Basic Facts:
Birth: October 27, 1858 at New York City, NY
Death: January 6, 1919 at Oyster Bay, NY
Married: (1) Alice Hathaway Lee (1861-1884) on October 27, 1880; (2) Edith Kermit Carow (1861-1948) on December 2, 1886
Children: 6 – (1 with Alice Hathaway Lee: Alice Lee); (5 with Edith Carow: Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, Quentin)
President: Two terms beginning September 14, 1901 and March 4, 1905
Family:
Alice Hathaway Lee married Theodore Roosevelt in 1880 on his 22nd birthday. Her family and friends called her “Sunshine” because of her cheerful disposition. Two days following the birth of their daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt, she died of kidney disease.
Per Wikipedia: Distraught following Alice Roosevelt’s death, her husband hardly spoke of her again. Much to the frustration of their daughter, all Theodore Roosevelt revealed following his wife’s death was a diary entry and a short, privately published tribute:
She was beautiful in face and form, and lovelier still in spirit; As a flower she grew, and as a fair beautiful young flower she died. Her life had been always in the sunshine; there had never come to her a single sorrow; and none ever knew her who did not love and revere her for the bright, sunny temper and her saintly unselfishness. Fair, pure, and joyous as a maiden; loving, tender, and happy. As a young wife; when she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be just begun, and when the years seemed so bright before her—then, by a strange and terrible fate, death came to her. And when my heart’s dearest died, the light went from my life forever.
Eleven hours prior to Alice’s death, Theodore’s mother, Martha Stewart “Mittie” Bulloch, had died, of typhoid fever.
Theodore was rendered so distraught by his wife’s death that he could not bear to think about her. He almost never spoke of her again, would not allow her to be mentioned in his presence, and even omitted her name from his autobiography. Therefore, his daughter Alice was called “Baby Lee” instead of her name. She continued this practice late in life, often preferring to be called “Mrs. L” rather than “Alice”.
Their daughter was raised by her aunt, Roosevelt’s sister, until the age of three. She then lived with her father and step-mother, Edith Kermit Carow.
Longworth led an unconventional and controversial life. Her marriage to Representative Nicholas Longworth III, a Republican party leader and 38th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was shaky, and her only child, Paulina, was from her affair with Senator William Edgar Borah.
Second Marriage
Edith’s best friend was Theodore Roosevelt’s sister, Corinne. They were neighbors in New York City. Edith was a guest at his wedding to Alice.
His second marriage to Edith Kermit Carow produced five children:
- Theodore (Ted) (1887-1944) Roosevelt is known for his World War II service, including the directing of troops at Utah Beach during the Normandy landings, for which he received the Medal of Honor.
- Kermit (1889-1943) Kermit graduated from Harvard College, served in both World Wars (with both the British and US Armies), and explored two continents with his father. He fought a lifelong battle with depression and committed suicide while serving in the US Army in Alaska during World War II.
- Ethel (1891-1977)In the White House, Ethel often filled in for her mother by placing meal orders and delegating tasks to the staff. She was only 10 years old when her father became President after William McKinley’s assassination in 1901. On April 4, 1913, she married Richard Derby, a surgeon. Mrs. Derby helped his efforts in France during World War I where she served as a nurse in the American Ambulance Hospital. Ethel was the first of T.R.’s children to serve in the war. They had four children.
- Archie (1894-1979) Was a distinguished U.S. Army officer and commander of U.S. forces in both World War I and II. In both conflicts he was wounded. He earned the Silver Star with three oak leaf clusters, Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster and the French Croix de guerre. 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.
- Quentin (1897-1918) He joined the United States Army Air Service where he became a pursuit pilot during World War I. He was killed in aerial combat over France on Bastille Day (July 14), 1918. As of 2021, he is the only child of a US President to die in combat.
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin, was the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt’s brother Elliot, thus Theodore’s niece. When Franklin and Eleanor married, Theodore Roosevelt gave the bride away.
Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were fifth cousins (sharing 4x great-grandparents).
Other:
The inspiration for the teddy bear is believed to have come from a political cartoon about a bear-hunting trip Roosevelt went on in 1902.
When the Spanish-American War erupted, he helped form a volunteer regiment called the Rough Riders. His success in the war led to the governor’s office and then the Vice-Presidency.
The President and wife became the first president and first lady to travel abroad while in office when they made a trip to Panama.
At the time of his graduation from Harvard, he was ranked 21 out of 161 students.
