Dakota Datebook: Remembering Theodore Roosevelt

In 2020, we will also be observing the 100 th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. Theodore Roosevelt’s position on women’s rights evolved in early years of the 20th century. By his own admission, he followed the lead of the suffragist movement of the time.

Theodore Roosevelt found unbounded joys in both the dangerous adventures and the communal family ventures, memories, and celebrations. With equal fervor and fascination with human beings and mighty nature, Roosevelt is remembered by us as a leader driven by passion, intellect, enthusiasm and patriotic spirit that transcend the ages.

Theodore Roosevelt strove to live an honest life and often spoke of the high ideals he pictured in the promise of America. The vision in the bulk of what he said on the oration stump, in the dozens of his books, or in the guideposts of his life, was a respect for honesty and truth. Ideals were a hallmark in his life and a testament to his country, family and fellow human beings.

Theodore Roosevelt thrived on so many aspects of life that it’s difficult to classify his favorite projects. But certainly, the preservation of wildlife and the natural world were foremost in his passions. He addressed his favor with the natural world in much of his writing as well as in his 1913 autobiography, which included a short and partial compilation of his efforts to improve and protect nature.

On this date in 1886 Theodore Roosevelt married Edith Kermit Carow in England. Although he had forgone the thought of another marriage after the death of Alice Hathaway Lee during the birth of baby Alice, TR and Edith, his dear and close childhood friend, renewed acquaintances, and the spark of love ignited. Edith would become mother to five Roosevelts including Alice, who was a fascinating, unorthodox celebrity.

Our world got a new glimpse of Theodore Roosevelt in November of 1906 when he did what no other sitting US president had done – visit a foreign country. Roosevelt’s history-making excursion to Panama was to witness the progress of the Panama Canal. TR’s 17-day trip to Panama and Puerto Rico allowed the president to inspect the waterway that would connect Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean.

One of President Theodore Roosevelt’s losing arguments was based on the phrase “In God We Trust” on America’s coinage. First adopted for coinage in 1865 and years later named the U.S. motto, President Roosevelt was opposed to the slogan when it was re-considered for new coinage during his administration.

President Theodore Roosevelt, could not have dreamt that his frustrating November bear would launch the birth of, arguably, the most famous toy in the world. TR was invited by the Mississippi Governor in 1902 to join a bear hunt. Uncharacteristically, avid hunter Roosevelt was skunked among the hunting guests for three days.

Collegiate football has always been a contact sport, but in its early days, which began in the late 1870s, it was particularly deadly. The game had not developed the forward pass, and there was regular fighting, with fists thrown. Scoring was mostly made by kicking the football to the goal. Bones were snapped, eyes were gouged, and men were even killed. Flimsy equipment, leather helmets and mere sweaters were little protection for the players – many of them illegally hired by colleges.

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, in 1858, the second child of Theodore and Martha’s four children. His faulty eyesight and his ever-active asthma were a persistent distraction to the boy and he had to be taken away on long trips to help him find a place to breathe.

Campaigning for president in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt pitted himself against Republican President Taft and Democrat candidate Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt ran under the Progressive Party banner, which was also called the Bull Moose party. History was made when Roosevelt became the only candidate of a third party to come in second place.

Theodore Roosevelt made a calculated gesture this week in 1901 that challenged the nation’s racial sensitivity. The president invited a well-known African American scholar, friend and advisor, Booker T. Washington, for dinner at the White House. When Washington, who was the founder of the Tuskegee Institute, shared repast with the Roosevelt family, it sent the Southern press and others into apoplectic furor.

October is National Book Month, and TR is the writing champ of all the US Presidents, having penned some 35 books, which also include compilations of his hundreds of essays and articles. The prolific president with a pen made more income from his prodigious writing than from any of his government jobs. One of his books is entitled “A Booklovers Holidays in the Open.” Two of his books about the West were written while in Medora. In October of 1913 alone, he turned out four books including his long-awaited autobiography. He was also an avid reader. Historians estimate that he read 20,000 books in his lifetime.

Theodore Roosevelt’s first step into Dakota Territory was not to western cowboy country, but to Fargo-Moorhead. His first tangle with wildlife was with birds, not bison. And when 21-year-old Theodore and his 20-year-old brother Elliott left the Red River Valley after ten days of hunting with new shotguns, the area was minus 208 critters – prairie chickens, ducks, plovers, coots, grebes and more. That was acceptable hunting style in September 1880. The next month he would marry Alice. And over the next few years, Roosevelt became the youngest man elected to the New York State Assembly, published his first book The Naval War of 1812 , and shot his first bison in the Badlands.

Theodore Roosevelt’s initial trip to Western Dakota Territory’s badlands was a rollicking adventure of hunting, frustration, and awe for the young New Yorker in his early twenties. In mere days TR was entranced by the beauty and the desolation of gnarled, stunted cedars, miles of plateaus, running rivers, scoria, sandstone and clay.

The first week of September in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt addressed over 30,000 citizens at Fargo College, which overlooked Island Park. The former Dakota Territory rancher’s tenure as the nation’s youngest chief executive had ended in March the previous year. Here are some of TR’s remarks after being introduced by the college president.

Some 30,000 citizens of every age jammed their way into Fargo’s Island Park to welcome and celebrate “The Medora President” this week in September of 1910. Theodore Roosevelt did not disappoint. Among those in the crowd were children, with their stuffed toy “Teddy” bears in tow. The freshly former president spoke as he lay the cornerstone for the Andrew Carnegie Library at Fargo College, the city’s first college, now long gone, that stood above Island Park.

Theodore Roosevelt’s passion for politics included his own insistence on the American public’s quest for truth and honesty. He was known for continually demanding as much for himself, even more so, as a political leader. He abhorred politicians who randomly distributed false promises.

Theodore Roosevelt’s first important speech in North Dakota was before a teaming assembly of citizens in Jamestown in the blazing summer, anxious for their adopted Western son to speak glowingly of Wild West values.

In his first year in office, President Theodore Roosevelt, after the assassination of William McKinley, embarked as “Designer in Chief.” He officially christened the executive mansion The White House, Washington, DC.