The Rough Writer News for and about the Volunteers at Sagamore Hill

Volume 22, Issue 06

June 2020

The Rough Writer is a volunteer newsletter, not an official National Park Service publication. It should not be used for historic research.  If you can't see the photos in this e-newsletter, click "display images below" or "allow images" in your email.

"Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big."  ― Theodore Roosevelt

From the Editors

Update: As we prepared to send out this issue of the Rough Writer , we learned at the last minute that as of June 13, the grounds of the park will be open to the public following the guidelines for Phase 1 reopening. This applies only to the grounds and trails, not to the TRH or the Old Orchard Museum or the restrooms. Social distancing and the use of masks where social distancing is not possible will be proper protocol for a visit. More information can be found at the Park website . Now, as we move into the summer, and partially out of the more confining restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, we continue to be mindful of the virus’s impact on our lives, societal and economic stresses and for our service as volunteers at Sagamore Hill. In a recent conference call to members of the Volunteer Advisory Board, Acting Superintendent Jonathan Parker, explained that volunteer activities, as we have known them, will be suspended at least for the foreseeable future. All decisions regarding our return, as well as how the site will be interpreted, depend on regional and national guidelines and directives for re-opening in phases and, most importantly, in compliance with safety concerns for all personnel, including volunteers. We are grateful to both Jonathan and Sue Sarna for their forthright explanation of the current situation at Sagamore Hill and throughout the Park system and for their commitment to keeping us informed. So stay tuned. As plans for re-opening evolve and adjustments made, you will continue to read about them here in the Rough Writer. Staff news: Jonathan Parker’s position has been extended until June 21st with a new superintendent expected in August. We appreciate the many challenges Jonathan has faced in the few months he has been at Sagamore Hill. He has met those with a steady hand and commitment to Park personnel and volunteers while working under complicated local and national mandates. We are grateful for his collegial approach and sincerely wish him well as he returns to his previous position at Valley Forge National Historic Park. Jeremy Hoyt hopes to make his move to Nebraska in mid-June. Volunteers were lucky to have access to Jeremy’s encyclopedic knowledge; we thank him for his friendship and wish him a safe trip. We hope the move will be a happy one for him. The Chief of Maintenance and Chief of Interpretation positions, as well as a replacement for Jeremy’s position, are in the process of being filled, while Austin and Wayne will be returning to Maintenance for the season. Curatorial has hired a new Museum Technician, Lindsay Davenport , in addition to hiring a seasonal Museum Technician who will start in late July; other seasonal workers will start at the beginning of July. This month’s issue of the Rough Writer runs the gamut of news from volunteer leisure activity during the shut-down, to news about virtual house tours and enhanced public internet access to the TRH, volunteer memories of Jacob Riis Park, and a family encounter with Eleanor Roosevelt. The Roosevelt pets, TR and women’s equality issues, a historical look-back at the Brownsville Raid and James Amos, monarch butterflies and the TR Legacy sponsored photo walk are also featured. There’s lots to read here, and we are grateful for those who have submitted articles.  Charlotte and I are going to take a break in July, but the Rough Writer will be returning in August. We hope you will continue to send us your comments and suggestions, and please keep us informed about specific volunteers who may have retired from service, been hospitalized, or have passed away. Short of having a massive Zoom event, the Rough Writer is an important volunteer vehicle for staying in touch and sharing news and ideas. We continue to wish each of you good health. Keep those green shirts and khaki pants at the ready. We will return. Nancy and Charlotte

How I Spent My Spring Vacation

Long time volunteer Madeline Nelson writes that  TR would have approved of her "spring break" activities. Part of a neighborhood project to make patriotic masks for the Northport VA Hospital, Madeline joins her neighbors doing their best to keep our health care workers safe.

Nancy Hall, Mary Ann Reardon, and Charlotte Miska practice social distancing at a meetup at Toby Selda's shaded backyard. Talk included how much we all missed our friends and weekly work at Sagamore HIll. 

