It ’s July 16 , 1918 , and Theodore Roosevelt is at his Sagamore Hill home in Oyster Bay , New York , dictate correspondence to his secretary when there ’s aknockat the door . It ’s a newsman , who hands Roosevelt a telegram that translate : “ WATCH SAGAMORE HILL IN EVENT OF … ” Then it finish , the residue of the message edited out to protect it from prying eye .
The message might be ban , but Roosevelt knows what it means . World War I is raging , and all four of his Word sign up to fight . Ted and Archie are injured , and Kermit is n’t in a life-threatening area yet . That leaves Quentin , a 20 - yr - honest-to-goodness hero pilot warding off German planes over France .
Though he wo n’t get further confirmation for a few days , Roosevelt knows what has hap . He knows that he ’s never going to see Quentin , his youngest and favorite Logos , again .
Roosevelt asks the reporter not to say anything to his wife , Edith . He continue to dictate letters . Soon he will be told Quentin is overleap in action following a vehement aeriform struggle . It ’s report that Quentin faced off against an star German pilot program before being shot down .
General John Pershing save to Roosevelt that they are holding out Bob Hope that Quentin landed . But there will be no well-chosen ending . Newspapers are report that Quentin has die out , and , on July 20 , Roosevelt receives prescribed word from President Woodrow Wilson confirm the news . The German governmentprintsa horrific pic of Quentin ’s dead body next to his downed plane .
Publicly , Roosevelt is stoic as ever . Privately , he heads to his stable and embraces Quentin ’s crib , his arms around the fauna ’s cervix . “ Poor Quentyquee , ” he says , whispering Quentin ’s nickname . “ Poor Quentyquee . ” A friend and future biographer would say of Roosevelt that “ the old exuberance , the male child in him has died . ”
From Mental Floss and iHeartRadio , this isHistory Vs . , a podcast about how your favorite diachronic figures faced off against their heavy foeman . I ’m your host , Erin McCarthy , and this week ’s episode is TR vs. Tragedy .
It ’s not only that Roosevelt has lost a son , though that would be enough to send any parent into a State Department of anguish . It ’s that Roosevelt has once again been confronted with impossible tragedy , the latest in a serial of wounds that he ’s last throughout his life .
Those closest to him — his female parent , his father , his first wife , his brother , and now his Logos — have all disappeared , most of them at a tragically early age . These moments reveal a great deal about Roosevelt ’s fiber . They mould his worldview . At times , they overwhelmed him . For TR , cataclysm was a frequent visitor .
The first time it expunge , he lost his idol . That was his father , Theodore Roosevelt Senior , who , when TR was a kid , imploredhis son not to be monish by his frequent asthma attack and to go after an active life style . He loomed big in Roosevelt ’s life as someone he aspired to be — stout , resourceful , determined . In Roosevelt ’s words , his father was “ the idealistic man . ” At Sagamore Hill , Roosevelt hung a portrayal of his beginner that he could see whenever he sat down in his library .
That ’s Tyler Kuliberda , the Education Department technician at Sagamore Hill , which is now a National Historic Site .
Theodore Roosevelt Senior , or Thee , was born in 1831 . Later , he pitched President Abraham Lincoln on a program where soldiers in the Civil War could post money back to their families .
Lincoln wish the idea , and Thee travel around the front , signing soldiers up . His work was a form gesture , but it was n’t entirely borne out of generousness . There may have been a small guilt trip involved . Like many wealthy men of the era , he bear for a substitute to enter the Civil War so he would n’t have to engage , which could have put him at warfare with his own wife . TR ’s female parent was from Roswell , Georgia , and her sidekick were blockade runners — so things were plausibly a little tense at family .
Thee ’s philanthropic gift was n’t limited to war efforts . Often , he ’d add Roosevelt along on visit to orphanages and mission , a spark that likely guide to his son ’s desire to operate in public service .
At the time , it was n’t needs ask that someone flush would be so active with their kinsperson . That genetic familiarity was something Roosevelt would carry with him his entire life sentence , spend as much time as he could with his relatives .
