The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (3 page)

A woman who lived next door to the Roosevelts told TR’s friend and biographer Jacob Riis that she saw the young boy hanging from a second-story window one day. She alerted his mother, and then prepared to catch TR as he fell. She told Riis, “If the Lord had not taken care of Theodore, he would have been killed long ago.”

For the Roosevelts, the road to success required action and perseverance. Inaction was not an option. TR learned that lesson in large part due to his parents’ and siblings’ influence.

The future U.S. president’s childhood was not ordinary by any stretch of the imagination. He suffered from health problems that no family’s name or wealth could prevent. Yet, neither he nor his family members ever used those problems as an excuse for failure or weakness. Instead, he—and his father in particular—used them as a challenge and a steppingstone to what he called a “strenuous life,” a phrase TR used often as he developed physically, mentally, and emotionally.

“Bamie”

Young “Teedie,” a nickname he acquired early, was the second child born to Theodore Roosevelt Sr. (“Thee”) and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (“Mittie”). By the time he arrived on October 27, 1858, in the family’s New York City brownstone at 28 East 20th Street, his older sister, Anna, was almost four years old. Anna, born on January 18, 1855, was destined to play a significant role in TR’s life.

Anna and TR had two major things in common. Like him, she had to overcome serious health problems. And they were both full of seemingly boundless energy despite their ailments.

Anna, known as “Bamie,” a play on the Italian word
bambina
(little girl), or “Bye,” suffered from a spinal ailment. As a result, she wore confining corrective steel braces in her childhood.

The braces did not slow her down. Her disdain for them explains how she acquired her nickname. Anna came and went so fast at times that people were not sure they actually saw her. They got used to saying, “Hi, Bamie. Bye, Bamie.”

Elliott

The next young Roosevelt, Elliott, “Ellie” or “Nell” for short, was born sixteen months after Teedie, on February 28, 1860. That was ideal for them both from a playmate standpoint. Elliott and TR were close as children. But their lives eventually went in different directions, as Theodore developed into the best-known and most successful of the four siblings and Elliott became the pariah. No one could have predicted that in 1860, though.

Elliott and TR were highly competitive as children. Elliott served as TR’s best man at his first wedding. Sadly, Elliott started drinking alcohol when he was young. Eventually, he was ostracized from the family. He survived a suicide attempt at age 34, but died a few days later. That was a sad day for the Roosevelt family.

“Conie”

The fourth child, Corinne, joined the family on September 27, 1861. She, too, played an important role in TR’s life—especially after his first wife died. “Conie,” as she was known, formed a friendship with the Roosevelts’ next-door neighbor, Edith Kermit Carow. Edith, who was born on August 6, 1861, only a few weeks before Corinne, also befriended TR. Eventually, their friendship turned into marriage.

The close family relationships among the Roosevelt children, and their love and respect for their parents, were significant factors in TR’s development. The same close family relationships blossomed among TR’s children after he became a father.

A Civil War at Home

There was a bit of strife between his parents over the Civil War. For the most part, though, family life in TR’s early years was harmonious—especially after the war ended.

Theodore Sr. was a lifelong New Yorker and a Union supporter. Like her future husband, Martha was a native of the North, at least technically. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 8, 1835, but she and her mother moved to Savannah, Georgia, when Mittie was only a few months old.

Mittie’s mother was visiting a stepson in Hartford and taking a respite from the stifling heat of their Savannah home when Mittie was born. They stayed in Hartford for a few months before returning to Georgia. Ironically, Bamie was buried in Farmington, Connecticut, just a few miles away from Hartford.

Mittie’s family members, the Bullochs, were at heart “dyed-in-the-wool” Southerners. As a result, Thee’s and Martha’s political allegiances became an issue when the Civil War began in April 1861.

Theodore Sr. worked for the Union, although he never served on active duty in the military. Rather, he paid a replacement to serve in his stead, which was legal at the time. That was one of the few aspects of Thee’s life that he regretted.

TR learned early history and political science lessons from James Bulloch, who moved to England after the Civil War and became an ardent Tory (conservative). Bulloch could not abide the liberal statesman William E. Gladstone. TR sometimes defended Gladstone, much to Bulloch’s dismay. TR was trying to understand both sides of an argument, which became the norm for him.

