#26. Roosevelt, Theodore

Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas – Theodore Roosevelt Jr (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. It began like this: “Now that damned cowboy is in,” said Mark Hanna, Chairman of the Republican National Committee and William McKinley’s campaign manager, as McKinley lay dead, victim of an assassins bullet, and Theodore Roosevelt Jr became President. The date was September 14, 1901; the place was Ansley Wilcox’s house in Buffalo, New York. This was the fifth non-scheduled inauguration ever to take place, and “that damned cowboy” was just 42 years old, the youngest president ever. Most old-line Republicans echoed Hanna’s sentiments. Theodore, you see, was different. Never still, never quiet; we’d certainly label him ADD today. If he were the bull in the rodeo, nobody would last eight seconds on his back! Theodore didn’t fit the mold that political parties hope to fill. But darn it, he was a good guy; not so much a leader as a “do-er.” When he tackled something he followed through with gritty determination. True grit, you know, like Mr. Wayne. There are probably two things that pop into your mind when you hear his name: Theodore Roosevelt National Park and his Dakota Ranch (yep, he really was a cowboy); and Theodore Roosevelt the hero, atop San Juan Hill. That’s a pretty famous photo. And, he is astride a horse. So how did this city fellow, born in Manhattan to wealth and loving attention, come to be called a cowboy?

I’ve done some digging on this one. I thought I knew a lot about “Teddy” – I’ve visited his National Park and Ranch in North Dakota; I’ve visited  Atlanta’s Bulloch Hall where his mother Mittie Bulloch was born, and stood on the staircase where she stood when she married his father Theodore Roosevelt on December 22, 1853. I’ve been many places he traveled in Africa. But I wound up having to make a spreadsheet to record all the things he did and all the people who were a part of his life! There was so much “stuff” to consider I’ve divided his 60 years into four 15-year segments, because, believe it or not, even those first fifteen years were astounding. Just look.

1858-1873 The First 15 Years

Theodore was born October 27, 1858, the second of the four children – Anna, Theodore, Elliot, and Corrine – of wealthy businessman and philanthropist Theodore Sr and socialite Martha Bulloch Roosevelt. The Roosevelts lived at 28 East 20th Street in New York’s most fashionable district. It was a typical New York brownstone on a quiet tree-lined street. Theodore’s health was poor. He had terrible asthma, but that didn’t slow him down, he was energetic and inquisitive, home schooled and well supported by his parents. He was just seven years old when he spotted a seal’s head at the market and persuaded them to bring it home for him to “study.” He learned the basics of taxidermy and opened “Roosevelt’s Museum of Natural History” in his bedroom. (Right there, I like the kid! His cousins were in on this too.) By the time he was nine he had written a paper noting his observations of insects: “The Natural History of Insects.” Clearly observant of the world around him, imagine how he was impacted by his family’s traveling adventures: by the time he was fifteen they had toured Europe twice and Egypt once! It was while climbing the Alps he realized that physical exertion seemed to minimize his asthma. That was the answer then. The summer he was fifteen he was bullied on a camping trip; no more of that! He found a boxing coach to teach him how to strengthen his body. And to fight!

If you stop there, he’s pretty much ahead of any 15-year-old boy I’ve ever known. I’ll add a little “love-note” here; put this in your back pocket for later. A neighbor by the name of Edith Carow was in Theodore’s life from early on. She was his sister Corrine’s best friend; she went on summer vacations with the Roosevelt family;  she came to the Roosevelts for “home-schooling” with them; she and Corrine and Theodore all had a love for literature. Edith Carow, remember.

1874-1888 Age 16 to 30

Edith Carow, remember? Yes, Edith and Theodore became teenage sweethearts. When he was 18 he headed for Harvard, to study biology of course. But he did a lot of stuff –the physical of course – rowing and boxing; he read non-stop (he had an almost photographic memory). He joined Alpha Delta Phi literary society, Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was editor (of course) of The Harvard Advocate. And he and Edith kept up a correspondence. The year he was twenty, his father died and left him a large inheritance. The story is a bit hazy here – some say he proposed to Edith then and she refused. We know that he did propose to New York socialite Alice Hathaway Lee sometime in there, and, by golly, married her on October 27, 1880. And yes, Edith attended their wedding.

