On October 10th, 1889, Kermit Roosevelt, third child and second son of United States Civil Service Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt and his wife Edith was born at the family home at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York.
TR had six children, daughter Alice born just two days before Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, her mother, died of Bright's disease on February 14, 1884. Nine months and one week after marrying in December 1886, Edith and Theodore welcomed Ted, Jr. Kermit followed and then Ethel, Archie and Quentin.
Though he was the youngest, Quentin was the first to die in 1918, the death with honor due to the fallen World War One aviator. Heartbroken, his father would die within six months. During World War Two, Kermit died in Alaska in 1943, the self-inflicted nature of his fatal gunshot being kept from his failing mother. Ted went on to have a famous civic and military career, dying while on duty, a general in the fields of France in 1944.
In 1977, Ethel Roosevelt Derby passed away after a lifetime spent in the quiet service of others, from WWI nurse in France to civil rights advocate in her final decades. Archie passed in 1979. While he enjoyed a succesful business career in his later years, he spent his youth in service to his country, being the only American soldier, as a result of combat injuries, to be declared 100% disabled in both world wars. Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the last of the children to pass, in 1980, just after her 96th birthday.
Reflecting on Kermit's birthday, I'm so very impressed with the strength and depth in the man. In both of the World Wars, he volunteered for duty with the British forces to get into the war sooner. Kermit spent many months hunting with his father in Africa in 1909 and 1910 and exploring the Amazon in 1913 and 1914. A decade after their father's death, Ted and Kermit had a tremendous hunting adventure in the steppes of Mongolia.
Celebrating a Roosevelt birthday, I pause to celebrate my father's birthday, like Kermit, October 10th. I'm not my father's oldest son, but, like Kermit, I've been blessed to join him on some special adventures. He has inspired me to follow my dreams, as an entertainer and a public servant. For a good time, visit http://www.lasthippie.com/
Friday, October 10, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
President Theodore Roosevelt
On September 14, 1901, at 2:15 A.M., President McKinley died at the Milburne House in Buffalo, New York. Theodore Roosevelt, aboard a horse drawn buckboard carriage, speeding through a dark and rainy night on the rutted dirt road between Tahawus Hunt Club and Aiden Lair, was now the President.
At the train depot in North Creek, shortly after 5:00 A.M., Roosevelt’s secretary, William Loeb, handed TR the telegram from Secretary of State John Hay, informing him of the President’s death. TR jumped immediately up the steps of the special train waiting to take him down the Delaware and Hudson Railroad to Albany and thence to Buffalo. That afternoon, in the Ansley Wilcox Mansion, Judge Hazel administered the Presidential oath of office.
Today, the Wilcox Mansion is a National Historic Site, administered by staff and volunteers dedicated to the preservation of the special history housed there. Having concluded a very successful capital fund drive, the foundation which supports the site is now engaged in completing an extensive renovation and expansion of the Mansion and its new visitor center, fashioned in the architectural spirit of the carriage house once attendant to the property.
Having just visited and seen the tremendous work going on there, I highly recommend that you put the site on your itinerary during your next exploration of this beautiful country and her glorious history. www.nps.gov/thri/
As the Theodore Roosevelt Association prepares to establish a Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Museum and Research Center in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, it bodes well for the TRA that the person at the helm is Barbara Berryman Brandt of Buffalo. As Chairman of the TRA, Mrs. Brandt is dedicated to seeing that a world class museum results. If past is prologue, she will see the job through in top order.
As a member of the Junior League of Buffalo, Mrs. Brandt was one of the many community leaders who originally saved the Wilcox Mansion from the wrecking ball. Today, she could use your help, not to save a building, but rather, to build one. The TR Museum will perpetuate the memory and the legacy of one of America’s finest men and greatest presidents, that future generations of Americans will know his values and be inspired to get in the arena in service to their fellow citizens. Your interest, support and donations are welcome at http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/
As a postscript, it seems fitting to note that yesterday, September 13th, was the birthday of TR’s oldest son and namesake, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., born at Oyster Bay, Long Island, in 1887. The first child born to TR and his second wife, Edith, Ted would live a life of service, excelling in business, in politics and on the field of battle. Injured in World War I, Ted remained on duty in France through the end of the war. The war ended, Ted’s fellow officers wanted him to serve as the first president of what would become the American Legion. While he played a leading role in establishing the veteran’s organization, he declined the presidency, as he planned to enter New York state politics and wanted the group to thrive without being hindered by political opponents.
In WWII, Ted would return to lead soldiers ashore on D-Day in France, the only General officer to go to shore on that day. Ted died in France later that year of a heart attack. His body and that of his youngest brother, Quentin, killed in France in WWI, lay side by side at the American cemetery in Normandy, an ever living reminder that the Lion’s Pride, in the words of Quentin, did as their father would have them do. Today, Ted’s home, Old Orchard, built behind his father’s home at Sagamore Hill, is a museum, another of the many historic places calling for a visit from you and yours along this tremendous journey. www.nps.gov/sahi/
At the train depot in North Creek, shortly after 5:00 A.M., Roosevelt’s secretary, William Loeb, handed TR the telegram from Secretary of State John Hay, informing him of the President’s death. TR jumped immediately up the steps of the special train waiting to take him down the Delaware and Hudson Railroad to Albany and thence to Buffalo. That afternoon, in the Ansley Wilcox Mansion, Judge Hazel administered the Presidential oath of office.