In all fairness, Theodore Sr. may have avoided active military service in an effort to keep peace in the family. Instead, he served as an allotment commissioner for New York, tried to persuade soldiers to send part of their wages to their families, and traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit President Lincoln and lobby Congress for programs to support the Union troops in the field and their families.

Martha placed her loyalties with the Confederate States of America out of concern for her brothers, James Bulloch, a Confederate agent in England, and Irvine Bulloch, an officer with the Confederate Navy. Irvine was the youngest officer aboard the vaunted commerce raider CSS
Alabama
, which succumbed to the U.S. Navy sloop-of-war
Kearsarge
in an historic battle off Cherbourg, France, on June 19, 1864. He was credited with firing the last gun aboard
Alabama
just before it sank.

Both brothers survived the war, as well as the Roosevelt family.

Early Health Problems

Thee and Mittie must have wondered after the birth of their second child if they would ever have any healthy children. Anna contended with her spinal problem. Teedie developed asthma and other ailments as a child. As a result, he often slept in a chair or sitting up in bed.

TR’s breathing problems grew so severe at times during the night that his father would take him for horse rides in an attempt to open his airways. The relief was temporary, but TR did not let his persistent ailments get him down. He may have been weak physically, but he did not let that get in the way of learning.

At times, the family left New York City just to find places where TR could breathe. Even that did not always help. Corinne remembered times when he suffered tremendously, even in summer weather. But, she observed, his asthma attacks were never as bad in the summer as they were in the winter.

To compound his problems, TR was nearsighted. He joked that the only things he could study while learning about nature “were those I ran against or stumbled over.” His eyesight never improved. Later in life, he lost the sight in one eye in a boxing match. In one sparring session, his partner hit him so hard below the left eye that he lost sight in it. He kept the blindness a secret and went about his business despite the impairment. He did not reveal it to anyone for a long while afterward.

Theodore Roosevelt, about four years old

Developing an Interest in Natural History

TR was an inquisitive child. Since he was ill and indoors so often, he had to find ways to occupy his time. One activity was to study nature. He developed an interest in natural history that he never lost, whether it was through books or field experiments.

Studying birds and animals and their role in nature provided a mental getaway from the rigors of whatever avenue he was pursuing at various stages of his life. He shared the knowledge he gained with the rest of the world, and provided the results of his scientific research to museums and educational institutions.

In a way, TR’s bad health was beneficial. It contributed to his early interest in natural history. Because he was limited at times to nontaxing physical activities, he developed a fondness for the subject—starting with a dead seal.

One of the first books TR read intensively was David Livingstone’s
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
. Livingstone’s discussions of ants fascinated him. TR kept pestering everybody in the family to answer his questions about ants. Finally, Bamie had to do some research and answer his questions to give the family some peace.

The Seal of Approval

One morning, while on an errand, TR saw a dead seal at a market. He started asking questions about where it came from and how it died.

If there was one thing TR knew how to do, it was ask questions. He was a naturally curious boy. Somehow, he connected the dead seal to the adventure novels of the Irish-born writer Mayne Reid, and the seal became an obsession with TR.

TR visited the dead seal often. He measured it frequently, took notes regarding its carcass, and continued to ask questions about the animal. One day, the seal was gone, but TR found and kept the head. It ended up in what he called the Roosevelt Natural History Museum.

TR’s parents encouraged his natural history studies. A family chambermaid did not. He and two of his cousins established their natural history museum in his room, which did not get the chambermaid’s seal of approval. They had to move it and other specimens they had gathered to a new location in an isolated part of the house.

Hooked on Natural History

From that point on, TR was hooked on natural history and planned to make it his life’s work, with his father’s help. Thee gave TR permission to take lessons in taxidermy when he was thirteen years old. His teacher, John G. Bell, had accompanied famed naturalist James Audubon on an expedition to the western section of the country. Even though Bell did not know much about science, he taught TR how to stuff and mount animals. That skill came in handy in TR’s later years as he expanded his big-game hunting horizons.