On Valentine’s Day in 1884, Theodore Roosevelt lost both his wife and his mother. Four years before, Roosevelt could not have imagined the tragedy that would stun him in 1884. February 14, 1880, marked one of the happiest days of his life. He and the woman he had courted for more than a year, Alice Hathaway Lee, had just announced their engagement. Roosevelt was over the moon: “I can scarcely realize that I can hold her in my arms and kiss her and caress her and love her as much as I choose,” he recorded in his diary. What followed were, according to Roosevelt, “three years of happiness greater and more unalloyed than I have ever known fall to the lot of others.”
Thank you for this piece of history. When I support National Parks I always think of Theodore Roosevelt, a very human reformer. Both Roosevelts, among the wealthiest of our presidents, were aristocrats in the true sense of the word. Sadly, other wealthy presidents have not been as magnanimous. It takes tragedy to form the best humans.
Fascinating, and sad and inspiring at the same time. Thank you Dr. Richardson. I enjoyed reading it.
After the mention of McKinley, I can't resist reprinting the following, which appeared nearly a decade ago in the NYT:
It was the greatest coffee run in American history. The Ohio boys had been fighting since morning, trapped in the raging battle of Antietam, in September 1862. Suddenly, a 19-year-old William McKinley appeared, under heavy fire, hauling vats of hot coffee. The men held out tin cups, gulped the brew and started firing again. “It was like putting a new regiment in the fight,” their officer recalled. Three decades later, McKinley ran for president in part on this singular act of caffeinated heroism.
At the time, no one found McKinley’s act all that strange. For Union soldiers, and the lucky Confederates who could scrounge some, coffee fueled the war. Soldiers drank it before marches, after marches, on patrol, during combat. In their diaries, “coffee” appears more frequently than the words “rifle,” “cannon” or “bullet.” Ragged veterans and tired nurses agreed with one diarist: “Nobody can ‘soldier’ without coffee.
Heather I never comment though almost daily I read your article and each time it changes my perspective and information. What a gift you are! Thanks Dorothy
Dr. Richarson, before I comment on tonight's Letter I have a request...please, please join Spoutible. I, along with many others, left Twitter months ago. Found a new social media "home" at Spoutible. No bots. No trolls. No Nazis. We miss you!
Theodore Roosevelt's sad story about losing his wife and mother on the same day is not one I remember learning when touring his home several years ago. I admired him for his passion for our forests and conservation, even though he was also a hunter. I don't think we would have our wonderful national parks today without his efforts as President.
I tend to be more curious than is often good for me, so I looked up Alice Roosevelt Longworth. She deserves her own Letter from an American as a feisty, independent woman before her time.
Thank you for always educating your readers with history we may not have learned growing up. Your Letters should be made into a book. I am sure I am not the only one who would use your book as a historical reference over and over again,.
Sounds like Alice had puerperal fever, also called childbed fever , a strep infection in the uterus. I know, because I had it in 1968 in NYC, but I also had penicillin…n
Amazing to read this. I love that you share so much with us. Thank you for your gift of reminding us how we repeat herstory and how so much of our herstory is left out.
Just watched David Hogg on Lawrence O’ Donnell’s The Last Word. Today is when Marjorie Stoneman’s High School students were gunned down. He and Victor Shi are heavily involved in trying to make sense of things after yesterday’s shootings. Hogg makes it very clear that his generation are victims of mass shootings. Hits you right in your heart.
I actually knew about Teddy Roosevelt’s mother and wife. Such a tragedy to suffer on the very same day. He couldn’t even be joyful that he had a baby who survived. He retreated and reinvented himself. Seeing his notes and “X” also hits the heart...hard. I wish everyone a peaceful day today and if you’re lucky, love the one you’re with.
I sit here in my 75th year (enjoying life immensely) still shocked that Roosevelt had such an impact on this nation and was only 60 when he died. It is hard to comprehend how intensely he lived those 60 years. Doris Kearns Goodwin captures so much of his intensity in her book, The Bully Pulpit. It is somehow not surprising that he eluded death on so many occasions, including when he was shot in the chest but was saved by a combination of his speech double folded in his coat pocket and a metal eyeglass case.
It is hard to imagine the pain he endured to lose his wife and mother on the same day in the same house. He truly was 'the man in the arena.'
Lawyers, in particular, may well appreciate this little tit-bit about Roosevelt. In his recollections of his days as a student as to why he dropped out of law studies at Columbia Law School, Roosevelt wrote: ‘The caveat emptor side of the law, like to caveat emptor side of business, seemed to me repellent; it did not make for social fair dealing. The “let the buyer beware” maxim, when translated into actual practice, whether in law or business, tends to translate itself further into the seller making his profit at the expense of the buyer, instead of by a bargain which shall be to the profit of both. It did not seem to me that the law was framed to discourage as it should sharp practice, and all other kinds of bargains except those which are fair and of benefit to both sides’: T Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1921, p 55.
From a biography of Teddy Roosevelt and this column, For all the good he's accomplished, I am struck by how he succeeded in politics by adopting the habits of toxic masculinity. We are still paying for this American romance with the myth of the cowboy. As in other topics, our history is complicated.
As much as your current narratives and sharp commentary on our tenuous democracy feed my interest in the daily news, it is the sharp contrasts and consistently Illuminating reflection on the historical past that bring me here every day. Thank you HCR. We need to remember that the past can sometimes shine hope into the future.
I suddenly noticed an interesting thing, now that Substack identifies a poster as "paid" - all posters here are now paid, as they all are at TAFM. And if one cares to notice, there haven't been any trolls posting recently. Making the rule "comments are for paid subscribers" makes sure the trolls are locked out. Sad we have to pay for the privilege of civilized verbal intercourse, but that's Life With MAGA nowadays.
