American Boy's Life of Theodore RooseveltStratemeyer, Edward
History
American Boy's Life of Theodore Roosevelt
Stratemeyer, Edward
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919 -- Juvenile literature
In 1853 Theodore Roosevelt the elder married Miss Martha Bullock, of
Roswell, Cobb County, Georgia. Miss Bullock was the daughter of Major
James S. Bullock and a direct descendant of Archibald Bullock, the first
governor of Georgia. It will thus be seen that the future President had
both Northern and Southern blood in his make-up, and it may be added
here that during the terrible Civil War his relatives were to be found
both in the Union and the Confederate ranks. Mrs. Roosevelt was a strong
Southern sympathizer, and when a certain gathering, during the Civil
War, was in progress at the Roosevelt city home, she insisted upon
displaying a Confederate flag at one of the windows.
"I am afraid it will make trouble," said Mr. Roosevelt; and he was
right. Soon a mob began to gather in the street, clamoring that the flag
be taken down.
"I shall not take it down," said Mrs. Roosevelt, bravely. "The room is
mine, and the flag is mine. I love it, and nobody shall touch it.
Explain to the crowd that I am a Southern woman and that I love my
country."
There being no help for it, Mr. Roosevelt went to the front door and
explained matters as best he could. A few in the crowd grumbled, but
when Mrs. Roosevelt came to the window and looked down on the gathering,
one after another the men went away, and she and her flag remained
unmolested.
Theodore Roosevelt, the future President, was one of a family of four.
He had a brother Elliott and two sisters. His brother was several years
younger than himself, but much more robust, and would probably have
lived many years and have distinguished himself, had he not met death in
a railroad accident while still a young man.
In the years when Theodore Roosevelt was a boy, New York City was not
what it is to-day. The neighborhood in which he lived was, as I have
already mentioned, a fashionable one, and the same may be said of many
other spots near to Union Square, where tall business blocks were yet
unknown. The boys and girls loved to play in the little park and on the
avenue, and here it was that the rather delicate schoolboy grew to know
Edith Carew, who lived in Fourteenth Street and who was his school
companion. Little did they dream in those days, as they played together,
that one day he would be President and she his loving wife, the mistress
of the White House.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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