Lost in the Shadow of Fame

by William E. Lemanski

  Born in Connecticut, Edith grew up on Manhattan’s Union Square, a few short blocks from the home where Theodore was born and raised. They were close friends as adolescents, and as children, she was a playmate of both Theodore and his sister Corinne, all sharing family summer outings at Oyster Bay.

  As a young man, Theodore was a robust, outspoken and gregarious intellectual, an avid hunter, amateur naturalist and committed family man who worshiped strenuous physical activity. Following graduation from Harvard College, Kermit’s father became a prominent New York aristocrat and Republican politician having served as a New York State Assemblyman and Minority Leader. Always in constant motion, he managed at the age of twenty-three to author a voluminous work on the naval war of 1812 while studying the law at Columbia College and simultaneously engaging in New York’s seedy political world. However, his idyllic existence came to a tragic end with the demise of both his mother and first wife, twenty-two year old Alice Lee on the same day; Valentine’s Day, 1884. Ironically, two days before that dark day the relationship produced a daughter named after her mother.

  After recovering from his tragic double loss, Theodore rekindled his relationship with Edith Carow, and they married in Europe in 1886. In addition to Kermit’s older siblings, Ted Jr., born in 1887 and his half-sister Alice, this union also produced two other brothers and a sister: Archibald in 1894, Quentin in 1897, and Ethel in 1891.

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  The Roosevelt home on the north shore of Long Island at Oyster Bay where Kermit was born was an imposing Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion of twenty-three rooms2. Located on a hill overlooking the bay, the appearance of the multistory structure could be the venue for a present-day Hollywood murder mystery on the outside while providing the warmth, coziness and clutter of 19th century decor on the inside. Originally built with the expectation of first wife Alice Lee being mistress of the house, the rambling interior was designed by Theodore himself and provided all of the comforts and ambiance reflective of his manly character. Prominent within the house was his large book-lined study which served as both office for his literary pursuits and a comfortable retreat for meetings and contemplation. At the north end of the house was the vaulted-ceiling great room, part trophy room and part museum that contained a growing collection of both animal horns and hides and the varied memorabilia of Theodore’s ramblings. The twelve bedrooms he designed into the structure were indicative of his belief in the importance of family, both in the rearing of children and number borne. In emphasizing the value of large families with many offspring, Theodore referred to small families as “race suicide.”3 His notion of a large family was both a moral obligation and patriotic duty.

  Oyster Bay in the 19th century was a rural and somewhat isolated community on the north shore of Long Island where the terrestrial outdoor activities of the rambling Roosevelt property were enhanced by water sports on the bay and sound; swimming, rowing and shore-line camping were a favored pastime of the Roosevelts. The sprawling 155-acre property provided woodlot and orchard, open field and outbuildings along with the bay access, all the places of mystery and wonderment for a young child to explore. In regard to the family “They swam, rowed, went barefoot, or camped in the woods or on the beach of Long Island Sound. They learned to shoot-for there was a rifle-range at Sagamore Hill. They made pets of the various animals on the home farm in the summer, and they coasted and skated in the winter.”4

  With a gaggle of siblings and the opportunity to ramble about with the largest child of them all, his father Theodore, Kermit was continually exposed to the warmth of a very close and active family life that many considered to be chaotic bordering on the insane. His father had a profound influence on Kermit and his siblings. He was a committed proponent of what he called “…the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife”5 which embodied continuous, extreme physical activity in all pursuits and shunned slothful ease or half measures. Whether chopping wood, riding to fox hounds, boxing with professional pugilists, single-handedly rowing across the sound in a gale or dictating a letter, he was in a state of perpetual, boisterous motion. Observers of the time likened him to a steam locomotive, others to electrical energy. Having overcome his own youthful frailties through determination and hard labor, Theodore imprinted his action-oriented principles onto his children whether engaged in work or play. Engaging in one of his many frantic physical jaunts, Theodore would lead his string of children, along with numerous cousins, on his rough peregrinations across field and wood, single file and at break-neck speed. The only rule was that everyone must negotiate all obstacles by either climbing over or going through but never around an impediment. During his presidency, Roosevelt even imposed this form of athletic torture upon his cabinet and including visiting dignitaries. On one occasion, with a string of following diplomats stumbling behind, Roosevelt stripped naked to forge the creek in Washington’s Rock Creek Park. Along with the others, the French diplomat totally undressed but as a complete gentleman with typical Victorian gallantry and to the amusement of the group, refused to remove his gloves in the event ladies should appear. Negotiating bodies of water, scaling rock cliffs and enduring horseback marathons were typical of Roosevelt’s physical pastimes.