Thank you for this piece of history. When I support National Parks I always think of Theodore Roosevelt, a very human reformer. Both Roosevelts, among the wealthiest of our presidents, were aristocrats in the true sense of the word. Sadly, other wealthy presidents have not been as magnanimous. It takes tragedy to form the best humans.
We need more like Teddy Roosevelt, who endured so much pain but gave the nation so much badly needed reform.
Fascinating, and sad and inspiring at the same time. Thank you Dr. Richardson. I enjoyed reading it.
After the mention of McKinley, I can't resist reprinting the following, which appeared nearly a decade ago in the NYT:
It was the greatest coffee run in American history. The Ohio boys had been fighting since morning, trapped in the raging battle of Antietam, in September 1862. Suddenly, a 19-year-old William McKinley appeared, under heavy fire, hauling vats of hot coffee. The men held out tin cups, gulped the brew and started firing again. “It was like putting a new regiment in the fight,” their officer recalled. Three decades later, McKinley ran for president in part on this singular act of caffeinated heroism.
At the time, no one found McKinley’s act all that strange. For Union soldiers, and the lucky Confederates who could scrounge some, coffee fueled the war. Soldiers drank it before marches, after marches, on patrol, during combat. In their diaries, “coffee” appears more frequently than the words “rifle,” “cannon” or “bullet.” Ragged veterans and tired nurses agreed with one diarist: “Nobody can ‘soldier’ without coffee.
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/how-coffee-fueled-the-civil-war/?_r=1
Heather I never comment though almost daily I read your article and each time it changes my perspective and information. What a gift you are! Thanks Dorothy
Dr. Richarson, before I comment on tonight's Letter I have a request...please, please join Spoutible. I, along with many others, left Twitter months ago. Found a new social media "home" at Spoutible. No bots. No trolls. No Nazis. We miss you!
Theodore Roosevelt's sad story about losing his wife and mother on the same day is not one I remember learning when touring his home several years ago. I admired him for his passion for our forests and conservation, even though he was also a hunter. I don't think we would have our wonderful national parks today without his efforts as President.
I tend to be more curious than is often good for me, so I looked up Alice Roosevelt Longworth. She deserves her own Letter from an American as a feisty, independent woman before her time.
Thank you for always educating your readers with history we may not have learned growing up. Your Letters should be made into a book. I am sure I am not the only one who would use your book as a historical reference over and over again,.
Sounds like Alice had puerperal fever, also called childbed fever , a strep infection in the uterus. I know, because I had it in 1968 in NYC, but I also had penicillin…n
Amazing to read this. I love that you share so much with us. Thank you for your gift of reminding us how we repeat herstory and how so much of our herstory is left out.
Just watched David Hogg on Lawrence O’ Donnell’s The Last Word. Today is when Marjorie Stoneman’s High School students were gunned down. He and Victor Shi are heavily involved in trying to make sense of things after yesterday’s shootings. Hogg makes it very clear that his generation are victims of mass shootings. Hits you right in your heart.
I actually knew about Teddy Roosevelt’s mother and wife. Such a tragedy to suffer on the very same day. He couldn’t even be joyful that he had a baby who survived. He retreated and reinvented himself. Seeing his notes and “X” also hits the heart...hard. I wish everyone a peaceful day today and if you’re lucky, love the one you’re with.
I sit here in my 75th year (enjoying life immensely) still shocked that Roosevelt had such an impact on this nation and was only 60 when he died. It is hard to comprehend how intensely he lived those 60 years. Doris Kearns Goodwin captures so much of his intensity in her book, The Bully Pulpit. It is somehow not surprising that he eluded death on so many occasions, including when he was shot in the chest but was saved by a combination of his speech double folded in his coat pocket and a metal eyeglass case.
It is hard to imagine the pain he endured to lose his wife and mother on the same day in the same house. He truly was 'the man in the arena.'
Lawyers, in particular, may well appreciate this little tit-bit about Roosevelt. In his recollections of his days as a student as to why he dropped out of law studies at Columbia Law School, Roosevelt wrote: ‘The caveat emptor side of the law, like to caveat emptor side of business, seemed to me repellent; it did not make for social fair dealing. The “let the buyer beware” maxim, when translated into actual practice, whether in law or business, tends to translate itself further into the seller making his profit at the expense of the buyer, instead of by a bargain which shall be to the profit of both. It did not seem to me that the law was framed to discourage as it should sharp practice, and all other kinds of bargains except those which are fair and of benefit to both sides’: T Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1921, p 55.
From a biography of Teddy Roosevelt and this column, For all the good he's accomplished, I am struck by how he succeeded in politics by adopting the habits of toxic masculinity. We are still paying for this American romance with the myth of the cowboy. As in other topics, our history is complicated.
As much as your current narratives and sharp commentary on our tenuous democracy feed my interest in the daily news, it is the sharp contrasts and consistently Illuminating reflection on the historical past that bring me here every day. Thank you HCR. We need to remember that the past can sometimes shine hope into the future.
And that is one of the reasons why he is on Mount Rushmore. Thank you so much Professor. You should be up there too.
A moving Valentine story. Thank you.
I suddenly noticed an interesting thing, now that Substack identifies a poster as "paid" - all posters here are now paid, as they all are at TAFM. And if one cares to notice, there haven't been any trolls posting recently. Making the rule "comments are for paid subscribers" makes sure the trolls are locked out. Sad we have to pay for the privilege of civilized verbal intercourse, but that's Life With MAGA nowadays.
Such a horrible day for Roosevelt. He used his experiences to make life better for many people.