Theodore Roosevelt Legacy Partnership’s Photo Walks by Bill Reed

To honor the key legacies of Theodore Roosevelt – conservation, civic engagement, and the active lifestyle – the Theodore Roosevelt Legacy Partnership (TRLP) supports public programming and projects that inspire action and promote TR’s stewardship of natural and cultural resources. One of the activities TRLP sponsors is a Photo Walk, which invites park visitors to learn about TR and Sagamore Hill; improve and enhance their photography techniques for camera and phones; and identify objects of interest to photography such as architecture, landscape, nature, and people. Over the last two years we have conducted two walks with the help of volunteers Bob DiGiacomo, Lois Lindberg, and Wendy Albin. Upon completion of the walk we ask participants to submit 4-5 of their best photos to us. We then post those photos on our website, trlegacypartnership.org, identifying each picture with their photographer. We are planning to do our next Photo Walk this summer in partnership with the Huntington Camera Club. Dates are to be determined. Here are some photos from previous walks.

Curator's Corner by Sue Sarna

It is a new and challenging time for museums. The current situation with COVID-19 has forced us to think outside of the box of the normal visitor experience. It has made us ask questions, like how do you interpret a subject to a visitor without personally seeing them? How do we continue to bring our collection alive if people cannot access the house or visit the archives? Well, I am happy to say that there are oodles of possibilities ahead of us. One option is increasing our presence on the internet. The virtual house tour and exhibits through Google Arts & Culture have been a huge success, reaching visitors in over 45 countries. This tool has broadened the visitor’s access to the home and collection, which in turn has created a slew of new inquiries. We recently heard from a gentleman who toured the home online, which enabled him to see objects, such as the print of Davy Crockett, that you cannot see during the normal tour. He brought up several questions that might not have come up had he been on the standard tour. Another tool that has been increasingly helpful is a high-resolution scanner. About nine years ago, the Curatorial division began scanning the archival collection to make it available to researchers and the public. Hundreds of scans were uploaded to the Theodore Roosevelt Center website, including photos, letters, invitations, school assignments, and more. Currently, we have over 2,700 scanned files from the Sagamore Hill archival collection that we can email to researchers, print for exhibits, and use for interpretation. We are planning on scanning more archives and making more of the collection available on our website so we can continue to increase the accessibility of the collection to researchers and the public during these challenging times and in the future.   Take a virtual tour . Explore the online exhibits.  Are there objects in a room that you have never really noticed? Does something different or unique jump out at you? Let’s all start looking at things in a different way. Together we can improve our outreach to the public. Our future may look different, but our goals remain the same and we will continue to educate and bring TR alive for future generations.

Theodore Roosevelt and Jacob Riis by Carolyn Diglio

Growing up in Brooklyn, I have wonderful memories of spending many an idyllic summer’s day building castles in the sand, “riding” an ocean’s waves, and struggling with that same ocean’s undercurrent at a place that was magical to a child – Jacob Riis Park. That was where my parents brought the family for a summer’s respite from city streets. A child did not think about how the park got its name. Who cared! We were having so much fun in the sun! However, as a guide at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, I am amazed that there is a connection between a place I so enjoyed in my youth and the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.

