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Edith Carow Roosevelt
Calm among the Turmoil
By
Anne Adams
Perhaps the young
mother sighed with relief as she settled down in
the wisteria arbor to read her book there at her
home, in an area she had named, “The Nest.” And
as she did so, she would also get some
much-needed relief from the shenanigans of her
children and their father. For hers was indeed
an active family, and would remain so for a
several more years though there would be one
change of location – from Oyster Bay, New York
to Washington D.C. And it occurred when that
exuberant father and husband would become
President of the United States.
Born in August,
1861, Edith Kermit Carow came to know Theodore
Roosevelt as a neighbor as well as a childhood
sweetheart, and his sisters Corinne and Anna as
close friends at their home in New York City.
They were both shared many common pastimes like
reading but they also possessed different
temperaments for Edith was often undemonstrative
and quiet – a great contrast to the exuberant
talkative Theodore. Yet despite their affection
for each other they drifted apart when it came
time to go to school. At fifteen, Edith attended
a local girls’ school while Theodore was already
enrolled at Harvard. However, there was also an
indication that there was some sort of
unresolved disagreement between them that meant
they remained apart. Finally there came word
that Theodore had become smitten with a lovely
young woman named Alice Lee and Edith was with
the other Roosevelt family members at his
wedding in October, 1880.
When Theodore and
Alice returned to New York to live Edith
distanced herself from them. She continued to
remain remote from Theodore, even after Alice
died three years later in 1884, within hours of
giving birth to their daughter (also named
Alice) and on the same day as Theodore’s
mother. Edith continued her friendship with
Theodore’s sisters but asked them to keep her
informed as to his presence in their homes so
she could avoid him. Actually he was out of town
a good deal at that time, at his South Dakota
ranch, serving in the New York state legislature
or at Oyster Bay on Long Island supervising the
building of his new home. However, one day they
unexpectedly met in the home of Anna and they
renewed their feelings for each other.
As they began to
make serious plans, they decided to keep their
engagement private, mostly because Alice’s death
had been so recent. Yet a European trip for
Edith provided the opportunity to finalize their
commitment. Her father’s recent death had
reduced the family finances so they decided to
move to the continent to live more frugally. In
the fall of 1885, Edith, still silent about her
engagement to Theodore, accompanied her mother
and sister to Europe, and a year later he joined
her and they were married in London in December
1886. They returned to New York the next spring.
Theodore’s sister
Anna had been caring for little Alice Lee, now
three years old, and the child joined the new
household. Edith would raise the child with the
same love and devotion as her own children but
there was one restriction imposed by Theodore.
He asked Edith never to mention her deceased
mother to the child, as he never did. This may
have eventually proved puzzling to little Alice
she regularly visited her maternal grandparents.
In May, 1887
Theodore, Edith and little Alice moved to the
new Oyster Bay home on Long Island, a residence
named Sagamore Hill. It was a massive house of
wide verandas, and a view of Long Island Sound
but with twelve bedrooms, as well as an
assortment of mounted animal heads from
Theodore’s western hunting trips. It was
distinctively a Roosevelt home. That first
summer was leisurely time for them and in
September Edith gave birth to their first child,
Theodore Junior.
During these next
few years Theodore served in various public
offices, such as New York City Police
Commissioner, member of the U.S. Civil Service
Commission, and even Assistant Secretary of the
Navy. He had just arrived in Washington in one
point before he had to immediately return to be
with Edith at the birth of their second son
Kermit in October 1889. There would be three
more children: Ethel in August, 1891, Archie in
April, 1894 and Quentin, in November, 1897. The
family would eventually spend part of their time
in Washington as Theodore served in those
national positions and the rest of the time at
Sagamore Hill.
Theodore was an
exuberant father, regularly writing friends and
relatives about the antics of his children.
Their home was an active place, as described by
Presidential/First Lady biographer Margaret
Bassett: “There was no room in which they might
not romp or bring their various pets, though
they much preferred their outdoor adventures and
games their father thought up, such as the
famous snap-the-whip run, roll and slide down
Cooper’s Bluff to the beach or the
point-to-point hikes in which all obstacles such
as fences and sheds had to be clambered over and
bodies of water waded or swum. Edith, as the
serious and responsible parent, was the
first-aid station on everyone’s return…” (Profiles
and Portraits of American Presidents and Their
Wives, p. 249). It was indeed a lively
household, and Theodore had early learned to
appreciate his wife’s calm presence and tolerant
understanding of all he was and wanted to do.
In Washington the
family survived in a more confined atmosphere,
but Edith and Theodore attracted a wide circle
of friends in government and diplomacy. Edith
declined to discuss politics out of respect for
Theodore’s opinions but she was an avid
listener.
When Theodore
returned home after service in the Spanish
American War in Cuba in 1898, neither Edith nor
Theodore could foretell was how this would alter
his future. For his previously unremarkable
political career would now greatly expand as the
media played him up as the “hero of San Juan
Hill.”