By then, Theodore had graduated Harvard (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), commenting that Harvard was “too rigid.” He gave up on the study of natural sciences and entered Columbia Law School. But he found law “irrational.” He wrote a book on the War of 1812. He dropped out of law school. He began attending meetings at New York’s 21^st District Republican Association. He was appointed a 2^nd Lt in the New York National Guard. He bought 155 acres at Oyster Bay on Long Island and began building a home for “a large family.” He was elected Republican State Assemblyman for the Jan 1882-Dec 1884 term. And that’s where he was – in Albany – on February 12, 1884, when daughter Alice was born. He rushed back to New York city after receiving a telegram about the baby’s birth only to face a double tragedy: his mother Mittie died at 3 AM on February 14; his wife Alice died at 2 PM, eleven hours later.

In years to come, the only comment Theodore would make concerning that day was “The light went out of my life.” Baby Alice was put into the hands of Theodore’s older sister Anna and Theodore headed for North Dakota. Where, to answer the question – he became a cowboy. He was 26 years old.

He did stop by the Republican National Convention in Chicago that June and took an active part in the buzz; this sparked an interest in national politics. But it was North Dakota where he grieved. He invested in a cattle ranch; he learned to rope, and ride, and herd, and hunt. He wrote about frontier life for national magazines and published three books: Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, and The Wilderness Hunter. He served as deputy sheriff in Billings County, North Dakota (there’s a famous story about tracking down a thief). And then, fate intervened. On a visit back to his sister’s house in New York, he bumped into Edith Carow. And strangely, the North Dakota winter was so harsh that year half his cattle died.

No soap could have turned out better. He and Edith became secretly engaged (kept a secret because it was still so close to Alice’s death); he closed down his ranch; and on December 2, 1886 he and Edith were married in London. They lived in Europe for a while, returning to New York to finish up the Long Island house (renamed Sagamore Hill). Son Theodore III was born September 13, 1887. Daughter Alice, now three, joined the family at Sagamore. Did you see that coming? Son Kermit was born October 10, 1889, a few days before Theodore’s 31st birthday. How’s that for the second fifteen years?

1889 – 1903 Age 31-45

Babywise, three more children were born to Theodore and Edith: daughter Ethel (1891), son Archibald (1894), and son Quentin (1897). Jobwise, Theodore was President of the NYC Board of Police Commissioners for a while, then appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1897-1898 by President McKinley, a job he loved; and (now that famous San Juan Hill picture) left that post to lead the Rough Riders in Cuba for four months during the Spanish-American War. Quite famous by now, he served as Governor of New York through the 1899-1900 term, and that is precisely when Mark Hanna faced the first tinges of “oh no.” McKinley’s reelection was pretty much assured; returning prosperity and that Spanish-American victory and that guy on the horse on San Juan Hill still in everyone’s mind. And as Governor of New York, Theodore was making changes that many New York Republicans didn’t like, so they wanted to get rid of him. Offered a spot on the ticket as McKinley’s VP, Theodore didn’t really want the job; he saw it as trivial and powerless. But you know what happened. And why Mark Hanna said what he said that day in 1901. (Interestingly, Mark Hanna died February 15, 1904, before the next Republican Convention.)

Let’s look at Theodore’s first stint as President of the United States. Certainly the White House didn’t compare to Sagamore Hill’s spacious grounds and natural informality, and Edith set to work right away, saying the White House was “like living over a store.” In February 1902 Theodore moved into a house on Lafayette Square, and Edith and the kids moved back to Sagamore Hill as the problem so many first ladies had complained about (remember Caroline Harrison?) was set to right – the East and West Wings were added, separating Work Space and Family Space once and for all. The State dining room was expanded to seat over 100 guests. Edith knew how to manage what she wanted done – after all, she managed seven children, she sometimes quipped. (Yes, 5 of her own, 1 stepchild, and Theodore.)