In delving into the life and times of Jacob August Riis , I found that he was born in Ribe, Denmark in 1849, just nine years before Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City. Riis had a happy childhood as one of fifteen children. His father was a schoolteacher and writer for a local Ribe newspaper. As he grew older, Jacob wanted to be a carpenter, but was discouraged by the poor job availability and decided to emigrate to the United States in 1870 at the age of 21. Upon arriving in New York City, Riis was one of a large number of immigrants seeking prosperity in an urban, industrialized area in the years following the Civil War. By the 1880s several hundred thousand people were crammed into New York City’s Lower East Side. They were packed into filthy, disease-ridden tenements, 10 to 15 in a room. As it was difficult to find work, Jacob Riis held various odd jobs and at times found himself destitute and sleeping in a foul-smelling police lodging house. Fortunately, in 1873 he became a police reporter, assigned to the most crime-ridden and impoverished slums of the city in the Lower East Side. He worked the night-shift in these immigrant communities and developed a melodramatic writing style (muckraking), becoming an early reform journalist, detailing the squalor of New York’s tenements and setting off a reform movement. He was also a pioneer in the use of flash photography, using stark images of poverty to dramatize his writings. In his book, How the Other Half Lives (1890), he shocked readers with descriptions and photographs of slum conditions. The book sold well, made Riis famous and stimulated significant New York legislation to curb tenement house evils. In 1895, Theodore Roosevelt was appointed Police Commissioner of New York City and served for the two following years. As Roosevelt said in his autobiography “The man who was closest to me throughout my two years in the Police Department was Jacob Riis.” Having read Riis’s aforementioned book, Roosevelt felt that he knew Riis and called his office to tell him how impressed he was with the book and offering to help his efforts in any way to make things better. Roosevelt asked Riis to show him nighttime police work. During their first tour, nine out of ten patrolmen were missing. Roosevelt himself began making night tours to check on policemen walking their beats. As a result, the police force became more attentive and “on the job.” In addition, the chief of the four-member police commission was widely suspected of corruption and Roosevelt forced his resignation. Roosevelt closed the ill-managed police lodging rooms that Riis had stayed in during his early years in New York. Roosevelt was so deeply affected by Riis’s sense of justice that he befriended Riis for life and remarked that Jacob Riis was “the best American I ever knew.”  Originally named Seaside Beach when it opened in 1912, Jacob Riis Park was named in 1914 after the famous journalist, social reformer, and photographer, Jacob Riis, who had reported on the plight of the poor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The playground of my youth was largely constructed between 1936 and 1937 by New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who envisioned Riis Park as a getaway for NYC residents comparable to Jones Beach State Park on Long Island. In 1974 the park was transferred to the control of the National Park Service. It features an extensive sand beach along the Atlantic Ocean coastline and several historic Art Deco structures, including a bathhouse built in 1932 and reconfigured in 1937, a pitch and putt golf course, and food concessions. Personally, it is a wonderful memory of a popular summer destination enjoyed so very long ago. Thank you, Theodore Roosevelt and Jacob Riis!  Sources; Jacob Riis, Wikipedia "Revealing 'How the Other Half Lives' ". Library of Congress Jacob Riis Park, Wikipedia

Six Degrees of Separation by Mike Sassi

After marking Memorial Day a little differently this year, I started thinking of how my home town and my family crossed paths with the Roosevelts. This connection is what interested me in TR, Franklin, and Eleanor from my childhood and prompted me to volunteer at Sagamore Hill. I was born and raised in Beacon, NY which is only about 20 miles south of Hyde Park where the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is located. I visited there many times. FDR also gave seven campaign speeches over the years at Bank Square in Beacon.

Probably not as well known is that TR campaigned in Beacon when running for the 1912 nomination speaking where the post office now stands on Main Street. The Beacon High School Class of 1919 planted a tree in his honor (The Roosevelt Tree). It still stands on the school grounds, but the plaque is a little hard to read today. My family’s connection is through the Mount Gulian estate in Beacon. This was the home of John Bayard and Susan VanWyck Verplanck. My grandfather was the grounds-keeper, and since he had ten children you can guess where he got his labor crew. One of these “workers” was my father also named Michael who Mrs. Verplanck favored. She was a distant cousin to Eleanor Roosevelt by Catalyn Verplanck through her father (Elliott Roosevelt) and Guleyn Verplanck through her mother (Anna Hall). Eleanor visited her cousin at Mt. Gulian frequently and also got to know my father. My father passed away on October 11, which was Eleanor’s birthday. This is all preface to an amusing story about my father. During WWII my father fought in the Pacific Theater with the 5th Army Air Force. In August 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt decided she wanted to visit the troops, which was not supported by either General MacArthur or Admiral Halsey. However, Eleanor, with the authority of her husband, got her way and followed a very grueling schedule. She made history with this trip. Oh yes, the funny story. Her flight between islands with General MacArthur needed to make a refueling stop on Biak Island, New Guinea where my father was stationed. While the plane was being refueled, the troops were turned out on both sides of the runway for review. As Eleanor Roosevelt was driven in a jeep with General MacArthur down the runway, she saw my father and yelled out: “Hi Mike.” My father said he saw MacArthur turn to look his way and figured he would have latrine duty for the duration the war. Mrs. Roosevelt took the time to write a letter to my grandparents to let them know that she saw their son, and he was okay. As another Memorial Day passes, I once again am reminded of the sacrifices made by the generation for which I am most thankful.