After a puerility spent traveling with his household and being privately tutor — because he was too sick for even school — Roosevelt went off to Harvard in 1876 . In his sophomore yr , his Father-God wasnominatedby President Rutherford B. Hayes as Collector of Customs in New York City . Hayes wanted to march he was committed to Civil Service Reform . The attention was tax for Thee , who found himself a instrument between Republicans who punt Hayes and others who opposed reform . He was finally rejected for the appointment .
The stress of the experience may have compounded his health yield . He had been struggling with pain and digestive problems convey on by an enteric tumor , and it was progressing rapidly . Thee insist that TR not be informed — he wanted his boy to focalize on his study .
Eventually , Roosevelt was summoned back , and he hie home from Harvard . But he was too late .
Thee died February 9 , 1878 at the age of 46 , just 60 minutes before TR made it home . Roosevelt was only a sophomore in college when his idol — the one his family called “ Great Heart”—left his animation forever and a day .
On the daytime of his Father of the Church ’s funeral , Rooseveltwrotein his journal :
Thee was , Roosevelt wrote , “ Everything to me . ”
Though Roosevelt would go on to experience the pain of personal loss several times over , never again would he articulate his grief in such apparent language . It was as though his beginner ’s fall stripped him of every mo of self - consciousness in his writing .
Those unornamented emotions continued pouring out . In his journal , Roosevelt struggled with a sense of guilt and a want of self - worth . He was tortured by his helplessness , and the fact that he had been ineffectual to aid or comfort his founding father in his last moments . He held his father in such regard that he mat up ugly of being his son .
Roosevelt return to Harvard , on the face of it intent to prove himself incorrect . He studied heavily , exercised often , and spend summers rowing around Long Island Sound . He refuse to allow his body or his mind to grow idle . Nature allowed him a way out of the shadow . He assume steps ahead .
Still , Roosevelt rarely acted without first equate his plans to his father ’s best judgment .
We ’ll be powerful back .
Roosevelt ’s mourning period for Thee lasted for month . Then , in October of 1878 , just eight months following his male parent ’s death , his life was unexpectedlybrightenedby the appearance of Alice Hathaway Lee .
The 17 - year - old Alice was a full cousin of one of Roosevelt ’s Harvard friends , Richard Saltonstall . Roosevelt was right away smitten with the strong , energetic Alice , who enjoyed forcible activities like tennis and boating .
She seemed to blot out the sombreness that had wrap his animation . He spend the next year trying to court her before she agreed to marry him . When they became engaged in January 1880 , heexaltedher .
She called him Teddy .
Roosevelt and Alicemarriedon October 27 , 1880 , his 22ndbirthday . While Roosevelt attended legal philosophy schooltime and worked on his book , The Naval War of 1812 , Alice grew close to his female parent , Mittie , whom the mates lived with in New York City , and got along well with his sister , Anna — better known as Bamie or Bye — and Corrine . In 1881 , Roosevelt was elect a land assemblyman . In 1883 , Alice became pregnant with their first tike . Soon , he hired an architectural firm to begin designing a menage in Long Island for his expanding family .
Roosevelt intend to call the property Leeholm , after Alice ’s initiative name .
On February 13 , 1884 , Roosevelt was in Albany on business organisation when he receive a telegram with happy word . The daylight before , Alice had given birth to a healthy daughter , whom she had list Alice Lee Roosevelt .
But his joy was short - be . Hours later , he received a second telegram . The telegram no longer survive , so we have no theme what it say , but we can assume from what hap next that it informed him that Alice was not in good wellness . She had Bright ’s disease , a now - disused term for aconditionthat seriously damage the kidneys . Here ’s Holly Frey , Centennial State - boniface of theStuff You Missed in History Classpodcast .
Alice was only just conscious when he make it . He take hold her in his arms through the early sunup hour of February 14 . As Alice tried to cling to biography , Roosevelt was summon to his mother ’s elbow room one trading floor below .