Today, the Wilcox Mansion is a National Historic Site, administered by staff and volunteers dedicated to the preservation of the special history housed there. Having concluded a very successful capital fund drive, the foundation which supports the site is now engaged in completing an extensive renovation and expansion of the Mansion and its new visitor center, fashioned in the architectural spirit of the carriage house once attendant to the property.
Having just visited and seen the tremendous work going on there, I highly recommend that you put the site on your itinerary during your next exploration of this beautiful country and her glorious history. www.nps.gov/thri/
As the Theodore Roosevelt Association prepares to establish a Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Museum and Research Center in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, it bodes well for the TRA that the person at the helm is Barbara Berryman Brandt of Buffalo. As Chairman of the TRA, Mrs. Brandt is dedicated to seeing that a world class museum results. If past is prologue, she will see the job through in top order.
As a member of the Junior League of Buffalo, Mrs. Brandt was one of the many community leaders who originally saved the Wilcox Mansion from the wrecking ball. Today, she could use your help, not to save a building, but rather, to build one. The TR Museum will perpetuate the memory and the legacy of one of America’s finest men and greatest presidents, that future generations of Americans will know his values and be inspired to get in the arena in service to their fellow citizens. Your interest, support and donations are welcome at http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/
As a postscript, it seems fitting to note that yesterday, September 13th, was the birthday of TR’s oldest son and namesake, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., born at Oyster Bay, Long Island, in 1887. The first child born to TR and his second wife, Edith, Ted would live a life of service, excelling in business, in politics and on the field of battle. Injured in World War I, Ted remained on duty in France through the end of the war. The war ended, Ted’s fellow officers wanted him to serve as the first president of what would become the American Legion. While he played a leading role in establishing the veteran’s organization, he declined the presidency, as he planned to enter New York state politics and wanted the group to thrive without being hindered by political opponents.
In WWII, Ted would return to lead soldiers ashore on D-Day in France, the only General officer to go to shore on that day. Ted died in France later that year of a heart attack. His body and that of his youngest brother, Quentin, killed in France in WWI, lay side by side at the American cemetery in Normandy, an ever living reminder that the Lion’s Pride, in the words of Quentin, did as their father would have them do. Today, Ted’s home, Old Orchard, built behind his father’s home at Sagamore Hill, is a museum, another of the many historic places calling for a visit from you and yours along this tremendous journey. www.nps.gov/sahi/
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Treaty of Portsmouth
On the morning of September 6, 1905, two Russian diplomats, Sergius Witte and Baron Roman Rosen, left Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on a train bound for Boston. The citizenry of the region were out enmasse to bid the men fond farewell. On the previous afternoon, after nearly a month of negotiations, which nearly failed, the representatives of Imperial Japan and Czarist Russia concluded and signed a peace treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War.
Earlier, in the summer, the American President Theodore Roosevelt had invited the two nations to send emissaries to the United States to discuss ending the war which, on the battlefields of Manchuria and in the waters of the Yellow Sea, had bloodied the two nations badly. On August 5, T.R. bid the negotiating delegations welcome aboard the Presidential yacht, Mayflower.
For a month to follow the United States hosted the emissaries of the combatant nations, and, through back channels, influenced their negotiations to lead them to a successful conclusion. The Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth, where the negotiations were held and Wentworth by the Sea, the beautiful resort where the delegations and the world’s press stayed, stand today as proud reminders of the role played in history by the good people of Portsmouth.
Through the Spanish American War the United States announced to the European and Asian powers that it was a military power with which to be reckoned. With the Treaty of Portsmouth, America now announced to the world that it had the influence and standing to be a great peacemaker, too.
For the Russians, the Treaty of Portsmouth brought an end to a war that had been so costly that in it were sown the seeds of the downfall of the centuries old reign of the czars. In 1905 alone, Russia had surrendered Port Arthur, been defeated at Mukden and seen the Russian Baltic Fleet decimated at the Battle of Tsushima. In its main parts, the treaty allowed the Russians to control the northern half of Sakhalin Island, but also forced Russia to surrender its lease at Port Arthur and to recognize a Japanese sphere of influence in Korea.
The Japanese negotiators included Foreign Minister Jutaro Komura, a graduate of Harvard Law School, and Kogoro Takahira, Japan’s Minister to the United States. Their negotiations were aided by Kentaro Kaneko, another graduate of Harvard Law and Henry W. Denison, a former American diplomat who served for over three decades as a legal advisor to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. It was Denison, working with the Russian diplomat Theodore de Martins, who drafted the Treaty.
Despite the favorable terms for Japan, the Treaty was greeted with disdain by many Japanese nationalists who desired financial indemnity and abhorred the loss of one half of Sakhalin. Riots broke out in Japan, where several people were killed and hundreds injured.
For his efforts to bring an end to the Russo-Japanese War, Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1906. Today, that prize hangs in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, along with T.R.’s Medal of Honor. It is said that the U.S. President often receives foreign dignitaries in the Roosevelt Room where these two awards display America’s resolve to “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
In another time, T.R. wrote “Peace is a goddess with sword girt on thigh.” This is T.R.’s peace of righteousness. It is a true peace, worth the fight, for in it is the honor of our people and the preservation of our republic.
Earlier, in the summer, the American President Theodore Roosevelt had invited the two nations to send emissaries to the United States to discuss ending the war which, on the battlefields of Manchuria and in the waters of the Yellow Sea, had bloodied the two nations badly. On August 5, T.R. bid the negotiating delegations welcome aboard the Presidential yacht, Mayflower.
