Theodore Roosevelt Biography

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Early Life
Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858. His father, Theodore Sr. Roosevelt was a well-known businessman and philanthropist. His mother, Martha Roosevelt was a southern housewife raised in Georgia. He grew up as the second of four children in New York City. Theodore was a very average child and didn’t participate in any sports due to his severe Asthma. Later in his teen years, he learned to live with his asthma and participated in as much activities he could find. He was home schooled by private tutors. The Roosevelt family was always moving around to various countries; he even lived with a foster family in Germany for five months! His family was loving and was very supportive to Roosevelt during his childhood. In 1876 he attended Harvard to study German, Zoology, forensics and composition in college. Theodore still continued his adventurous and physical lifestyle in his college years. After graduating from Harvard, Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee in October 1880 and studied law at Columbia University. He dropped out after a year to pursue politics and government, winning a seat in the New York Assembly in 1882. In 1884 Alice and Theodore had a daughter, Alice Lee. Later in the same year a double tragedy struck Roosevelt, when his wife and mother died in the same house on the same day.
Pre Presidency
After the major tragedies, Roosevelt moved out west for two years becoming a rancher and sheriff. In 1886, he returned to New York City and married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow. They had six children: five of their own and Theodore’s first child, Alice. He wrote a number of books during his brief absence from the political world including The Life of Thomas Hart Benton (1887), The Life of Go...

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...Americans adored him. With the onset of WW1, Roosevelt went against Wilson’s views and thought we should prepare for war. When war did come, all 4 of his sons enlisted. In the war, his youngest son, Quentin, died in combat. A year later on January 6, 1919, Theodore Roosevelt died of illness in his sleep.

Interesting Facts
Theodore Roosevelt had blue eyes and brown hair. At his time of presidency, he was 5 feet 9 inches. After his 1912 campaign, Roosevelt and his son Kermit went on a 15,000 mile expedition in the amazon. While there, Roosevelt got malaria and a serious infection after a boat crash during the expedition. After returning, he spent most of his time writing scientific papers and history books about his journey. Across his lifetime, TR authored over 25 books. Most of the original national parks and the national park system itself were thought up by TR.

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