interest in zoology was first formed at age seven upon seeing a dead seal at a local market. After obtaining the seal's head the young Roosevelt and two of his cousins formed what they called the 'Roosevelt Museum of Natural History.'

Roosevelt filled his makeshift museum with many animals that he caught, studied, and prepared for display. At age nine he codified his observation work on insects with a paper titled "The Natural History of Insects."

His childhood nickname was "Teedie," but his adult nickname was "Teddy" (which he despised and considered improper, preferring "T.R.").

EDUCATION 

Except for a few months at Professor McMullen's school, young Teddy was too sickly to attend an education estasblishment and thus was taught by a string of tutors. The first was Annie Bulloch, his maternal aunt. She was followed by others, including a teacher of taxidermy who helped nourish his propensity toward natural history.

Fraulein Anna, a tutor of German and French while the family was in Dresden, remarked; "He will surely one day be a great professor, or who knows, he may become president of the United States."

Roosevelt aged 11

After his family returned to their home in New York, following their trip to Europe and the Holy Land, Roosevelt started intensive tutoring under Arthur Hamilton Cutler in preparation for the Harvard University entrance exam.

He passed the exam in 1875 and entered as a freshman the next year.

Roosevelt did well in science, philosophy, and rhetoric but not so well in classical languages.

Professor J. Laurence Laughlin and Roosevelt's girlfriend (and future wife) Alice Hathaway Lee convinced him to turn his career intentions away from natural history and toward politics.

While at Harvard, Roosevelt's student memberships included;
Editor of the student newspaper, the Advocate,
Vice president of the Natural History Club,
Member of the Porcellian Club
Secretary of the Hasty Pudding Club,
Founder of the Finance Club,
Member of the Nuttall Ornithological Club.

Roosevelt graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude (21st of 177) from Harvard University in 1880 and entered Columbia Law School that same year.

Roosevelt's 1880 Harvard thesis was titled: "The Practicability of Equalizing Men and Women before the Law." He argued for women's rights, including the right to vote, the right to property, and the right to enter any profession she desires on equal terms

EARLY CAREER

Finding law school tedious, Roosevelt found other diversions, including the completion of his first published book, The Naval War of 1812 (1882).

Unable to stomach a career as a corporate lawyer, and presented with an opportunity to run for a New York State Assemblyman position in 1881, Roosevelt dropped out of school to pursue his new goal of entering public life.

Roosevelt was elected to the Assembly of State of New York on an anti-corruption ticket as a republican at the age of 23.

Roosevelt as NY State Assemblyman, 1883

The tragic deaths of his mother and his wife in February 1884, propelled Roosevelt to leave New York for a cattle ranch in the Dakota Territory for two years. There, he learned to ride western style, rope and hunt on the banks of the Little Missouri.

In 1889 President Benjamin Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he attacked political corruption, serving until 1895.

When William Lafayette Strong, a reform-minded Republican, won the 1894 mayoral election he offered Roosevelt a position on the board of the New York City Police Commissioners in 1895.
During his time there, he radically reformed the police force, stamping out corruption.

On one occasion an anti-Semitic German preacher asked for police protection whilst he was making a vitriolic attack on the Jews. Roosevelt recalls in his autobiography. "The proper thing to do was to make him ridiculous. Accordingly I sent a detail of police under a Jewish Sergeant and the Jew baiter made his harangue. Under the active protection of some 40 police every one a Jew."

Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley in 1897.

The following year, Roosevelt resigned his navy post to take part in the Spanish American War.
There he organized a volunteer cavalry known as the Rough Riders, which he led in a bold charge up San Juan Hill in the Battle of San Juan Heights. In 2001, Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.

Col. Theodore Roosevelt

After returning to America, Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York. By holding twice-daily press conferences—which was an innovation—Roosevelt remained connected with his middle-class political base.

After the death of Vice President Garret Hobart, William McKinley took on Roosevelt as his running mate in the 1900 election. Roosevelt campaigned vigorously and the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket won a landslide victory based on a platform of peace, prosperity, and conservatism.