For a month to follow the United States hosted the emissaries of the combatant nations, and, through back channels, influenced their negotiations to lead them to a successful conclusion. The Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth, where the negotiations were held and Wentworth by the Sea, the beautiful resort where the delegations and the world’s press stayed, stand today as proud reminders of the role played in history by the good people of Portsmouth.
Through the Spanish American War the United States announced to the European and Asian powers that it was a military power with which to be reckoned. With the Treaty of Portsmouth, America now announced to the world that it had the influence and standing to be a great peacemaker, too.
For the Russians, the Treaty of Portsmouth brought an end to a war that had been so costly that in it were sown the seeds of the downfall of the centuries old reign of the czars. In 1905 alone, Russia had surrendered Port Arthur, been defeated at Mukden and seen the Russian Baltic Fleet decimated at the Battle of Tsushima. In its main parts, the treaty allowed the Russians to control the northern half of Sakhalin Island, but also forced Russia to surrender its lease at Port Arthur and to recognize a Japanese sphere of influence in Korea.
The Japanese negotiators included Foreign Minister Jutaro Komura, a graduate of Harvard Law School, and Kogoro Takahira, Japan’s Minister to the United States. Their negotiations were aided by Kentaro Kaneko, another graduate of Harvard Law and Henry W. Denison, a former American diplomat who served for over three decades as a legal advisor to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. It was Denison, working with the Russian diplomat Theodore de Martins, who drafted the Treaty.
Despite the favorable terms for Japan, the Treaty was greeted with disdain by many Japanese nationalists who desired financial indemnity and abhorred the loss of one half of Sakhalin. Riots broke out in Japan, where several people were killed and hundreds injured.
For his efforts to bring an end to the Russo-Japanese War, Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1906. Today, that prize hangs in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, along with T.R.’s Medal of Honor. It is said that the U.S. President often receives foreign dignitaries in the Roosevelt Room where these two awards display America’s resolve to “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
In another time, T.R. wrote “Peace is a goddess with sword girt on thigh.” This is T.R.’s peace of righteousness. It is a true peace, worth the fight, for in it is the honor of our people and the preservation of our republic.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
St. Paul - Blessed are the Peacemakers
I had the most fascinating time in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Minnesota State Fair and the Republican National Convention.
It was on this date, September 2, 1901, that then Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, first implored his fellow Americans to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” and he said it at the Minnesota State Fair. Minnesotans know their history and they love their state fair, ranking second in state fair attendance behind Texas.
From late August through Labor Day, September 1st, I had a wonderful time welcoming fairgoers from throughout the country to the historic J.V. Bailey House, built on the fairgrounds in 1912. That same year marked T.R.’s final visit to the Minnesota State Fair. In that same year, Minnesota was one of five states to deliver electoral votes for T.R., the Bull Moose Progressive candidate.
I had a wonderful time performing for hours each day and had a great show at the Carousel Park stage on Sunday. The parents and kids were great.
Today, in downtown St. Paul, I had a wonderful time visiting with Republican delegates from throughout the nation, indeed, people from throughout the world. Yes, I met Democrats from throughout the country, too. You may not be surprised that I met some people who were from “way out there somewhere,” too.
I hope it doesn’t surprise or offend you that my Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed the Republican National Convention and enjoyed endorsing John McCain on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and with various television, raido and print journalists from around the country.
Even while he was fighting the “malefactors of great wealth” for control of the Republican Party, Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican. While he ran as a Bull Moose Progressive in 1912, it was only after he succeeded in winning eleven of thirteen state contests held for the GOP nomination, including the primary in Taft’s home state of Ohio. Taft’s forces controlled, and in T.R.’s views stole, the 1912 nomination in Chicago. He and the Progressives were duty bound to make the effort to take the White House for the American people.
In 1916, T.R. refused the Progressive Party nomination for President, instead leading the Progressives to join him in endorsing Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes. When T.R. died in 1919, he was the leading candidate for the 1920 Republican nomination and he was seriously pursuing it.
So, as I portrayed T.R. and explained and defended my McCain button and my enthusiasm, I did so with a thorough appreciation for the issues and dynamics inherent in this election nearly a century hence. Like T.R., John McCain knows what it’s like to fight against corruption and big-moneyed special interests. Like T.R., John McCain not only knows the sacrifice of military service and combat, he understands that “the big stick” is an important diplomatic tool. We are at war, and I strongly believe that T.R. would be backing the Republican Navy combat veteran over the Democratic attorney.
Like me, T.R. would know that Senator Obama has been missing in action on the issue of public corruption in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois. The Chicago Democratic Machine under Richard Daley, Rod Blagojevich and Emil Jones, Jr. is nothing but the Tammany Hall Machine in another city in another century.
If you look to the title of today’s blog, you’ll see the name of the GOP Convention’s host city, St. Paul, and you’ll see an excerpt from St. Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. These words caught my eye at the Law Enforcement Memorial at the St. Paul Capitol grounds. In total the ninth verse of Matthew on the memorial is “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” From police commissioner to Rough Rider to President, T.R. understood that making and keeping peace meant having the wisdom, courage and willingness to do battle, to use the “big stick” as a means of securing the peace.
This quotation was in stark contrast to the anarchists and provocateurs who attacked Republican delegates and smashed windows in St. Paul on Monday night.
President Theodore Roosevelt instructed us that every movement has its “lunatic fringe,” and those lunatics were in force at the anti-McCain demonstrations. History knows that T.R. was vilified by the ultra-pacifists, the socialists and the anarchists. Those same forces are opposed to Senator McCain and, in great part, supportive of the Democratic nominee.