Eleanor Roosevelt Visits Troops in New Guinea

Sources: Beacon Historical Society “A First Lady on the Front Lines” by Paul M. Sparrow, Director, FDR Library.

Nature Corner by Charlotte Miska

Milkweed and Monarch Butterflies Last summer, as I walked from the parking lot to Old Orchard Museum for my weekly volunteer curatorial work, I was excited to see large areas of milkweed growing in the field on the north side of the path. Milkweed is important because it is the host plant for caterpillars of the iconic monarch butterfly and is critical in the monarch’s life cycle. Monarch populations have plummeted by 80 percent in the last 20 years. The disappearance of milkweed is a major reason for their population decline. The female monarch butterfly lays her eggs on the leaf of a milkweed plant. After a few days, the eggs hatch into larvae (caterpillars). The caterpillars only eat milkweed, which is why the female laid her eggs on the milkweed leaves. After about two weeks, the caterpillars spin a protective case, known as a chrysalis, around themselves and enter the pupa stage. A week or two later the metamorphosis is complete and they emerge as a fully formed black and orange adult monarch butterfly.  Please consider adding milkweed and other pollinator native plants to your own gardens.

Photo: Xerces Society / Stephanie McKnight

TR on Equal Rights for Women, 1880 by Natalie A. Naylor

The May issue of the Rough Writer included my article “TR on Women’s Equality in Marriage, 1880,” based on an essay he wrote as a senior at Harvard. His views on other rights for women in his essay, “Practicability of giving Men & Women Equal Rights,” continue below. (1) Roosevelt’s main concern – expressed in his title and opening sentence – was practicability. He readily asserted that “women should have equal rights with men,” but qualified this statement as being “in the abstract” or “in an ideally perfect state of society.” One obstacle he saw was that women were generally “physically inferior to men.” For the working classes, he wrote, a result of this was that women were paid less than men. Even for women engaging in mental work, he felt their domestic responsibilities made their efforts less effective. One of Roosevelt’s strongest statements regarding the “distinctions” between men and women was his belief that women cannot fight in “defense of their rights,” while men can, referring to military combat. None of the armed services at that time accepted women in their ranks. To his credit, TR did envision a time when women might be as “effective combatants as men.” TR recognized that what he called society’s “artificial distinctions” affected women’s situation. He gave two examples – how an old maid and an old bachelor were regarded by society and the widespread belief that even equally good woman’s work should be paid less than a man’s. Equal pay and pay equity are still issues in 2020, when the gender gap for women is about 80 percent. The most surprising statement in his essay was, “I see no reason why quakers should vote.” This unexpectedly appears in his paragraph on women being physically weaker than men. It is at the end of a sentence that states, “All these objections [to women voting] would apply just as well if one caste of males were weaker than another caste.” Quakers (members of the Society of Friends) were pacifists and most refused to join the military service. Perhaps he had intended to include this statement later with his argument that women did not fight in the military. Regardless, years later, he would reiterate this view in the midst of World War I, suggesting that Quakers and other conscientious objectors should lose their right to vote. (2) In his final paragraph, Roosevelt supported giving women “absolutely equality with men before the law.” However, he did not think this could happen until women were able to become lawyers, both in terms of the law and public opinion. In 1880, when he was writing, the number of women lawyers was very limited. Belva Lockwood, one of the first woman lawyers in the United States, faced discrimination in the 1870s in law school as well as admission to the bar and courts. An additional obstacle TR mentioned to legal equality becoming effective was women’s being admitted to juries. In 1880, no state permitted women to serve on juries. Jury duty historically has been tied to voting and increased after women’s suffrage was achieved. Women’s participation on juries was limited for decades, however, since many states allowed women to opt out of jury duty or gave exemptions for childcare.  