PRESIDENCY 

Following McKinley's assassination in September 1901, Roosevelt became president. At age 42, Teddy Roosevelt became the youngest man to assume the U.S. presidency.

As President McKinley was dying, no one knew where Teddy Roosevelt was. When located in the wilderness he raced all night down mountain roads on a buckboard wagon in pitch black and pouring rains to be sworn in.

Official White House portrait by John Singer Sargent

Theodore Roosevelt officially renamed the home of the president as The White House on October 12, 1901.

In his first year as President Roosevelt gave much attention to setting up forest reserves all over the States.

Theodore Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to make a public ride in an automobile on August 22, 1902 when he rode through the streets of Hartford, Connecticut in a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton. Roosevelt was accompanied by a small entourage of people.

The event was a major news story, and it helped to popularize the automobile in the United States. Roosevelt was known for his adventurous spirit, and his willingness to ride in an automobile helped to show that these new vehicles were safe and reliable.

Roosevelt was also the first to sail in a submarine (aboard the USS Plunger (1905), and first former president to fly in an airplane (October 11, 1910).

Theodore Roosevelt was re-elected president in 1904 by a huge margin. (336 votes against his opponents 140).

In 1906 Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts in negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War. He was the first American to be awarded any Nobel Peace prize.

On November 9, 1906, Roosevelt made history by becoming the first sitting U.S. President to make an official trip outside of the United States, visiting Panama to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal.

On January 1, 1907, during a New Year's Day White House gathering, Theodore Roosevelt shook the hands of 8,510 people, setting a world record he held for over 70 years.

Roosevelt was the first President to appear on newsreels. He was the first US leader to appreciate the political importance of performing to the media and the populace in front of the camera.

Roosevelt reforms led to the control of monopolist trusts and did a great deal to safeguard his country's natural resources.

Roosevelt openly despised the nickname "Teddy", and was quick to correct anyone who called him it. He preferred those working closely with him to refer to him as Colonel or Theodore.

POST PRESIDENCY 

In 1908 Theodore Roosevelt decided to stick to his 1904 pledge not to run for a third term.

He played himself in a one reel film, a Matty Roubert comedy, in 1908.

In 1910 the Senate granted Roosevelt a pension of $10,000 pa.

After two years of collecting big game hunting, speaking engagements and traveling - including as special ambassador to England for the funeral of King Edward VII - Roosevelt became disgruntled with President Taft’s weak enforcement of progressive policies, and decided to make another run for the presidency.

Roosevelt in October 1910

At the 1912 Republican National Convention, Taft narrowly defeated Roosevelt for the party's presidential nomination. After the convention, Roosevelt, Frank Munsey, George Walbridge Perkins, and other progressive Republicans established the Progressive Party and nominated a ticket of Roosevelt and Hiram Johnson at the 1912 Progressive National Convention.

Theodore Roosevelt ran as a progressive in the 1912 presidential election, but was defeated by 88 votes to Woodrow Wilson’s 435.

After the election of 1912, Roosevelt went on an expedition with Candido Rondon, exploring the Brazilian jungle. During this expedition, he discovered the River of Doubt, a tributary of the Amazon, later renamed the Roosevelt River, in honor of the President.

On one occasion, Roosevelt nearly lost his life when his boat was wrecked whilst traversing some Brazilian rapids. After surviving a close call with a coral snake and an emergency surgery on his leg, Roosevelt became delirious with a fever and repeatedly demanded to be left alone to die in the jungle.

Teddy Roosevelt volunteered for service in World War I—ten years after having served as U.S. president. He raised a division of volunteers for the war but President Wilson forbade him to fight himself as he feared a heroic Roosevelt returning from the war would be too dangerous a candidate in a presidential election.

WRITER

Roosevelt was a prolific author, writing with passion on subjects ranging from foreign policy to the importance of the national park system.

He used an inkwell hollowed out of the foot of a rhino.

As an editor of Outlook magazine, Roosevelt had weekly access to a large, educated national audience.

Roosevelt's History of the Naval War of 1812 established his reputation as both a learned historian and as a popular writer.