In these circumstances, I was happy to show my enthusiasm for the candidacy of Senator John McCain, a man who calls T.R. his role model and a man I believe T.R. would have backed with enthusiasm.
It was on this date, September 2, 1901, that then Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, first implored his fellow Americans to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” and he said it at the Minnesota State Fair. Minnesotans know their history and they love their state fair, ranking second in state fair attendance behind Texas.
From late August through Labor Day, September 1st, I had a wonderful time welcoming fairgoers from throughout the country to the historic J.V. Bailey House, built on the fairgrounds in 1912. That same year marked T.R.’s final visit to the Minnesota State Fair. In that same year, Minnesota was one of five states to deliver electoral votes for T.R., the Bull Moose Progressive candidate.
I had a wonderful time performing for hours each day and had a great show at the Carousel Park stage on Sunday. The parents and kids were great.
Today, in downtown St. Paul, I had a wonderful time visiting with Republican delegates from throughout the nation, indeed, people from throughout the world. Yes, I met Democrats from throughout the country, too. You may not be surprised that I met some people who were from “way out there somewhere,” too.
I hope it doesn’t surprise or offend you that my Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed the Republican National Convention and enjoyed endorsing John McCain on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and with various television, raido and print journalists from around the country.
Even while he was fighting the “malefactors of great wealth” for control of the Republican Party, Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican. While he ran as a Bull Moose Progressive in 1912, it was only after he succeeded in winning eleven of thirteen state contests held for the GOP nomination, including the primary in Taft’s home state of Ohio. Taft’s forces controlled, and in T.R.’s views stole, the 1912 nomination in Chicago. He and the Progressives were duty bound to make the effort to take the White House for the American people.
In 1916, T.R. refused the Progressive Party nomination for President, instead leading the Progressives to join him in endorsing Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes. When T.R. died in 1919, he was the leading candidate for the 1920 Republican nomination and he was seriously pursuing it.
So, as I portrayed T.R. and explained and defended my McCain button and my enthusiasm, I did so with a thorough appreciation for the issues and dynamics inherent in this election nearly a century hence. Like T.R., John McCain knows what it’s like to fight against corruption and big-moneyed special interests. Like T.R., John McCain not only knows the sacrifice of military service and combat, he understands that “the big stick” is an important diplomatic tool. We are at war, and I strongly believe that T.R. would be backing the Republican Navy combat veteran over the Democratic attorney.
Like me, T.R. would know that Senator Obama has been missing in action on the issue of public corruption in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois. The Chicago Democratic Machine under Richard Daley, Rod Blagojevich and Emil Jones, Jr. is nothing but the Tammany Hall Machine in another city in another century.
If you look to the title of today’s blog, you’ll see the name of the GOP Convention’s host city, St. Paul, and you’ll see an excerpt from St. Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. These words caught my eye at the Law Enforcement Memorial at the St. Paul Capitol grounds. In total the ninth verse of Matthew on the memorial is “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” From police commissioner to Rough Rider to President, T.R. understood that making and keeping peace meant having the wisdom, courage and willingness to do battle, to use the “big stick” as a means of securing the peace.
This quotation was in stark contrast to the anarchists and provocateurs who attacked Republican delegates and smashed windows in St. Paul on Monday night.
President Theodore Roosevelt instructed us that every movement has its “lunatic fringe,” and those lunatics were in force at the anti-McCain demonstrations. History knows that T.R. was vilified by the ultra-pacifists, the socialists and the anarchists. Those same forces are opposed to Senator McCain and, in great part, supportive of the Democratic nominee.
In these circumstances, I was happy to show my enthusiasm for the candidacy of Senator John McCain, a man who calls T.R. his role model and a man I believe T.R. would have backed with enthusiasm.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
An Important Speech in Denver
This afternoon, the nation awaits both Senator Obama’s acceptance speech and the announcement of Senator John McCain’s GOP running mate. Much will be made of tonight’s climactic speech in Denver, Colorado, and commentators are noting that today, August 28th, is the 45th anniversary of the Reverend Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech.”
August 29th will be the anniversary of another famous speech, this one made in Denver in 1910 by former President Theodore Roosevelt. After spending a year in Africa and Europe, giving Taft time to grow into the Presidency, TR returned to the United States loaded for political bear. He was greatly disappointed by Taft’s reversal of TR’s conservation agenda and a very different approach to anti-trust litigation. TR toured the nation on behalf of Republican candidates for Congress and state offices. In Denver, he reiterated his balanced approach to the conservation of our natural resources.
“Conservation, as I use the term, does not mean nonuse or nondevelopment. It does not mean tying up the natural resources of the states. It means the utilization of these resources under such regulation and control as will prevent waste, extravagance, and monopoly; but at the same time, not merely promoting, but encouraging such use and development as will serve the interests of the people generally.” The New Nationalism, (Outlook, New York, 1910) p50
The two months ahead will be full of important speeches by the presidential nominees, by their running mates and supporters. Important debates will be held. America will decide on a new president. As Jenny and I head to the Minnesota State Fair and the Republican National Convention that follows, I am encouraged that both Senator Obama and Senator McCain mention Theodore Roosevelt as a model to follow.
Senator McCain has gone further in this regard, acknowledging TR as his hero. The New York Times, not surprisingly, writes that McCain falls short of the mark. I disagree and find much in Senator McCain’s record that recommends him as a Theodore Roosevelt Republican. I’ll follow up on these thoughts from the GOP Convention next week.