This clock time , he could at least be at her side , assuaging the guilt he had long felt over not being near his founding father ’s . She turn over away at 3 ante meridiem
At 2 p.m. , Alice , just 22 years old , also died . She had been a mother for only two mean solar day .
Thatsameday , Roosevelt drew a largeXin his diary and write “ The spark has go out of my living . ” He was just 25 years old .
Alice and Mittie were buried in Green - Wood Cemetery in a double funeral . cheeseparing friends of the category observed that Roosevelt appeared daze and stun , a land hardly distinctive of his pragmatic and focused tendency . Some even fear he might do something foolhardy , taking total leave of absence of his senses .
After the funeral , he write in his journal , “ We spent three year of happiness greater and more unalloyed than [ any ] I have ever have a go at it fall to the fortune of others … For joy or sorrow , my aliveness has now been live out . ”
After that he seldom spoke of Alice again — not of their love or their good times together . Rather than confront his grief , Roosevelt seemed capable only of delete it : Love letter and photographs were destroy .
He would n’t even observe her in his autobiography . And after this double tragedy , he would lock himself , and his feelings , down for the most part . concord to Kathleen Dalton , “ Escape and flight from annoyance provided conversant devices to protect himself from his own strong emotions and from unpleasant fact he wanted to avoid . ”
On February 18 , he fall to Albany to finish up out his term as Assemblyman , where he worked with frenzied energy . He impart his daughter in the care of his baby , Bamie .
Roosevelt shortly left New York for the Dakota Territory and a cattle ranch , where the solitude of the outdoors , and the hard work of ranching , allowed him to numb the painfulness . Once again , deprivation had devastated him , and once again , Roosevelt had to reconstruct himself .
Roosevelt once said that he never would have been chair if not for his clip in the Dakotas . To find out why , we manoeuvre out there ourselves , to Theodore Roosevelt National Park , where we meet with Eileen Andes , the Chief of Interpretation and Public Affairs at the park .
Roosevelt come to the Dakotas to hunt bison in 1883 , and , while he was there , indue in the Maltese Cross cattle ranch . After two tragedies and a bumpy last full term as a New York State Assemblyman , he intended to permanently relocate there . But the Maltese Cross did n’t fit all of his need .
Rooseveltboughtthe right hand to the Elkhorn holding for $ 400 . Quite a steal .
The house is no longer standing . After Roosevelt sold it off in 1898 , it was picked over by 1901 . But you may still push out to the site , which is an hour and 15 minutes from the park ’s visitor core , so Tyler , a producer on this podcast , and I do just that .
At first the route are paved , but eventually , we deform off onto a red gravel road . The scientific name for that red gravel isclinker , and it ’s not long before our white SUV is coated in a fine bed of red dust , like we went to Mars .
finally , we turn off the gravel route onto another , profoundly rutted road .
Well , not quite . There ’s still a bit of a walk from the parking circumstances out to the site . The track is smother by forage on either side , punctuated by white basswood and juniper Tree and yellow heyday and salsify flora that await kind of like vast dandelions when the seeds are ready to be blown off . Occasionally shuttle , and the moo of a cow , can be find out over the blare of cicada . Also , there are a lot of insects .
eventually , we make it to the cattle ranch site , which is cordoned off with barbed telegram .
What was once here was a house 30 feet long and 60 foot all-inclusive , with seven infantry high walls . Nearby were horse barn , a shed for cattle , a wimp house , and a blacksmith store . On one side is a tall bluff , and on the other , through the trees , is the Little Missouri River — which one expert told me is 200 yards off from where it was in Roosevelt ’s prison term .
Here ’s how Roosevelt himselfdescribedthe site :
For year , TR bounce back and forth between his political obligation in New York and the purdah offer here . More than quiet , though , was the need to stay busy . Ranch duties could n’t wait for a sorrow caretaker . Things needed to be done , and Roosevelt discombobulate himself into his work , sometimes spending 13 hour a daylight or more in the saddle .
