Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

“Roosevelt was among the best-liked Presidents and, in many respects, the most interesting” (World Book 149). Theodore Roosevelt did many things, some in which impacted America.

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858 in New York City, making him the only president born there (Lamb 152). As a child Roosevelt was always very sick and frail, and had bad asthma (Kent 13). Despite this he never got tired of playing with his friends and inventing new games to play. Since he was always sick, a nanny tutored Roosevelt until he was old enough to attend college (Kent 14). When Roosevelt turned ten, his father had told him, “Theodore, you have the mind but you have not the body….You must make your body.”, and Roosevelt’s response to that was “I’ll make my body.” (Kent 16). He was so determined to build his body strength that he spent hours at Woods’ Gymnasium near his house until his father installed exercise equipment in a room in his house (Kent 16).

At the age of 16, Roosevelt went to Harvard University because his father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr. was a millionaire (Kent 13). While attending Harvard, Roosevelt was a boxer. During his junior year, he made it to the boxing finals of the annual competition (Kent 19-20). Along with boxing Roosevelt did swimming, rowing, hiking, hunting, running, and horseback riding. At Harvard he studied natural history, which involves more information than today (Lamb 153). While he was studying natural history, he met Alice Lee, his future wife. He then changed his major to law so he wouldn’t have to leave her to go to Germany for a natural history course (Lamb 153).

Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Lee, got married on October 27, 1878. Alice got pregnant but never mothered any children. In 1884 she died giving birth to a daughter who was named after her (Lamb 153). In December 1886, Roosevelt married Edith Carow, two years after Alice died (Lamb 153). Edith was a childhood friend whom Roosevelt knew since he was five years old. The couple produced four boys and two girls (The Saturday Evening Post 90). The six kids made the White House a play house; they brought everything into the house including roller-skates, stilts, and even pets (World Book 149).

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...eing our 26th president to refusing to shoot and bear and giving us the “teddy bear” (The Saturday Evening Post 91). Roosevelt gave the “teddy bear” the name teddy bear because he went to Arkansas on a hunting trip and he shot a mama cub, but when he saw that she had two baby cubs he didn’t shoot them (The Saturday Evening Post 91). Roosevelt was also one of the few presidents to ever win a Nobel Peace Prize. In 1906 he was awarded the prize for his war efforts in putting the Russo-Japanese War to a close in 1905 (World Book 150). When Roosevelt died he was deaf in one ear, blind in one eye, and crippled by attacks of rheumatism (Melitzer, 179). The 60 year old died in his sleep of a blood clot in his coronary artery on January 5, 1919 (Whitelaw, 180). This president will never be forgotten. The many changes that he has made for America has impacted everyone. For example, he is one of the four heads on Mount Rushmore and in the current war the United States is having with Afghanistan has an army ship named the Theodore Roosevelt. Now it is understandable why people believe “Roosevelt was among the best-liked Presidents and, in many respects, the most interesting” (World Book 149).