Roosevelt espoused equality in principle in his essay, but thought it was not practical at that time. However, earlier in his essay he had stated it was both feasible and advisable to make “women equal to men before the law,” in marriage and in regard to inheritance and property rights. He left out “for the time being,” the issue of her franchise. Although votes for women had been first proposed at the women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, it had achieved limited success by the time Roosevelt was writing. New York State granted women the right to vote in school elections in February 1880. The territories of Wyoming and Utah had granted women full voting rights in 1869 and 1870, but a women’s suffrage referendum in the new state of Colorado was defeated in 1877, so women at the time Roosevelt was writing his essay did not have full voting rights in any state. When governor-elect of New York, TR wrote to Susan B. Anthony, “I have always favored allowing women to vote,” although this was an exaggeration. In his first annual message to the New York State legislature in 1899, he did urge gradually extending “the sphere in which suffrage can be exercised by women.” (3) Roosevelt was referring to partial suffrage at the local level (e.g., by expanding beyond voting in school elections). As president, TR did not publicly support women’s suffrage, despite ardent lobbying by Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists. After the Progressive Party platform in 1912 endorsed women’s suffrage, TR ardently supported women’s voting as the party’s presidential candidate and thereafter. He died before Congress passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919, which was ratified in August 1920. Roosevelt’s evolving position on women’s suffrage is another article, perhaps for a future issue. _ _ _ _ (1) The handwritten manuscript is in the Roosevelt Collection at Harvard University, HUC 6879, no. 62.  (2) Dalton, Kathleen. Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life, 2002, p. 486.  (3) Sherr, Lynn. Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words, 1995, p. 271; Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper, eds ., History of Woman Suffrage , 4 vols., 1902 (Reprint; 1970), 4:861.

James Edward Amos by Milton Elis

When James Amos was 22, his father Joseph Amos, a police officer, met Theodore Roosevelt while the President was out horseback riding. Roosevelt asked him, “Have you got a boy who would like to go to work?” Amos's son, James, was originally hired to take care of the five Roosevelt children and later became the President’s attendant and bodyguard. (1) During his presidency TR would spend his summers at Sagamore Hill, and in 1902 Grey Cottage was built to house his staff, including Amos. In 1909, James Amos and his wife Annie left Sagamore Hill. Amos went to work for the Department of the Interior and the Customs agency. He and his wife returned to SAHI when Theodore Roosevelt became ill. James Amos was the last person TR spoke to when, on January 6, 1919, the old rough rider said, “James, will you please turn out the light.” (2)   James Amos was Theodore Roosevelt’s body guard, valet, and long-time family friend. In 1927 Amos wrote the book Theodore Roosevelt: Hero to His Valet . In 1921, James Amos was hired as a special agent for the FBI. He was the Bureau’s second black agent, but the first to work publicly. He was the firearms instructor at the New York FBI office. He worked on many major cases in his career with the FBI. When Amos reached mandatory retirement age, J. Edgar Hoover asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt to allow James to continue with the FBI, and FDR signed an Executive order in 1940 allowing Amos to remain on the job. He eventually retired in 1953. Sources: (1) Ebony Magazine.  (2) Bleyer, Bill. Sagamore Hill: Theodore Roosevelt's Summer White House , 2016.  James Amos. Wikipedia.