Vice President Roosevelt became president in 1901 immediately following the assassination of sitting president William McKinley. At the age of 42, he was—and remains—the youngest president in the country’s history. (John F. Kennedy was 43 when he was sworn in; Bill Clinton was 46.)
On November 6, 1902, Theodore became the first U.S. president to use the West Wing. A day later, he held his first cabinet meeting at the office. (White House History)
Between 1904 and 1905, Russia and Japan were at war. The two nations asked Roosevelt to intervene as a mediator during a peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Following successful negotiations, with T.R. at the middle of it, the war ended, consequently granting Roosevelt a Nobel Peace Prize for his role. He was not only the first American, but also the first president to win the prize. (The Nobel Prize)
Over his tenure in the White House, he reserved 200 million acres of land for national forests and wildlife refuges.
Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act into law in 1906.
Roosevelt’s White House was no place for anyone skittish over animals. In addition to the numerous dogs, rabbits, and horses, the president also kept snakes, flying squirrels, chickens, bears, a lion, a zebra, and what he described as a “friendly and affectionate” rat.
Roosevelt’s fondness for combat sports didn’t leave him when he was elected to the highest office in the land. In 1905, when he was almost 50, Roosevelt was sparring in a boxing match with a partner when he was struck with a right to his left eye. The blow left him with a detached retina and led to significant vision issues.
After winning re-election in 1904, Roosevelt told his supporters that would be the end for him. In 1908, he supported Republican William Howard Taft. Taft won, but by 1912, their relationship had soured. Roosevelt ran against Taft in 1912 on the new Progressive ticket. Republican support was split between Roosevelt and Taft, allowing Woodrow Wilson to win the presidency.
in 1910 Roosevelt became the first current or former president to board a plane.
October 14, 1912, when the former president was giving a speech in Milwaukee and announced he had just been shot by a would-be assassin named John Schrank. Probes and an x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt’s chest muscle, but did not penetrate the pleura. Doctors concluded that it would be less dangerous to leave it in place than to attempt to remove it, and Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life. Both Taft and Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson suspended their own campaigning until Roosevelt recovered and resumed his.
When asked if the shooting would affect his election campaign, he said to the reporter “I’m fit as a bull moose.” The bull moose became a symbol of both Roosevelt and the Progressive Party, and it often was referred to as simply the Bull Moose Party.
The Panama Canal originally began in 1881; planned by Ferdinand de Lesseps (who had previously built the Suez Canal) (it) called for a 50-mile canal at sea level. Initially progress was steady but when the rains started, De Lesseps discovered what others had tried to warn him about: Panama’s unforgivable climate (heat and rain), wildlife (mosquitoes and snakes), and disease (malaria, smallpox, and yellow fever). In 1881, there were nearly 60 deaths from disease alone. By 1882, there were twice that many. When the French attempt finally ended in December 1888, more than $287 million of investors’ money was spent, with only eleven miles of canal and the death of more than 20,000 men.
In 1902, Roosevelt negotiated the rights to the property for $40 million and started negotiations with Colombia for a treaty. Meeting resistance from Colombia, Roosevelt joined business interests in Panama to stage a revolution. Panama became a nation on November 3, 1903. Engineering was also changed to the “lake and lock” canal idea, which Roosevelt was a proponent for. This system involved damming the Chagres, creating a lake in the interior of the country. Locks would then raise ships out of the Atlantic to the lake’s level, allowing them to cross to locks on the Pacific side. The Panama Canal was finally completed on September 26, 1913. The official opening of the Panama Canal took place on August 15, 1914.
Roosevelt’s image is carved on Mount Rushmore, the only presidential selection to draw any measure of criticism. Some academics argued that history had not yet judged the Roosevelt presidency (he had been dead only eight years). But Borglum believed Roosevelt’s vision of America’s role in the world community qualified him for the fourth place on the mountain. Roosevelt had realized the dream of Christopher Columbus by completing the Panama Canal and connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More significantly, sculptor Gutzon Borglum identified with “T. R.’s” energy and charisma, and saw him as the epitome of the American spirit. Borglum sculpted Roosevelt from memory, as he and “Teddy” were close friends and confidants before, during and after Roosevelt’s presidency.
Quotes
From Good Reads.com:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
“When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.”
“The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.”
To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.”
“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Return to The Presidents main page.
Sources:
Internet Public Library
goodreads.com
Mental Floss.com
Critics Rant.com
National Park Service, Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Greenman, Barbara. The Timeline History of U. S. Presidents and First Ladies. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, California, 2009.