August 29th will be the anniversary of another famous speech, this one made in Denver in 1910 by former President Theodore Roosevelt. After spending a year in Africa and Europe, giving Taft time to grow into the Presidency, TR returned to the United States loaded for political bear. He was greatly disappointed by Taft’s reversal of TR’s conservation agenda and a very different approach to anti-trust litigation. TR toured the nation on behalf of Republican candidates for Congress and state offices. In Denver, he reiterated his balanced approach to the conservation of our natural resources.
“Conservation, as I use the term, does not mean nonuse or nondevelopment. It does not mean tying up the natural resources of the states. It means the utilization of these resources under such regulation and control as will prevent waste, extravagance, and monopoly; but at the same time, not merely promoting, but encouraging such use and development as will serve the interests of the people generally.” The New Nationalism, (Outlook, New York, 1910) p50
The two months ahead will be full of important speeches by the presidential nominees, by their running mates and supporters. Important debates will be held. America will decide on a new president. As Jenny and I head to the Minnesota State Fair and the Republican National Convention that follows, I am encouraged that both Senator Obama and Senator McCain mention Theodore Roosevelt as a model to follow.
Senator McCain has gone further in this regard, acknowledging TR as his hero. The New York Times, not surprisingly, writes that McCain falls short of the mark. I disagree and find much in Senator McCain’s record that recommends him as a Theodore Roosevelt Republican. I’ll follow up on these thoughts from the GOP Convention next week.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Charge! Finishing the Great 2008 T.R. Tour
For the last six months, my wife, daughter and dog have joined me on a grand American adventure - a Theodore Roosevelt journey throughout the United States, performing as and paying homage to the Rough Rider President in celebration of his 150th year. We call it the Great 2008 TR Tour.
After enjoying a restful visit with Grandma in Sewanee, Tennessee, the T.R. Tour launches the home stretch, with a planned celebration in late October in T.R.’s hometown of Oyster Bay, Long Island.
Living in close quarters in a recreational vehicle and towing a small car for running around, we have travelled over 32,000 miles. We have entertained thousands of people and have been shown kindnesses by hundreds more. Family and friends have been amazing along the way.
We have made some T.R. performance or visit in thirty-four states, beginning our trek with a plan to visit the forty-eight continental states. The U.S. Navy commanded a performance in Honolulu, Hawaii, so the tour faces the big state question: When can we get to Alaska?
Either fifteen or sixteen states to go, hopefully all before T.R.’s birthday on October 27th.
Wonderfully, many places have quickly asked us back, so T.R. Joe is likely to take a second lap, returning home between performances as the ladies have made clear their desire to re-establish home base.
The TR Tour began on Presidents Day, February 18, 2008, with a performance at the Lyceum in Alexandria, Virginia followed by a delightful parade full of firefighters, scouts and soldiers.
We were quickly on to Boston and a visit with the curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard’s Houghton Library and Marblehead to perform for Tower School. On our return pilgrimage we visited T.R.’s New York City birthplace and the American Museum of Natural History, then Oyster Bay and Sagamore, the family home. We knelt in gratitude at the gravesites of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt on a hill in Young’s Cemetery.
Performances in Florida beckoned, and along the way, the Theodore Roosevelt State Natural Area along Pine Knolls Shore, North Carolina called for adventure.
MARCH
At Roswell, Georgia, the home of T.R.’s mother Mittie Bulloch, the grounds and buildings of Bulloch Hall still whisper the thrilling Southern stories Mittie and Aunt Susan told “Teedie” and his siblings. I stood where T.R.’s father, Theodore, and his mother, Martha, stood on December 22, 1853, taking their vows of marriage. Knelt where the Bulloch family knelt, the same Presbyterian church where Martha’s father died while teaching Sunday school. Our dinner show at J.Christopher’s was a smash. T.R. was half Southerner, and that half gave him much of his stuff as a man.
Soon after arriving in Florida we were visiting and celebrating Pelican Island, T.R.’s first bird sanctuary, regarded as the first National Wildlife Refuge. We camped in Tampa, Florida, home to the Plant Museum, in its day the finest hotel on the Florida Gulf Coast, host to the American Armed Forces as they mustered for the war with Spain in Cuba. Further south, we entertained amidst the charms of Sanibel’s Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and just beyond in Captiva, where TR hunted devil fish.
APRIL
In Tennessee we celebrated the 150 years of the University of the South in Sewanee and celebrated Sewanee men who had joined T.R. in the arena: Presidential Aide Captain Archie Butt and future Surgeon General William Crawford Gorgas, who conquered Panama’s yellow fever.
In Hillsboro, Alabama, on the front porch of Pond Spring, the tour paid honor to General Joe Wheeler, the man who commanded volunteers in Cuba, and who thirty-three years earlier had been a general leading half of Lee’s cavalry.
In Mississippi, Onward marks the memory of T.R.’s famous refusal to shoot a wounded bear, birthplace of the teddy bear by most accounts. Beyond Onward we explored the Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Complex with such evocative names as Holt Collier and Panther Swamp.
In Louisiana, we stopped by the McIlheney Company, home of Tabasco © It was Jack McIlheney, one of T.R.’s Rough Rider officers, who had T.R. down to hunt that bear. Great hot sauce to spice your game.
At Jacinto and the Alamo, we remembered those who lay down their lives for the Republic of Texas, among them, Davy Crockett. Was T.R. a fan of the King of the Wild Frontier? He named Boone & Crockett after his frontier heroes. At San Antonio’s historic Menger Hotel, TR came to life to the delight of guests from around the world, one hundred and ten years after having recruited Rough Riders there.