The Brownsville Raid by Joe DeFrano

The Brownsville Incident, also known as the Brownsville Raid, took place in August 1906, in Brownsville,Texas. While stationed at Fort Brown, 167 members of the all black 25th Regiment, First Battalion, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, were dishonorably discharged on orders from President Theodore Roosevelt . This decision followed investigations of accusations of violence against white citizens by black soldiers recently stationed near Brownsville, a small southern city resentful of the transfer of black troops to Fort Brown from Nebraska. Many of these men had 25 years of distinguished service, had fought in frontier skirmishes, and had served under Roosevelt in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, as well as alongside US troops in the Philippines. Several had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (Goodwin, 512). To this day, the Brownsville Incident and the punishment imposed by TR, is considered one of the most serious mistakes of the Roosevelt presidency.  From the time they arrived at the base in July 1906, the Buffalo Soldiers endured a barrage of racist insults and abuse. Before arriving at Fort Brown they ran into resistance to their presence in Austin where they were to participate in field maneuvers with the local militia. The militia regiment’s commander, Colonel R.W.Hoyt, contacted the war department to “warn the authorities of conditions that are certain to arise from an encampment at Austin with Texas militia” (Weaver, 19). Racially tinged confrontations set the stage for what was to follow upon the regiment’s arrival at Fort Brown.  Soon after arriving, black soldiers who went into town were shoved off sidewalks, hit with revolver butts, and denied access to public bars. An army major who led the regiment suggested a curfew to Mayor Frederick Combe so that further violence could be avoided. Then, rumors of a black soldier assaulting a white woman were followed by allegations of soldiers firing into buildings, killing a saloon keeper, and so gravely injuring the police chief, M.Y. Dominguez, that his arm had to be amputated (Goodwin, 511). Even when all-white commanders said that the infantrymen had remained in their barracks after curfew, the town authorities refused to believe them. Eyewitnesses produced contradictory accounts, and no one could positively identify any individual soldier. Nevertheless, Mayor Combe sided with the townspeople and declared the soldiers guilty.   Initial reports blamed between nine and fifteen black soldiers for initiating the attacks, but interviews with members of the regiment failed to identify any soldier who participated, and none was indicted. However, once the case made its way to the desk of President Theodore Roosevelt, and after two more investigations, TR was convinced of their guilt: “By George! The men’s guilt is as clear as day!” (Weaver, 17) He unilaterally, and without the consent or support of Secretary of War William Howard Taft, decided that their code of “silence”, was grounds enough to have all 167 soldiers dishonorably discharged. This punishment not only barred the men from re-enlisting but also prevented them from holding any civil service position and denied them their pensions. The New York Times later called Roosevelt’s action against the troops “the only documented case of mass punishment” (September 29, 1972) in U.S. Army history.  Choosing not to submit the men to trial, Roosevelt’s adamant decision to punish the guilty along with the innocent caused “deep resentment” within the black community, giving rise to accusations that Roosevelt was pandering to his new found popularity in the South (Goodwin, 515). The sole defender of the men was Senator Joseph Benson Foraker of Ohio, and his political fortunes were destroyed by his defense of the black soldiers of the 25th Regiment. Black activist and frequent advisor to the the president, Booker T. Washington anguished over the situation and personally pleaded with Roosevelt who eventually dismissed Washington’s petition. Reacting to Roosevelt’s decision against the soldiers, a preacher in Harlem famously compared the president to the ultimate betrayer, Judas Iscariot: “Once enshrined in our love as our Moses is now enshrouded in our scorn as our Judas”(Goodwin, 513).  In 1970, John D. Weaver’s The Brownsville Raid investigated the incident in depth and concluded that the soldiers were innocent. The army conducted a new investigation and reversed the dishonorable discharge order of 1906. Congressman Augustus Hawkins and Senator Hubert Humphrey worked to get the last survivor, Wlilis Dorsey, a tax-free pension and $25,000. That was after President Richard Nixon in 1972 granted members of the 25th honorable discharges though most of the regiment had died by that time. One soldier did re-enlist in 1910 and was able to retire with benefits.   Sources: Chandler, D.W. NewsOne, August 13, 2013.  Encyclopedia Britannica. Goodwin, Doris Kearns. The Bully Pulpit , Simon and Shuster, 2013. Weaver, John D. The Brownsville Raid. Wormser, Richard. Black America Web, Jim Crow Stories. Channel 13.