He was elected New
York governor in 1899 and served two years, as
Edith learned to spend winters in Albany and
summers at Sagamore Hill. Nevertheless, while
she would have preferred a slower political
advance, he was nominated as vice president and
elected to the position in 1900. She knew he
would not be content with the inactivity of the
position and by the time of the inauguration in
March, Theodore came to agree with her. Yet he
would not be inactive for long.
In September, 1901
Theodore was in the Lake Champlain area making a
speech, when President McKinley was shot and
wounded in Buffalo. Theodore received word but
was told that the president was expected to
survive. He then joined Edith and the children
for a vacation at the mountain camp resort, and
later when he mountain climbing a camp messenger
brought a telegram saying the President was near
death. That evening he left the camp to cover 35
miles of rutted mountain roads to reach the
train for Buffalo. He wired Edith from the train
that McKinley had died and he would soon take
the oath of office. The next morning Edith set
out for Sagamore Hill, traveling by train to
Albany where she and the children and their
governess boarded a boat for New York and
despite Archie’s tonsillitis and Quentin’s
earache she avoided reporters and arrived home
safely and quietly
Edith and Ted Jr.
set off for Washington for the McKinley funeral,
and a few weeks they had all moved into the
White House, where the eight of them found the
family quarters cramped. Yet Edith set to work
redecorating, and banishing the old furniture to
the attic.
For the first time
in several years the White House was the home of
a young, and high-spirited family. Ted Jr. at 14
was off at school a great deal of the time but
the other children soon made the Executive
Mansion their playground. Photos and news
stories of the time tracked their activities and
regularly described the antics of the Roosevelt
children. There were stories of the various
escapades –such as when Archie had the measles
and Quentin led his pony Algonquin into the
White House elevator and from there into the
sick room. The “White House Gang” was what the
press called Quentin’s school friends who
visited the mansion, though their pranks were
minor, such as making faces at passersby from
behind the White House fence. Another time one
of the boys introduced a newly acquired pet
snake to his father’s cabinet meeting.
Alice and her
antics also attracted press notice when she
became known as “Princess Alice.” In an era when
most 18-year-old young ladies were supposed to
be sedate and proper, Alice smoked in public,
jumped fully clothed into the pool of a
passenger ship on the way to Europe, and made a
pet of a small green snake she called Emily
Spinach. Reportedly when someone suggested the
President should control his daughter he is said
to have responded: “I can run the country, or I
can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”
Alice’s 1906 White
House wedding to an Ohio congressman was a
spectacular affair attracting not just great
press coverage but also gifts from heads of
state to the average American.
Besides coping
with the antics of her children, Edith also had
to be sure her husband got his rest. As Basset
described it: “It is said that if the President
was working evenings in his study, promptly at
10:30 Edith in her sitting room, the second
floor Oval Room next to the study, tapped her
foot on the floor and called ‘Theodore!’ Whereon
the President would reply, ‘Yes, Edie!’ and put
up his work to go to bed.” (P.253).
As his second term
came to an end Theodore had already made plans
for his next jaunt. Accompanied by Kermit, he
set out on a trip of exploration and hunting to
Africa, and returned after nearly a year, and
ready to take a European tour with Edith. In
1912 Theodore ran for the presidency again on a
third party ticket but after he was defeated at
the polls he and Kermit set out for an
expedition to South America. They returned in
April, 1914 with Theodore sick with jungle fever
and suffering from a leg injury. Reportedly it
had been Kermit’s courage and determination that
enabled them to survive and return..
Back at Sagamore
Hill Theodore recovered under Edith’s attention,
and just in time to make speeches in favor of
American war preparedness. The Roosevelt sons
were also quick to enlist when America entered
the war. “We boys thought it was up to us to
practice what Father preached,” said Quentin as
he entered the air service. However, it was he,
who was shot down and killed in July, 1918.
Edith was deeply affected but recovered, though
Theodore was the one who took it harder. His
depression paired with increasing health
problems took their toll. That December he spent
some time in the hospital and came home in a
wheelchair at Christmas. Within a few weeks into
the New Year he died in his sleep.
Edith remained at
Sagamore Hill, where she remained an important
citizen of the Oyster Bay Community. She died in
1948 at age 87.
A man of drive and
vision with a sense of exuberant enthusiasm
toward life, Theodore Roosevelt indeed made his
mark on his era. And to contain, guide and
inspire this unique American president was the
privileged responsibility of Edith Carow
Roosevelt.
~*~
A native
of Kansas City , Missouri , Anne grew up in
northwestern Ohio , and holds degrees in
history: a BA from Wilmington College ,
Wilmington , Ohio (1967), and a MA from Central
Missouri State University , Warrensburg ,
Missouri (1968)
A
freelance writer since the early 1970s, she has
published in Christian and secular publications,
has taught history on the junior college level,
and has spoken at national and local writers’
conferences. Her book “Brittany, Child of Joy”,
an account of her severely retarded daughter,
was issued by Broadman Press in 1987. She also
publishes an encouragement newsletter “Rainbows
Along the Way.”
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