MAY
On to Oklahoma and the Witchita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge and Kansas where T.R.’s newspaper publishing friend William Allen White and T.R.’s New Nationalism have roots and stand in testimony of the Roosevelt legacy. Here in the West we were really in T.R. Territory, most of the Rough Riders hailing from Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, then Indian Territory and made a state during T.R’s administration. No surprise that towns like Roosevelt, Oklahoma are named for him, that vast tracks of public lands owe their care to his actions.
In New Mexico, the small town of Las Vegas has a fantastic municipal museum housing a great Rough Rider collection, the Rough Riders often gathering in the town park for their annual get-togethers in the decades after the Spanish American War. We certainly appreciated the Boy Scout Ranch at Cimarron, where generations of young men have followed in the scout tradition so fully embraced by TR, the BSA’s first and only “Chief Scout Citizen”.
In New Mexico, El Morro, and in Arizona, the Petrified Forest and Montezuma’s Castle announced the Monuments and Antiquities Act, the National Parks grew in number and expanse. Roosevelt Dam is aptly named for the executive who successfully pushed the Newlands Reclamation Act that dammed and irrigated the rivers of the West.
For the first time in my life, I witnessed the Grand Canyon and made at least one hike down its rocky switchbacks. We’d begun to live a much more vigorous life along the way quite appropriate as I portray the father of the Strenuous Life. When we went to sleep on a warm spring night on the southeastern rim, little did we expect to wake to six inches of snow.
Roosevelt Point on the North Rim would have to wait for another trip. The highways north were closed and we had Seattle and the U.S. Navy as a destination two short weeks away. Our dash across the Southwest was in full swing.
A visit to Nevada’s Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest was the first of many touchstone experiences with the United States Forest Service, established in 1905 with Gifford Pinchot at its head, such a cornerstone of T.R.’s conservation philosophy and, more importantly, the philosophy applied to action.
A performance in the auditorium and a visit to the library at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles put me in touch with the young men and women on the cusp of majority age, ready for national service, higher education or work and family. A tour of Yosemite National Park reached our very hearts and souls, stirring up images of T.R. camping beneath the stars with John Muir.
On to Seattle, Washington and the celebration of the centennial of the Great White Fleet’s visit. When T.R. sent the sixteen battleships around the world, it announced that the United States had arrived on the scene as a world power with a Navy to back up the claim. Speak softly and carry a big stick, indeed. The celebration by the Navy and the Navy League, a T.R. inspired group, gave us all a little time to pause and give thanks for the men and women who serve.
T.R. was the first to protect Mount Olympus, now Olympic Mountain National Park, and in one day we went from the snow capped peaks of Hurricane Ridge to the moss covered rain forest at Ho and the sunset at Ruby Beach on the Pacific Ocean. The people of Washington are safeguarding a great treasure and we were blessed to perform and make new friends along the way.
It was during this time that the r.v. had the first of its major repairs, and for a few nights we camped in the parking lot of the repair center in Olympia. The need for major break repairs became evident after a reckless driver forced me to slam on the brakes and kiss the concrete wall at fifty-five miles per hour and towing the car. When touring the country in an r.v., one is fairly guaranteed that not all of the adventures will be of the planned or pleasant variety. How thankful we were to avert a collision and that no one was hurt.
We visited Portland, Oregon and the tremendous Proctor statue of TR on horseback, bidding the state not goodbye but see you soon, as we dashed off to visit northeast Washington, the panhandle of Idaho, Montana and Yellowstone, Wyoming, before returning to Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park.
Along the way, we had great adventures and a scary close call as a moving van tore through our car while Jenny was adding air to the tires in Idaho. The two week car repair in Spokane, Washington proceeded apace while we took the r.v. back and forth across the northern Rockies, hot on the T.R. trail.
No T.R. Tour could be complete without a visit to Boone and Crockett in Missoula, Montana, truly a shrine to the active pursuit of the conservation agenda, fueled still by the same love of nature known and practiced in that special way known only by outdoorsmen and hunters. In Yellowstone we enjoyed the hospitality of the Roosevelt Lodge and throughout the region we breathed in the vitality that is the mountain west. As we headed back to Crater Lake we visited more of the wildlife refuges, the first fifty-one of which have their genesis with T.R.
This blog began in Yellowstone on June 14, and a very imperfect record of our two months since begin there. I do want to fill in the holes and share stories. This much I know. The American people are a special people and this nation has a calling and a destiny, to know and act upon the higher principles so often articulated by Theodore Roosevelt and a long line of American patriots.
To get back on the road, to celebrate this heritage and to do what I might to inspire others to be the men and women in the arena, to adopt, as T.R. did, the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, not only for one’s own conduct but for the conduct of the community, this is something into which I run with great joy and fervor. I do so hope to bring T.R. to life sometime soon where you might see it, that you might laugh and think and wonder what you might do in the cause of a greater United States of America.
Charge!
After enjoying a restful visit with Grandma in Sewanee, Tennessee, the T.R. Tour launches the home stretch, with a planned celebration in late October in T.R.’s hometown of Oyster Bay, Long Island.
Living in close quarters in a recreational vehicle and towing a small car for running around, we have travelled over 32,000 miles. We have entertained thousands of people and have been shown kindnesses by hundreds more. Family and friends have been amazing along the way.
We have made some T.R. performance or visit in thirty-four states, beginning our trek with a plan to visit the forty-eight continental states. The U.S. Navy commanded a performance in Honolulu, Hawaii, so the tour faces the big state question: When can we get to Alaska?
Either fifteen or sixteen states to go, hopefully all before T.R.’s birthday on October 27th.