Buffalo Soldiers, 25th Regiment, First Battalion

Dee-Lightful Discoveries by Toby Selda

And there were puppies, little cats, And lots of other pets and cronies, Like pink-eyed rabbits, piebald rats, And lizards, guinea-pigs and ponies. Arthur Guiterman, 1919 (1)

Roosevelt “Bunny” Tales - Family Pets When Theodore Roosevelt’s children were growing up, their father liked to call them his “bunnies.” In addition to these six “bunnies,” the Roosevelt family had quite a menagerie of well-loved pets, some rather unusual. Among them were guinea pigs, snakes, flying squirrels, a macaw, kangaroo rats, a one-legged rooster, a badger, two ponies, and numerous dogs. TR loved these pets as much as his children did and sometimes was asked to “pet sit” for them. In a letter, the President once wrote, “At this moment, my small daughter [Ethel] being out, I am acting as nurse to two wee guinea pigs, which she feels would not be safe save in the room with me — and if I can prevent it I do not intend to have wanton suffering inflicted on any creature.”(2) Ethel certainly knew who could be trusted to care for her pets.

Children with Pets in Albany - L to R: Ethel, Alice, Quentin. Kermit (with guinea pig), Archie, and Ted (seated on the floor)

The children often chose human names for their pets, but it could lead to much confusion. According to Ethel, “In Albany, there was a beloved Episcopal bishop, Bishop Doane . . . And we did what children do when you love a person. We named one of our pets [a guinea pig] after him. And my brother Kermit burst into the room where Father was having a serious conference and said, “Father, Father. Bishop Doane has just had twins.”(3) Imagine the shocked faces of TR’s company.

Archie with Josiah, his pet badger

When Archie felt his pet badger, Josiah, was being criticized, he took it personally. Josiah would play energetic games of tag with Archie and nip his legs. When TR told his son it might not be a good idea to hold the badger in his arms because it could bite his face, Archie “repelled this suggestion with scorn as an unworthy assault on Josiah’s character,” and said to his father, “He bites legs sometimes but he never bites faces.” (4) Let’s hope Archie was right . Pets might also be used to aid with the children’s transportation. When the Roosevelt children were small, they had two ponies, General Grant and Algonquin. Pony Grant used to pull the cart they rode in with their nurse Mame. Once when Ted was three, he was hugging the pony’s front legs. “As he leaned over, his broad straw hat tilted on end and pony Grant meditatively munched the brim; whereupon the small boy looked up with a wail of anguish, evidently thinking the pony had decided to treat him like a radish.”(5) Or maybe he just really loved that hat!

Mame driving Kermit and Ethel in the pony cart

Even a young Roosevelt knew that a visit from a favorite pet would cheer up a sick brother. Once, Quentin wanted to cheer up Archie who was sick in bed with the measles. With some help, Quentin brought Algonquin up in the White House elevator and into Archie’s room. Archie “. . . had a visitor the other day whose call will do more to restore him to health than all the medicine the doctor can give him.”(6) The pony’s visit must have helped because Archie was soon up and feeling better.  Of course, if you’re Alice Roosevelt, you might think it was fun to use your pet garter snake to shock people by suddenly taking it from your pocketbook! She called her pet Emily Spinach because “it was green as spinach and as thin as Aunt Emily.” Alice claimed her snake was affectionate and completely harmless and couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about. “Well, the stories multiplied about Emily Spinach until you would have thought I was harboring a boa constrictor in the White House.” (7) The President wrote to his daughter and told her she was “courting notoriety with that unfortunate snake” and found her “bizarre actions underbred and unladylike.” He said he “gave her permission to keep the snake because I thought you liked it as the children like their pets . . . You must not get another snake or anything like it.” (8) The President was not amused.