In all, Roosevelt wrote about 18 books (each in several editions), including his autobiography, The Rough Riders, and other historical and biographical works plus books on ranching and hunting.

His most ambitious book was the four volume narrative The Winning of the West, focused on the American frontier in the 18th and early 19th centuries

BELIEFS

Even though Roosevelt was Dutch Reformed by birth, he didn't join that church until he was 16 due to a lack of such a church nearby. So as a child Teddie attended Madison Square Presbyterian Church.

While attending Harvard University he taught Sunday school at an Episcopal church called Christ's Church until the rector discovered Roosevelt was not baptized into that denomination.

Much later at his residence at Oyster Bay in Long Island Roosevelt went to an Episcopal church with his wife.

While in Washington, DC Roosevelt attended services at Grace Reformed Church.

As President Roosevelt firmly believed in the separation of church and state and thought it both sacrilegious and unconstitutional to have 'In God We Trust' on U.S. currency (he tried unsuccessfully to have that legend removed).

RELATIONSHIPS 

Alice Hathaway Lee was the daughter of the prominent banker George Cabot Lee and Caroline Haskell Lee. Roosevelt first met her on October 18, 1878 when visiting her next door neighbors, the Saltonstalls.

By Thanksgiving Roosevelt made up his mind that he would marry Alice and finally proposed June 1879. Alice waited another six months before accepting the proposal and their engagement was announced on Valentine's Day of 1880.

At age 22 Roosevelt married the 19 year old Alice Hathaway Lee. Their marriage ceremony was held on October 27, 1880 at the first Parish Unitarian Church in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Alice Hathaway Lee at age 17

Alice died aged 23 from  undiagnosed kidney failure on February 14, 1884, less than two days after the birth of their first child, Alice. It was especially tragic for Theodore because his mother died on the same day, at the Roosevelt family home in Manhattan. Theodore Roosevelt watched his mother die from typhoid fever then went upstairs in his home to watch his wife die an hour later. This all happened on the two year anniversary of getting engaged to his wife.

In his diary that night, the twenty-six-year-old Roosevelt placed a large X, along with the simple words “The light has gone out of my life.”

The grief stricken Theodore Roosevelt fled to Dakota to recover. On returning to the east he married gentle high bred Edith Carow (1886-1948), a childhood friend of his sister Corinne at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, London on December 2, 1886.

Official portrait of First Lady Edith Roosevelt

The couple had five children: Theodore "Ted" III in 1887, Kermit in 1889, Ethel in 1891, Archibald in 1894, and Quentin in 1897.

Theodore Jr. Roosevelt (September 13, 1887 – July 12, 1944), was known for his World War II service. Despite having a heart condition and arthritis that forced him to use a cane, he led the first wave of landings at Utah Beach on D-Day, becoming the only general to land with his soldiers that day, for which he received the Medal of Honor.

Kermit Roosevelt (October 10, 1889 – June 4, 1943) fought a lifelong battle with depression ultimately leading to suicide while serving in the U.S. Army in Alaska during World War II.

Ethel Carow Roosevelt Derby (August 13, 1891 – December 10, 1977) was instrumental in preserving both the legacy of her father as well as the family home, "Sagamore Hill" for future generations, especially after the death of her mother Edith in 1948.

Archibald Bulloch "Archie" Roosevelt (April 10, 1894 – October 13, 1979) was a distinguished U.S. Army officer and commander of U.S. forces in both World War I and II.

Archibald Roosevelt was wounded during World War I. He rejoined the army during World War II and was wounded in the same knee as he had been during World War I making him only American to ever be classified as 100% disabled twice for the same wound incurred in two different wars.

After World War II, he became a successful businessman and the founder of a New York City bond brokerage house, as well as a spokesman for conservative political causes

Roosevelt family at Oyster Bay, circa 1903

Quentin Roosevelt (November 19, 1897 – July 14, 1918) joined the United States Army Air Service where he became a pursuit pilot during World War I. Extremely popular with his fellow pilots and known for being daring, he was killed in aerial combat over France on Bastille Day (July 14), 1918.

Alice Lee Roosevelt ( (February 12, 1884 – February 20, 1980) went on to marry the Hon Nicholas Longworth, Speaker at the House of Representatives 1925-31.