Wonderfully, many places have quickly asked us back, so T.R. Joe is likely to take a second lap, returning home between performances as the ladies have made clear their desire to re-establish home base.
The TR Tour began on Presidents Day, February 18, 2008, with a performance at the Lyceum in Alexandria, Virginia followed by a delightful parade full of firefighters, scouts and soldiers.
We were quickly on to Boston and a visit with the curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard’s Houghton Library and Marblehead to perform for Tower School. On our return pilgrimage we visited T.R.’s New York City birthplace and the American Museum of Natural History, then Oyster Bay and Sagamore, the family home. We knelt in gratitude at the gravesites of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt on a hill in Young’s Cemetery.
Performances in Florida beckoned, and along the way, the Theodore Roosevelt State Natural Area along Pine Knolls Shore, North Carolina called for adventure.
MARCH
At Roswell, Georgia, the home of T.R.’s mother Mittie Bulloch, the grounds and buildings of Bulloch Hall still whisper the thrilling Southern stories Mittie and Aunt Susan told “Teedie” and his siblings. I stood where T.R.’s father, Theodore, and his mother, Martha, stood on December 22, 1853, taking their vows of marriage. Knelt where the Bulloch family knelt, the same Presbyterian church where Martha’s father died while teaching Sunday school. Our dinner show at J.Christopher’s was a smash. T.R. was half Southerner, and that half gave him much of his stuff as a man.
Soon after arriving in Florida we were visiting and celebrating Pelican Island, T.R.’s first bird sanctuary, regarded as the first National Wildlife Refuge. We camped in Tampa, Florida, home to the Plant Museum, in its day the finest hotel on the Florida Gulf Coast, host to the American Armed Forces as they mustered for the war with Spain in Cuba. Further south, we entertained amidst the charms of Sanibel’s Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and just beyond in Captiva, where TR hunted devil fish.
APRIL
In Tennessee we celebrated the 150 years of the University of the South in Sewanee and celebrated Sewanee men who had joined T.R. in the arena: Presidential Aide Captain Archie Butt and future Surgeon General William Crawford Gorgas, who conquered Panama’s yellow fever.
In Hillsboro, Alabama, on the front porch of Pond Spring, the tour paid honor to General Joe Wheeler, the man who commanded volunteers in Cuba, and who thirty-three years earlier had been a general leading half of Lee’s cavalry.
In Mississippi, Onward marks the memory of T.R.’s famous refusal to shoot a wounded bear, birthplace of the teddy bear by most accounts. Beyond Onward we explored the Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Complex with such evocative names as Holt Collier and Panther Swamp.
In Louisiana, we stopped by the McIlheney Company, home of Tabasco © It was Jack McIlheney, one of T.R.’s Rough Rider officers, who had T.R. down to hunt that bear. Great hot sauce to spice your game.
At Jacinto and the Alamo, we remembered those who lay down their lives for the Republic of Texas, among them, Davy Crockett. Was T.R. a fan of the King of the Wild Frontier? He named Boone & Crockett after his frontier heroes. At San Antonio’s historic Menger Hotel, TR came to life to the delight of guests from around the world, one hundred and ten years after having recruited Rough Riders there.
MAY
On to Oklahoma and the Witchita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge and Kansas where T.R.’s newspaper publishing friend William Allen White and T.R.’s New Nationalism have roots and stand in testimony of the Roosevelt legacy. Here in the West we were really in T.R. Territory, most of the Rough Riders hailing from Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, then Indian Territory and made a state during T.R’s administration. No surprise that towns like Roosevelt, Oklahoma are named for him, that vast tracks of public lands owe their care to his actions.
In New Mexico, the small town of Las Vegas has a fantastic municipal museum housing a great Rough Rider collection, the Rough Riders often gathering in the town park for their annual get-togethers in the decades after the Spanish American War. We certainly appreciated the Boy Scout Ranch at Cimarron, where generations of young men have followed in the scout tradition so fully embraced by TR, the BSA’s first and only “Chief Scout Citizen”.
In New Mexico, El Morro, and in Arizona, the Petrified Forest and Montezuma’s Castle announced the Monuments and Antiquities Act, the National Parks grew in number and expanse. Roosevelt Dam is aptly named for the executive who successfully pushed the Newlands Reclamation Act that dammed and irrigated the rivers of the West.
For the first time in my life, I witnessed the Grand Canyon and made at least one hike down its rocky switchbacks. We’d begun to live a much more vigorous life along the way quite appropriate as I portray the father of the Strenuous Life. When we went to sleep on a warm spring night on the southeastern rim, little did we expect to wake to six inches of snow.
Roosevelt Point on the North Rim would have to wait for another trip. The highways north were closed and we had Seattle and the U.S. Navy as a destination two short weeks away. Our dash across the Southwest was in full swing.
A visit to Nevada’s Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest was the first of many touchstone experiences with the United States Forest Service, established in 1905 with Gifford Pinchot at its head, such a cornerstone of T.R.’s conservation philosophy and, more importantly, the philosophy applied to action.
A performance in the auditorium and a visit to the library at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles put me in touch with the young men and women on the cusp of majority age, ready for national service, higher education or work and family. A tour of Yosemite National Park reached our very hearts and souls, stirring up images of T.R. camping beneath the stars with John Muir.
On to Seattle, Washington and the celebration of the centennial of the Great White Fleet’s visit. When T.R. sent the sixteen battleships around the world, it announced that the United States had arrived on the scene as a world power with a Navy to back up the claim. Speak softly and carry a big stick, indeed. The celebration by the Navy and the Navy League, a T.R. inspired group, gave us all a little time to pause and give thanks for the men and women who serve.