Edith isn’t the most famous of First Ladies, but she was steady. Remember that Edith and Theodore literally grew up together, studied together, and loved to read. As First Lady she kept up with the news, taking items she believed were noteworthy to Theodore and discussing them. She stood for high morals in the White House, once castigating a Grand Duke from Russia for “vulgar behavior” by refusing to meet with his family when they visited the White House. (The Press liked that.) Fashion wasn’t important to Edith, she often wore the same gown on many occasions (admonishing the Press to “just describe them differently”).

Meanwhile Theodore fought big companies (like Standard Oil), monopolies, and trusts, earning the nickname “trust buster.” On his 46^th birthday October 27, 1904 as he closed out another fifteen years of life, he was just 12 days from winning a landslide victory in his first bid as an ELECTED United States President.

Chalking it up, Theodore!

1904- till he died Jan 6, 1919 Age 46-60

During the next fifteen years Theodore never slowed down. Some historians claim him the “4^th Greatest President” following Washington, Lincoln, and that other Roosevelt. If you go to South Dakota you’ll see his face staring down at you from Mount Rushmore (along with Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson).

And he was the first American, and first statesman, to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Google that story, and how he managed to secure a treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War through negotiations, quietly, away from Washington, at Sagamore Hill. He chose not to run for a third term, and the Roosevelts moved out of the White House March 4, 1909. Theodore was 50 now.

March 23, 1909. Theodore left New York as leader of the Smithsonian–Roosevelt African expedition. Funded by Andrew Carnegie and sponsored by the Smithsonian, its purpose was to collect specimens for the Smithsonian’s new natural history museum.

June 1910. The Expedition returned to the United States after traveling from Mombasa in East Africa to Khartoum in modern-day Sudan and collecting 11,400 animal specimens, which took Smithsonian naturalists eight years to catalog. Theodore’s book, African Game Trails, which details all the whys, wheres, and hows, is available on Amazon. Amazing.

January 1911. Back at Sagamore, Theodore was restless and concerned that his handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, was abandoning the political causes he’d groomed him for. June 1912. Theodore decided to run for President again, but failed to gain the nomination at the Republican convention that June in Chicago. He started the Progressive, or “Bull Moose” Party, so named when he boasted that he felt “strong as a bull moose.” October 1912. Theodore was shot while campaigning in Milwaukee. The bullet lodged in his chest after passing through his eyeglass case and 50 pages of the speech he was about to give. He declined hospital care and gave the speech. Later Xrays showed the bullet lodged in his chest, where it remained the rest of his life. “It takes more than a bullet to kill a bull moose,” he said.

November 1912. He didn’t win, Wilson almost took it all. But he came in second, marking the first time a new party beat out an incumbent president. Devastated, he headed back to Sagamore Hill.

October 1913. Another opportunity for adventure, this time a South American expedition that would trace the roots of the Amazon River. It proved ill-fated — several expedition members died, and both Roosevelt and his son Kermit became dangerously ill. When they finally made it home in 1914, Roosevelt retired to Long Island, but was once again making noise as he forcefully called for the United States’ entrance into World War I. On May 18, 1917 Theodore wrote a letter to President Wilson offering to personally raise two divisions for WWI service. On May 19 President Wilson denied Theodore’s request based on “public policy.”

July 14, 1918, Son Quentin was shot down behind enemy lines during WWI. He was buried, with honors, by Germans, a really incredible, and tender, story. Theodore lived less than six months after Quentin’s death, dying in his sleep in his bedroom at Sagamore January 6, 1919. Vice President Marshall commented: “Death had to take him sleeping, for if he’d been awake, there would have been a fight.” Edith lived another 29 years, survived by Ethel, Archibald, and Alice. Theodore and Edith are buried in Young’s Cemetery, overlooking their beloved Oyster Bay.

As to the question “Would I invite this man to a party at my house?” I’ve got a better idea. I’d invite him to lead another expedition on the Amazon River and take me along. That first one didn’t turn out so well for him, and the Amazon is still on my bucket list. Now wouldn’t that be a trip?