Throughout Roosevelt’s intensely active career, family life remained close and delightful.

Roosevelt's children were almost as popular as he was, and their pranks and hijinks in the White House made headlines.

Alice Lee Roosevelt was the toast of Washington, D.C. When friends asked if he could rein in his daughter, Roosevelt said, "I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both." In turn, Alice said of him that he always wanted to be "the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral."

Roosevelt had a song written about his sixteen year old daughter Alice by Joseph McCarthy and Harry Tierney, "Alice-Blue Gown". As a result Alice Blue came to describe a light blueish green color.

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER 

Roosevelt was 5 ft 10 ins, long legs and short thick set body. He had a big nose, broad jaw and large teeth which cartoonists liked to exaggerate.

Roosevelt had thick and curly hair which he kept close cropped.

Nicknamed The Bull Moose, Roosevelt was a high spirited man of extraordinary vigor, evident in every word and gesture. "He hated all pretension save his own pretension". HL Mencken quipped.

Roosevelt had a high pitched voice and pounding fist.

Roosevelt campaigning for president, 1912

He had a reputation as a master of side splitting yarns and stories.

HEALTH 

Sickly and asthmatic as a youngster, Teddie Roosevelt had to sleep propped up in bed or slouching in a chair during much of his early childhood and had frequent incidences of diarrhea, colds, and other ailments. In spite of his physical condition, he was a hyperactive and oftentimes mischievous young man.

In 1902, Roosevelt he was struck in the eye during a boxing fight with an army officer. His eyesight gradually diminished and by 1906 he was totally blind in one eye.

Whilst campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1912 presidential election, a bullet was fired by a fanatic, John Shrank, a New York bar tender at point blank which struck Roosevelt's chest. It would have penetrated his heart but for being deflected by his metal eyeglass case and folded speech in his inside coat pocket. In typical fashion Roosevelt refused to be deterred by his injury and went on to speak for nearly an hour.

Elbert E. Martin, a former football player and stenographer for Theodore Roosevelt, tackled Schrank, disarming him and preventing further harm to the president.

SPORTS 

Roosevelt was naturally competitive but as a child he was a physical weakling. To combat his poor physical condition, his father compelled young Roosevelt to take up exercise at Wood's Gym and with equipment at his home. A couple of his peers beat him during this time and as a result Roosevelt started boxing lessons.

During his time at Harvard Roosevelt boxed, rode horses, shot and lifted weights and he developed a rugged physique.

President Roosevelt. Pastel study by V. Floyd Campbell

Roosevelt became a member of the Harvard University boxing team. He was runner-up for the Harvard boxing championship, losing to C.S. Hanks. The sportsmanship Roosevelt showed in that fight was long remembered.

Theodore Roosevelt found himself one day in the summer of 1884 in a bar fight in Mingusville, Montana (now Wibaux) after a man called him "four eyes" in reference to his spectacles and suggested he pay for drinks. The man held two guns and told Roosevelt to "set up the drinks." Roosevelt knocked him out and took away his firearms.

As Governor of New York, Roosevelt boxed with sparring partners several times a week, a practice he regularly continued as President until one blow detached his left retina, leaving him blind in that eye. Thereafter he practiced jiujitsu as well as continued his habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River during winter.

When Theodore Roosevelt was governor of New York state, he would run up the steps of Albany's capitol building every morning for exercise. Allegedly, if reporters wanted an interview, they would have to get to the top of the stairs first.

As president he boxed in the state rooms of the White House.

Theodore Roosevelt was America's first brown belt in judo and practiced in the White House basement.

During the 1905 college football season, 18 men died and 149 more received serious injuries. President Roosevelt stepped in and instituted safety measures to make the game safer. Roosevelt was a football fan and was concerned the footballers wore no personal protection.

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS 

Roosevelt had a lifelong interest in pursuing what he called "the strenuous life." To this end he exercised regularly and took up boxing, tennis, hiking, rowing, hunting, polo, and horseback riding.

