Theodore Roosevelt Sr. (September 22, 1831 – February 9, 1878) was an American businessman and philanthropist from the
Roosevelt family
The Roosevelt family is an American political family from New York whose members have included two United States presidents, a First Lady, and various merchants, bankers, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progeny ...
. Roosevelt was also the father of President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
and the paternal grandfather of First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
. He served as a member of the plate-glass importing business
Roosevelt & Son
Roosevelt & Son was an American investment banking firm connected with the Roosevelt family for nearly two centuries. The firm was among the oldest banking houses on Wall Street. Many of the male members of the Roosevelt family worked for the ...
.
Roosevelt helped found the New York City
Children's Aid Society
Children's Aid, formerly the Children's Aid Society, is a private child welfare nonprofit in New York City founded in 1853 by Charles Loring Brace. With an annual budget of over $100 million, 45 citywide sites, and over 1,200 full-time employee ...
, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, the
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
, and the New York Children's Orthopedic Hospital. A participant in New York society life, he was described by one historian as a man of both "good works and good times". In December 1877, Roosevelt was nominated to be
Collector of the Port of New York
The Collector of Customs at the Port of New York, most often referred to as Collector of the Port of New York, was a federal officer who was in charge of the collection of import duties on foreign goods that entered the United States by ship at t ...
but was rejected by the U.S. Senate.
Family
Roosevelt was born in Albany to businessman
Cornelius Roosevelt
Cornelius Van Schaack "C.V.S." Roosevelt (January 30, 1794 – July 17, 1871) was an American businessman from New York City. He was a member of the prominent Roosevelt family and the paternal grandfather of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
E ...
and Margaret Barnhill. His four elder brothers were Silas,
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
, Cornelius Jr., and
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
. His younger brother, William, died at the age of one.
Roosevelt married
Martha Stewart Bulloch of
Roswell, Georgia
Roswell is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States. At the official 2010 census, the city had a population of 88,346. The 2020 estimated population was 94,884, making Roswell the state's ninth largest city. A close suburb of Atla ...
, on December 22, 1853. She was the younger daughter of Major
James Stephens Bulloch
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
and Martha "Patsy" Stewart. Mittie was also a sister of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
's
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
veteran
Irvine Bulloch
Irvine Stephens Bulloch (June 25, 1842 – July 14, 1898) was an officer in the Confederate Navy and the youngest officer on the famed warship CSS ''Alabama''. He fired its last shot before it was sunk off the coast of France at the end of the A ...
and half-sister of Civil War Confederate veteran
James Dunwoody Bulloch
James Dunwoody Bulloch (June 25, 1823 – January 7, 1901) was the Confederacy's chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War. Based in Liverpool, he operated blockade runners and commerce raiders that provided the Confed ...
. They married at her family's historic mansion,
Bulloch Hall
Bulloch Hall is a Greek Revival mansion in Roswell, Georgia, built in 1839. It is one of several historically significant buildings in the city and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is where Martha Bulloch Roosevelt ("M ...
in Roswell. Theodore Sr. and Martha had four children:
*
Anna Roosevelt in 1855
*
Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
Theodore Roosevelt III ( ), often known as Theodore Jr.Morris, Edmund (1979). ''The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt''. index.While it was President Theodore Roosevelt who was legally named Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the President's fame made it simple ...
in 1858, who became the 26th
president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
*
Elliott Roosevelt (socialite)
Elliott Roosevelt (February 28, 1860 – August 14, 1894) was an American socialite. He was the father of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and the younger brother of Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), the 26th president of the United States. Elliott and ...
in 1860, who was the father of future
First Lady
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
and father-in-law of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
*
Corinne Roosevelt in 1861
His son's recollections
Of Theodore Sr., or "Thee" as he was known, his namesake son, in his autobiography described him in the following words:
My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness. As we grew older, he made us understand that the same standard of clean living was demanded for the boys as for the girls; that what was wrong in a woman could not be right in a man. With great love and patience, and the most generous sympathy and consideration, he combined insistence on discipline. He never physically punished me but once, but he was the only man of whom I was ever really afraid. I do not mean that it was a wrong fear, for he was entirely just, and we children adored him. ...
I never knew anyone who got greater joy out of living than did my father, or anyone who more whole-heartedly performed every duty; and no one whom I have ever met approached his combination of enjoyment of life and performance of duty. He and my mother were given to hospitality that at that time was associated more commonly with southern than northern households. ...
My father worked hard at his business, for he died when he was forty-six, too early to have retired. He was interested in every social reform movement, and he did an immense amount of practical charitable work himself. He was a big, powerful man, with a leonine face, and his heart filled with gentleness for those who needed help or protection, and with the possibility of much wrath against a bully or an oppressor. ... ewas greatly interested in the societies to prevent cruelty to children and cruelty to animals. On Sundays, he had a mission class."