Jack, a family favorite

T hrough the years, the Roosevelt family had numerous dogs, but a little black terrier named Jack was “absolutely a member of the family.” (9) Jack was a house dog who slept in Ted’s room and was supposed to lie outside the covers at the foot of the bed. Gradually he “formed the habit of coming to the top of the bed, nosing his way under the bedclothes and working to the foot like a miniature earthquake.” (10) Mrs. Roosevelt grew especially fond of Jack, and when he passed away while the Roosevelts were still living at the White House, they buried him in the backyard. But in 1908, they had him exhumed and reburied at the pet cemetery at Sagamore Hill because Edith said she could not bear to think of Jack’s remains sitting “beneath the eyes of presidents who might care nothing for little black dogs.” (11)  It was Edith’s idea to start the pet cemetery at Sagamore Hill. She had discovered that Ted, Kermit, and Ethel had “quite a little cemetery underway” for their dead guinea pigs in their sandbox! (12) She soon found a more hygienic place behind the house under a large granite boulder. When a beloved pet died, the family often brought it to this spot in a small procession “exchanging tributes to the worth and good qualities of the departed.” (13) Here, along with Jack, rest many of the Roosevelt’s family pets. What could be a more fitting tribute for a pet, than to be laid to rest by their devoted family on the grounds of their special home. The boulder is inscribed “FAITHFUL FRIENDS.” _ _ _ _ (1) part of a poem by Arthur Guiterman. Rhymed Review of Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children: Life, Issue 74, 1919. p 849. (2) Kerr, Joan Patterson. A Bully Father . NY: Random House, 1995, 110. TR to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, White House, Oct. 20, 1902. (3) “In Albany”: Shapiro, Harriet, “A Visit with Ethel Roosevelt Derby,” TRA Journal, Vol III, No. 2, Summer 1977, 9. (4) “repelled this suggestion”: Roosevelt, Theodore. Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913, 342. (5) “As he leaned over”: Ibid (6) “had a visitor”: TRB (Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace) website. (7) “it was green as spinach”: Teague, Michael. Mrs. L: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Longworth. NY: Doubleday, 1981, 69. (8) A Bully Father, 71. TR to Alice, Sagamore Hill, August 28, 1904. (9) TR to Mrs. Roswell Field, July 27, 1902. Presidential Pet Museum website. (10) Roosevelt, Theodore, Jr. All in the Family, New York: G. P. Putman’s sons, 1929, 67. (11) “beneath the eyes . . .”: Ibid., 85. (12) burying guinea pigs in sandbox: Ibid., 84. (13) “exchanging tributes”: A Bully Father, 151. TR to Kermit, white House, May 28, 1904.

The Rough Writer is Available Online

You can find the Rough Writer on the Friends of Sagamore Hill website. Simply select the MORE ABOUT TR menu and click Rough Writer Newsletter. You will go to a page that lists the Rough Writer issues starting with January 2020. Back issues are now readily available for your reading pleasure. Thank you Patrick Teubner for making this happen.

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This newsletter is produced by members of the Volunteer Advisory Board for the volunteers of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.

Proofreader Susan Sarna Laura Cinturati Layout Charlotte Miska

Contributors Joe DeFranco Carol Diglio Milton Elis Nancy Hall Charlotte Miska Natalie Naylor Bill Reed Susan Sarna Mike Sassi Toby Selda

Comments? Nancy Hall, Editor hallnpj@gmail.com

The National Park Service cares for the special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.

About Sagamore Hill National Historic Site Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, located in Oyster Bay, New York, is a unit of the National Park Service. The Site was established by Congress in 1962 to preserve and interpret the structures, landscape, collections and other cultural resources associated with Theodore Roosevelt’s home in Oyster Bay, New York, and to ensure that future generations understand the life and legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, his family and the significant events associated with him. For more information please check out our website at  www.nps.gov/sahi  or call (516) 922-4788.

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