The actual citation is “ Black care seldom sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough , ” so Eileen nailed it .
Elkhorn had everything he ask . Distractions . Nature . thing that Roosevelt had long since learned cured whatever dark view might be frustrate his mind .
As Baby Lee develop up in Bamie ’s home , Roosevelt found comfort with the womanhood who would become his second married woman . Her name was Edith Kermit Carow . They were marry in 1886 . The next year , Baby Lee unite them in Sagamore Hill . In 1889 , just before the parturition of their second Logos , Kermit , Roosevelt moved to Washington after being constitute U.S. Civil Service Commissioner . Another son , Archie , was born in 1894 . It would not be the only significant personal event in Roosevelt ’s life that year .
Roosevelt would go on to have four boys and one more girl . For the most part , the sibling got along well . That was a marked departure from Roosevelt ’s own kinship with his blood brother , Elliott .
Born in 1860 , Elliott was the disastrous sheep of the Roosevelt clan , and he often tried TR ’s patience . Elliott ’s primary problem was the bottle . He drank heavy and often , trying to soothe the dawdle pain in the neck of a serious stroke . While he would sometimes attempt to curb his addiction at treatment core , it never cohere .
All of this drive his unbent - laced chum unhinged , and worse than that , it threaten major scandal when Elliott grow Katy Mann , his married woman ’s maid , pregnantin 1890 .
Here ’s Roosevelt family unit biographer William Mann , source ofThe Wars of the Roosevelts : The Ruthless Rise of America ’s Greatest Political Family .
Roosevelt thought Elliott was a burden not only to the Roosevelt family as a whole but to his own wife , Anna , and their three child — one of whom was future four - terminal figure first noblewoman Eleanor Roosevelt , who laterbecamethe American interpreter for the United Nations .
Roosevelt endeavor to become his brother ’s curator to stamp down his reckless spending and scandalous behaviour . It was an interesting role turnabout . As nipper , it was Elliott who looked out for his older crony .
As Roosevelt build his body and creative thinker , he needed Elliott less and less . before long , he would achieve goals that were out of Elliott ’s reach . Traveling in opposite counsel , the chum develop asunder .
When Elliott tried arrange his life together , Roosevelt did not boost him or chuck him on the back . After Elliott check himself into a sanitarium in Europe , Anna demand Roosevelt to compose Elliott a varsity letter praising him . But TR would not do it .
To Roosevelt , his brother ’s wayward behavior would only cause him harm if he manage to continue his ascendancy in political relation . He think the best way to keep up his report in the expression of his brother ’s mistakes was to check that he could manifest he had adjudicate helping Elliott . Unfortunately , his dogmatic approach may not have been in Elliott ’s best interests .
Tragedy soon found Elliott . Annadiedof diphtheria in 1892 . One of Elliott ’s Logos , Elliott Junior , knuckle under to the same illness the next year . These deaths unravel what was left of Elliott .
On August 13 , 1894 , TR got a telegram — by this point , a method of communicating he must have grown to fear — send word him that Elliott was in New York and in poor wellness . He cast out any attempts by his family to console him . Roosevelt honored his wishing to be left alone , and the next day , Elliott tried to kill himself by stand out out of a window . He survived , but a ictus followed . Elliott Roosevelt was dead at the age of 34 .
Roosevelt had been able to compartmentalize Elliott ’s problems by keeping his distance . But when he discover Elliott ’s organic structure , his knock off method was of no use of goods and services . He wept openly . His sis Corinne say that “ Theodore was more overcome than I have ever seen him , and cried like a little fry for a farsighted time . ”
Elliott , Roosevelt write , was “ like a stricken , hunted animate being ” who had been pursued by “ awful demons . ” Any persuasion of Elliott as a filth on his reputation seemed to disappear . In death , Roosevelt saw him only as a lose soul . Though he was later exhumed and laid to eternal sleep next to Anna in the Hall family mausoleum at St. Paul ’s Church in Tivoli , New York , Roosevelt initiallyinsistedElliott be inhume in Brooklyn ’s Green - Wood Cemetery , the website of the Roosevelt category plot of land , where he stay on for two years . There , TR wrote , Elliott could be next to those who “ are associate only with his sweet innocent youth . ”
The empty space left by his parents , by Alice , and by Elliott could never be filled , but by the 1910s , Roosevelt had a telephone number of important people in his biography to occupy his time and his nous . There was Edith and his six children . For a time , biography was relatively hushed — as quiet as TR ’s life history could be , anyway .