In a 1900 letter, Roosevelt described his father, writing:
I was fortunate enough in having a father whom I have always been able to regard as an ideal man. It sounds a little like cant to say what I am going to say, but he did combine the strength and courage and will and energy of the strongest man with the tenderness, cleanness, and purity of a woman. I was a sickly and timid boy. He not only took great and untiring care of me—some of my earliest remembrances are of nights when he would walk up and down with me for an hour at a time in his arms when I was a wretched mite suffering acutely with asthma—but he also most wisely refused to coddle me, and made me feel that I must force myself to hold my own with other boys and prepare to do the rough work of the world. I cannot say that he ever put it into words, but he certainly gave me the feeling that I was always to be both decent and manly, and that if I were manly nobody would laugh at my being decent. In all my childhood he never laid hand on me but once, but I always knew perfectly well that in case it became necessary he would not have the slightest hesitancy in doing so again, and alike from my love and respect, and in a certain sense, my fear of him, I would have hated and dreaded beyond measure to have him know that I had been guilty of a lie, or of cruelty, or of bullying, or of uncleanness or cowardice. Gradually I grew to have the feeling on my account, and not merely on his."
To combat his poor physical condition, his father encouraged the young Roosevelt to take up exercise. To deal with bullies, Roosevelt started
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
lessons. Two trips abroad had a permanent impact: family tours of Europe in 1869 and 1870, and of the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
1872 to 1873.
Support for the Union during the Civil War
Theodore Sr. was an active supporter of the Union during the Civil War. He was one of the Charter Members of the
Union League Club
The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray Hill ...
, which was founded to promote the Northern cause. He has not been listed as such, probably because his wife was a loyal supporter of the Confederacy, and her brothers Irvine Stephens Bulloch and James Dunwoody Bulloch were fighting for the Confederate Army. It was perhaps because of her active support of the Confederate Army that Theodore Sr. hired a replacement to fulfill his draft obligation in the Army of the Potomac. During the war, he and two friends,
William Earl Dodge Jr. and Theodore B. Bronson, drew up an
Allotment System
The allotment system ( sv, indelningsverket; fi, ruotujakolaitos) was a system used in Sweden for keeping a trained army at all times. This system came into use in around 1640, and was replaced by the modern Swedish Armed Forces conscription s ...
, which amounted to a soldier's payroll deduction program to support families back home. He then went to Washington, lobbied for, and won acceptance of this system, with the help of Abraham Lincoln himself. Theodore Sr. and Mr. Dodge were appointed Allotment Commissioners from New York State. At their expense, the two men toured all New York divisions of the Army of the Potomac in the field to explain this program and sign interested men up, with a significant degree of success. In 1864, the Union League Club recruited money and food to send
Thanksgiving Dinner
The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and in Canada is Thanksgiving dinner (informally called turkey dinner), a large meal generally centered on a large roasted turkey. Thanksgiving could be considered the largest ...
to the entire
Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confedera ...
. Theodore Sr. served as Treasurer for this generous outpouring of support for the troops. The elder Roosevelt meticulously listed every donation received in a Union League Report dated December 1864.
Orthopedic Hospital
![Union Square Park 05](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Union_Square_Park_05.jpg)
Roosevelt founded the New York Orthopedic Hospital. His younger daughter
Corinne wrote this account of its origins: Bamie was born with a curved spine, and Roosevelt found a young doctor, Charles Fayette Taylor, who had developed groundbreaking methods of treating physical defects in children, including braces and other equipment. Roosevelt then organized what appeared to be a social party for the upper crust of New York City. When the would-be revelers arrived, however, what they saw to their great surprise, were small children in new braces specially constructed for them. Moved to tears by the sight, one of the wealthiest socialites, Charlotte Augusta Gibbes (wife of financier/philanthropist
John Jacob Astor III
John Jacob Astor III (June 10, 1822 – February 22, 1890) was an American financier, philanthropist and a soldier during the American Civil War. He was a prominent member of the Astor family, becoming the wealthiest member in his generation and ...
) said, "Theodore, you are right; these children must be restored and made into active citizens again, and I for one will help you in your work." That same day enough money was collected to start the hospital. Friends of Roosevelt used to see him coming and note the look in his eyes only to say to him, "How much is it, this time, Theodore?"
Other philanthropic interests
He contributed large sums to the Newsboys' Lodging-house and the
Young Men's Christian Association
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
. He organized the Bureau of United Charities and was a commissioner of the New York State Board of Charities. He was a director of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
and of the
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
.
Nomination for Collector to the Port of New York, and death
In October 1877, Roosevelt was nominated by President
Rutherford Hayes Rutherford may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rutherford, New South Wales, a suburb of Maitland
* Rutherford (Parish), New South Wales, a civil parish of Yungnulgra County
Canada
* Mount Rutherford, Jasper National Park
* Rutherford, Edmonto ...
to the position of
Collector of Customs at the Port of New York. One of Hayes's main reasons for nominating Roosevelt was to embarrass New York Senator
Roscoe Conkling
Roscoe Conkling (October 30, 1829April 18, 1888) was an American lawyer and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician who represented New York (state), New York in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Se ...