T.R. was the first to protect Mount Olympus, now Olympic Mountain National Park, and in one day we went from the snow capped peaks of Hurricane Ridge to the moss covered rain forest at Ho and the sunset at Ruby Beach on the Pacific Ocean. The people of Washington are safeguarding a great treasure and we were blessed to perform and make new friends along the way.
It was during this time that the r.v. had the first of its major repairs, and for a few nights we camped in the parking lot of the repair center in Olympia. The need for major break repairs became evident after a reckless driver forced me to slam on the brakes and kiss the concrete wall at fifty-five miles per hour and towing the car. When touring the country in an r.v., one is fairly guaranteed that not all of the adventures will be of the planned or pleasant variety. How thankful we were to avert a collision and that no one was hurt.
We visited Portland, Oregon and the tremendous Proctor statue of TR on horseback, bidding the state not goodbye but see you soon, as we dashed off to visit northeast Washington, the panhandle of Idaho, Montana and Yellowstone, Wyoming, before returning to Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park.
Along the way, we had great adventures and a scary close call as a moving van tore through our car while Jenny was adding air to the tires in Idaho. The two week car repair in Spokane, Washington proceeded apace while we took the r.v. back and forth across the northern Rockies, hot on the T.R. trail.
No T.R. Tour could be complete without a visit to Boone and Crockett in Missoula, Montana, truly a shrine to the active pursuit of the conservation agenda, fueled still by the same love of nature known and practiced in that special way known only by outdoorsmen and hunters. In Yellowstone we enjoyed the hospitality of the Roosevelt Lodge and throughout the region we breathed in the vitality that is the mountain west. As we headed back to Crater Lake we visited more of the wildlife refuges, the first fifty-one of which have their genesis with T.R.
This blog began in Yellowstone on June 14, and a very imperfect record of our two months since begin there. I do want to fill in the holes and share stories. This much I know. The American people are a special people and this nation has a calling and a destiny, to know and act upon the higher principles so often articulated by Theodore Roosevelt and a long line of American patriots.
To get back on the road, to celebrate this heritage and to do what I might to inspire others to be the men and women in the arena, to adopt, as T.R. did, the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, not only for one’s own conduct but for the conduct of the community, this is something into which I run with great joy and fervor. I do so hope to bring T.R. to life sometime soon where you might see it, that you might laugh and think and wonder what you might do in the cause of a greater United States of America.
Charge!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Happy Birthday Edith Roosevelt
On August 6, 1861, Edith Kermit Carow was born in Norwich, Connecticut. Throughout her growing up years in New York City, she was the dear friend and frequent companion of the Roosevelt children at 28 East 20th Street. Teedie and Bamie along with Elliott and Corrine all loved Edith, their little friend. There is a famous photo of Lincoln’s funeral procession passing the Union Square New York home of Cornelius Roosevelt, T.R.’s grandfather. In the second floor window, one can make out the forms of young Theodore and his brother, Elliott. Friend Edith Carow had been locked in the closet by Teedie for her crying was annoying him.
Still, when the Roosevelt family left New York for their great tour of Europe, young Teedie cried for already missing his dear friend Edith.
These loving friends, Teedie and Edith, would be united in marriage from 1886 until T.R.’s death in 1919. They would have five children together, raising the sixth and eldest, Alice, daughter of T.R.’s deceased first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee.
On Edith’s birthday in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt spoke to the great Progressive Party National Convention in Chicago. “We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord!” he famously shouts in this his “confession of faith” speech.
For nearly twenty-six years before this speech, Edith stood beside her husband as he lived a life of faith and action. When T.R. was Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Rough Rider, Governor, Vice-president and President, it was Edith who was making the Roosevelt household hum. When he was sworn in “in his own right” in 1905, his hand rested upon James 1:22 – “Be though not only hearers of the word, but doers of the word also.” The fellowship of the doers, indeed. Today is a good day to remember that throughout his public service career, at least since their concurrence in 1885 to marry the following year, T.R. had at his side a supportive, intelligent and principled partner, mother to his children, bearing his burdens, helping him to see the way.
As the Wiegand family arrives in New York State, I’m looking forward to seeing some of the Upstate places that were and always will be Teddy Roosevelt territory. Adirondacks here we come.
Still, when the Roosevelt family left New York for their great tour of Europe, young Teedie cried for already missing his dear friend Edith.
These loving friends, Teedie and Edith, would be united in marriage from 1886 until T.R.’s death in 1919. They would have five children together, raising the sixth and eldest, Alice, daughter of T.R.’s deceased first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee.
On Edith’s birthday in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt spoke to the great Progressive Party National Convention in Chicago. “We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord!” he famously shouts in this his “confession of faith” speech.
For nearly twenty-six years before this speech, Edith stood beside her husband as he lived a life of faith and action. When T.R. was Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Rough Rider, Governor, Vice-president and President, it was Edith who was making the Roosevelt household hum. When he was sworn in “in his own right” in 1905, his hand rested upon James 1:22 – “Be though not only hearers of the word, but doers of the word also.” The fellowship of the doers, indeed. Today is a good day to remember that throughout his public service career, at least since their concurrence in 1885 to marry the following year, T.R. had at his side a supportive, intelligent and principled partner, mother to his children, bearing his burdens, helping him to see the way.
As the Wiegand family arrives in New York State, I’m looking forward to seeing some of the Upstate places that were and always will be Teddy Roosevelt territory. Adirondacks here we come.
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