Compact Biographies

“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt Biography

The man who would become the 26th president of the United States of America, Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy or TR to his friends, was born on October 27, 1858. He was the second of four children to arrive at the four-story brownstone house at 28 Easy 20th Street in Manhattan New York to parents Martha Stewart Bulloch, a socialite known by the nickname “Mittie” and Theodore Roosevelt Sr who was a businessman in the glass trade and somewhat of a philanthropist.

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The first child in the family was Teddy’s older sister, Anna. The third was little brother Elliott and the youngest was a sister called Corinne. It was Elliott who would become the father of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, future first lady and wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Teddy’s father was a fourth cousin of James Roosevelt I, who was the father of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

As a child, Theodore suffered from asthma and his poor health would plague him greatly. His asthma attacks sometimes caused the boy to awake as if during a nightmare in which he felt he was being smothered to death. However, Theodore Roosevelt was as mischievous, inquisitive and energetic as the next boy with a fondness for animals and zoology, which led to him writing a paper at the age of 9 called, “The Natural History of Insects”.

He was influenced by his father who was a prominent New York cultural affairs leader who had helped found the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was encouraged to better himself as he read about his heroes who ranged from soldiers to the feats of his Southern forefathers. Such stories inspired him to become fitter and healthier so that he could be like them.

As far as is education was concerned, Roosevelt was homeschooled by his parents and by private tutors. The subsequent uneven coverage of subjects – he was strong in geography, history and biology for example but weaker by comparison in maths and classical languages, didn’t prevent him from entering Harvard in September 1876. Eighteen months later, Theodore would be devastated by the death of his father, but went on to do well at Harvard, participating in rowing and boxing and even becoming editor of The Harvard Advocate. Theodore Roosevelt graduated magna cum laude on June 30, 1880, and entered Columbia Law School but would soon drop out of law school in favour of politics.

By the time Roosevelt was 22, he had fallen in love with the socialite Alice Hathaway Lee and they were married on his 22nd birthday. Alice Lee Roosevelt, their daughter, was born on 12 February 1884 but her mother died two days later from kidney failure. Theodore Roosevelt’s mother had died only eleven hours earlier in the same house and he recorded in his diary “The light has gone out of my life”.

Roosevelt threw himself into his work and was soon put forward as the Republican party’s candidate for the Albany District House Seat. He became a member of the New York State Assembly and went on, in 1883 to become the Assembly Minority Leader.

In 1886, he became the Republican candidate for the position of Mayor of New York City, promoting himself as the “Cowboy of the Dakotas”. He came in third place with 27% of the vote. In December of the same year, Theodore Roosevelt married a family friend from his childhood, Edith Kermit Carow. They were married in London and honeymooned in Europe where Roosevelt led a group to the summit of Mont Blanc which led to him being inducted into the Royal Society of London. The couple had five children.

In 1894, he was approached by a group of reform Republicans about running again for Mayor of New ...

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