Roosevelt summited the Matterhorn in 1881, while on his honeymoon in Switzerland. He wrote his sister, "It was like going up and down enormous stairs on your hands and knees for nine hours."

In 1886 Roosevelt's horse, Hempstead beat the world equine record for high jumping, clearing 6ft 8 in at the New York Horse Show. It has now been beaten.

As president he took Cabinet members and friends on long, fast-paced hikes.

Roosevelt hunted bear, elks and mountain sheep and introduced fox hunting into America.

Theodore Roosevelt as Badlands hunter in 1885. New York studio photo.

He was a member of the Tuna Club in Southern California, the oldest fishing club in the country.

Roosevelt's coffee drinking was legendary and he drank up to 40 cups a day. His son, Theodore Jr., remarked that his father's ideal coffee cup might be "more in the nature of a bathtub."

PETS 

The entire Roosevelt family were animal lovers and Roosevelt was the President with the most pets during his time in the White House.

He owned a big, friendly Saint Bernard called Rollo and a Chesapeake Retriever called Sailor Boy. His wife Alice owned a spaniel called Manchu. Jack, a Manchester Terrier, belonged to Kermit Roosevelt and  Skip, a black-and-tan Rat Terrier, belonged to Archie Roosevelt.
Slippers, a grey cat with six toes on each paw, was favored by Theodore Roosevelt. The President was said to have allowed the moggy to appear at diplomatic dinners.

Theodore Roosevelt had guinea pigs called Admiral Dewey, Bishop Doane, Dr Johnson, Father O’Grady and Fighting Bob Evans.

Alice Roosevelt had a pet garter snake, which she named Emily Spinach "because it was as green as spinach and as thin as my Aunt Emily." She liked to carry it around the White House in her purse and take it out at unexpected moments.

At one time, the Roosevelt children had a small black bear in residence, named Jonathan Edwards. His name was given to him to honor one of his wife Edith’s ancestors. As Jonathan Edwards grew, so did his temper and wildness, and in January of 1901 Roosevelt wrote to the Bronx Zoo, inquiring if they would be interested in giving Jonathan Edwards a home.

One lasting, popular legacy of Roosevelt is the stuffed toy bears—teddy bears. They were named after him following an incident on a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902 when Roosevelt refused to shoot a defenseless old black bear that had been tied to a tree.

Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman picked up on the story, drawing a cartoon showing President Roosevelt with a bear, which ran in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902.

The political cartoon in The Washington Post that spawned the teddy bear name

The Teddy Bear tie came when a Brooklyn, New York candy shop owner, Morris Michtom, saw Clifford Berryman’s original cartoon of Roosevelt with the bear and had an idea. He got his wife to make a couple of stuffed toy bears and put them in the shop window with a sign "Teddy's bear," after sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. The toys were an immediate success leading Michtom to mass-produce them, eventually forming the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.

HOMES 

Sagamore Hill was the home of Theodore Roosevelt, from 1885 until his death in 1919. It is located in the Incorporated Village of Cove Neck, New York, near Oyster Bay on the North Shore of Nassau County on Long Island.

Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt's estate. By Schwalbe 

He had a ranch in the Rocky Mountains which he used as his hunting base. Elkorn Ranch, North Dakota, is now part of the Theodore Roosevelt memorial park.

DEATH AND LEGACY 

In early January 1919, Roosevelt dictated a fiery memo to the Chairman of the Republican National Committee on the subject of getting rid of Woodrow Wilson. It was to be his last political act.

Four days later, Roosevelt died unexpectedly in his sleep at his Sagamore Hill home on January 6, 1919 of a coronary embolism in his sleep at the age of 60. His last words were to a African American servant "Please put that light out James."

His son Archie sent a telegram to his siblings, stating simply, "The old lion is dead."

On news of his death 30 days of mourning was ordered by Washington. Roosevelt was buried at Young’s Memorial Cemetery, Oyster Bay.

As a leader of the Republican Party, Roosevelt was a driving force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century. He added enormously to the national forests in the west, reserved lands for public use and fostered great irrigation projects.

His face is depicted on Mount Rushmore, alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.

Sources Presidential Pet Museum, Biography