, whom Hayes considered corrupt, and who was demanding the renomination of the incumbent Collector, future President
Chester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James ...
. Conkling, as a member of the Senate committee tasked with considering the appointment, used endless delaying tactics, and the resulting battle made national headlines and left Roosevelt Sr. feeling humiliated and disillusioned.
As the process dragged on, Roosevelt started experiencing severe stomach cramps caused by a
gastrointestinal
The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organs of the digestive system, in humans and ...
tumor, misdiagnosed as
peritonisis. In December, two days after his appointment was finally rejected in the Senate by a vote of 25 to 31, Roosevelt collapsed.
Initially he kept the extent of his illness hidden from his elder son, who was away attending
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. In February, however, 19-year-old Theodore Jr. was informed and immediately took a train from
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
to New York, where he missed his father's death by a few hours.
The senior Roosevelt had been 46.
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was profoundly affected by the early death of his father and spent months in a deep state of grief.
Legacy
Biographer
H. W. Brands
Henry William Brands Jr. (born August 7, 1953) is an American historian. He holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his PhD in history in 1985. He has authored 30 books on U.S. histor ...
argued that the timing of his death contributed heavily to the younger Theodore's psychology, since the future president knew his father fully while growing up, but missed knowing his father man-to-man, and therefore absorbed a view of his father entirely in his role as a parent, untempered by much realization of his human imperfection.
[Brands, 1997, p. 80.] Theodore Jr.'s sister
Corinne remarked that "when
heodore Jr.was entering upon his duties as President of the United States, he told me frequently that he never took any serious step or made any vital decision for his country without thinking first what position his father would have taken on the question."
In 2012, historian
Douglas Brinkley
Douglas Brinkley (born December 14, 1960) is an American author, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities, and professor of history at Rice University. Brinkley is the history commentator for CNN, Presidential Historian for the New York Histori ...
ranked Roosevelt first in a list of fathers of presidents of the United States, citing his instilling his son with a love of outdoors and lessons in foreign languages, taxidermy, and bodybuilding and calling Roosevelt "in a league of his own."
Residences
The year after their 1853 marriage, Mr. & Mrs. Roosevelt moved to a Manhattan city house at 28 East 20th Street. All of their children were born there. The house was demolished in 1916. Following President Roosevelt's death in 1919, the vacant lot was purchased, and the house was re-created as the
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site is a recreated brownstone at 28 East 20th Street, between Broadway and Park Avenue South, in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York City. It is a replica of the birthplace and childhood ...
.
In 1872, the Roosevelt family moved to a city house at 6 West 57th Street, where Theodore Sr. died in 1878.
File:Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace.jpg, Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site.
File:RooseveltDiningroom.jpg, Dining room of 6 West 57th Street.
Notes
References
Primary sources
*Roosevelt, Theodore. ''An Autobiography.'' (1913)
*Huddleston, Connie M. and Gwendolyn I. Koehler. "Mittie & Thee: An 1853 Roosevelt Romance." (nonfiction) (2015)
*Huddleston, Connie M. and Gwendolyn I. Koehler. "Between the Wedding & the War: The Bulloch/Roosevelt Letters 1854–1860) (2016)
Secondary sources
*
Beale, Howard K. ''Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power'' (1956).
*
Brands, H. W. ''T.R.: The last Romantic.'' 1997 Basic Books . See page 80 for the death of TR Sr.
*Brands, H. W. ''Theodore Roosevelt'' (2001)
*Dalton, Kathleen. ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life.'' (2002)
*Harbaugh, William Henry. ''The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt.'' (1963)
*
McCullough, David
David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United State ...
. ''
Mornings on Horseback, The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt'' (2001)
*
Morris, Edmund ''
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
''The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt'' (1979) is a biography of List of United States Presidents, United States President Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris (writer), Edmund Morris and published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan when the author was fort ...
'' (1979)
*Morris, Edmund ''
Theodore Rex''. (2001)
*Mowry, George. ''The era of Theodore Roosevelt and the birth of modern America, 1900-1912.'' (1954)
*Renehan, Edward J. ''The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War'' (1998)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Theodore Sr.
Theodore
Theodore may refer to:
Places
* Theodore, Alabama, United States
* Theodore, Australian Capital Territory
* Theodore, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Banana, Australia
* Theodore, Saskatchewan, Canada
* Theodore Reservoir, a lake in Sask ...
Fathers of presidents of the United States
Fathers of vice presidents of the United States
People of New York (state) in the American Civil War
Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
1831 births
1878 deaths
Bulloch family
Schuyler family
19th-century American businesspeople
American philanthropists
American people of Dutch descent