Then come America ’s first appearance into World War I , which TR had lobby for . He’dwantedto make a volunteer section , but Chief Executive Woodrow Wilson would n’t let it . Roosevelt ’s sons so revered their father that they felt obligate to take up arms in his stead . Archie Roosevelt once severalize a historian that , “ We all knew how bad Dad want to go , so we went for him . He always tell us to lead meant to serve . ”
World War I was a conflict waged with an effective viciousness . Grenades , expectant ammo , planes , and trenches all conspired to wreathe anestimated21 million soldiers . Some come up back home with crushing injuries that required the use of plaster mask to hide facial deformity . Others took around after bout of machine - grease-gun flak . It was this unforgiving environment that the Roosevelt boy found themselves in .
Archie and Ted sailed to France . Archie was seriously wounded in the knee and weapon system by shell fragment . by and by , Ted would get a wooden leg wound . But it was Quentin who pay off the ultimate price , shot down by foeman ardor .
Here ’s Tyler Kuliberda .
Roosevelt clung to something with Quentin ’s last . It was the aristocracy of sacrifice , a liveliness exchanged for the bully goodness . Writing to King George V in response to his and the Queen ’s condolences , TR said that his sons had “ navigate from our shores over a class ago ; their mother and I knew their temper and quality ; and we did not expect to see all of them come back . ”
But he could also waver . write to Kermit ’s wife , Belle Willard Roosevelt , he deplore the pain felt by Quentin ’s fiancée , Flora .
Quentin ’s grave accent in France became a shrine that was visit by many soldier . The Americans replaced a German hybrid marking the grave , and the French built a fence around it . The Roosevelts decided to leave his body there , where he had fall in conflict and where respect was being pay off .
Roosevelt spent time with Edith in Dark Harbor , Maine , rowing out onto the lake to commune with nature . It was his most enduring coping mechanism . But he was older now , a serviceman of almost 60 , and the strain and toil of miss a sleep with one wore on his constitution . He pass away in his sleep on January 6 , 1919 , of a pulmonic intercalation .
Prior to his expiry , supporters called for Roosevelt to run for Chief Executive once more . owe to his advancing years and the loss of Quentin , the serviceman who was previously quick to unravel back into battle could not fathom taking on any more responsibility . “ Since Quentin ’s death , the globe seems to have shut down upon me , ” hewrote .
Four Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . Four telegrams , for five disaster . Each loss fundamentally altered how Theodore Roosevelt looked at the world — and fundamentally altered him . It ’s hard to say if TR rightfully suppress cataclysm . You do n’t leave loss like these behind — they become a part of you . What we know is that it hurt him , sometimes freeze him . But it did not defeat him .
CREDITS
History Vs.is hosted by me , Erin McCarthy . This episode was write by Jake Rossen and researched by me , with extra research by Michael Salgarolo . Fact checking by Austin Thompson . field of view recording by Jon Mayer and Tyler Klang . Joe Weigand voiced TR in this episode .
The executive manufacturer are Erin McCarthy , Julie Douglas , and Tyler Klang . The supervising producer is Dylan Fagan . The show is edit by Dylan Fagan and Lowell Brillante .
Special thanks to Tyler Kuliberda , Holly Frey , Eileen Andes , William Mann , and North Dakota Tourism .
To learn more about this sequence , and Theodore Roosevelt , visit MentalFloss.com/HistoryVs .
History Vs.is a production of iHeartRadio and Mental Floss .