  Despite his father’s emphasis on physical exertion and athletic prowess, personal values, character and academic success were given a much higher priority. In a 1903 letter to Kermit regarding playing football at Groton vs. his studies, Theodore advised:

  “I would rather have a boy of mine stand high in his studies than high in athletics, but I could a great deal rather have him show true manliness of character than show either intellectual or physical prowess….” 6

  The traditional character-building qualities of courage, honesty and devotion to duty, traits that became an obsession with Theodore throughout his life were continually instilled in his children. The lives of Theodore and all his children can best be characterized by his famous speech given at the Sorbonne in Paris upon his return from his African safari:

  “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs….”

  Time and again he would coach and sometimes admonish his children to perform under adversity to their utmost ability in the noblest manner. His continual doting over Kermit’s elder brother, actually began to spur a nervous condition that required medical care for a bed-ridden Ted Jr. Once Theodore was informed by the attending physician of his damaging influence, he realized the excessive expectations he imposed on Ted were a subconscious reflection of his own youthful shortcomings. This revelation greatly disturbed him, and he vowed to never pressure the youngster again. However, through his life, Ted Jr. would attempt to emulate his father but never succeed in his own eyes.

  A measure of the value and reverence for courage instilled in the Roosevelt boys’ is evident in Kermit’s diary entry following the loss of the Titanic in April, 1912: “Everybody full of the Titanic. Archie Butt*[1] died like a man; everybody did wonderfully except Ismay*[2], apparently.”7

  Qualities that Theodore held perhaps above all others were patriotism and the call to duty in time of war. The notion of military service and, if necessary, personal sacrifice was instilled in all of his children – a concept that would eventually take the life of his youngest son and severely wound both Theodore Jr. and Archie in the Great War. The family’s martial tradition resulted in Theodore Sr., for his actions in the Spanish-American War winning the Congressional Medal of Honor and Theodore Jr. for his bravery on D-day. In time son Archie, became severely wounded multiple times being the only American fighting man in history to be twice declared with a one-hundred percent disability across two wars. Service to country and valor in battle almost became a competitive event between the four brothers in World War I as their aging father attempted to raise
a volunteer brigade as he had done twenty-years earlier in the war with Spain.

  Like Theodore, Kermit’s mother Edith also encouraged the children to excel intellectually. Based upon her love of literature and art and her sense of the subtleties of life, she introduced Kermit and his siblings to the more enlightened and cultured pursuits. Unlike Theodore’s loud, boisterous and challenging nature, Edith’s gentle influence tended to focus on the creative and artistic instilling qualities that the sensitive Kermit displayed throughout his life to a much higher degree than any of his siblings.

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  As a youngster, Kermit was frail and susceptible to sickness. Spending recuperative time in bed, he enjoyed reading and developed an extraordinary aptitude for languages. In later years his natural literary abilities would result in the authorship and co-authorship of multiple books, a deep interest in poetry and literacy in a number of foreign languages. Even as a young man, Kermit had a sensitive appreciation for poetry. When he read a poem by an obscure and unknown poet “The Children of the Night” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, he was so impressed with the work that he brought Robinson to his father’s attention, and the president arranged for a job at the New York Custom House for the poverty-stricken writer.

  Observers sensed that his mother favored Kermit above her other children. Perhaps she recognized that the introverted and dreamy nature of Kermit indicated a vulnerable sensitivity that was not present in the extroverted and hardy character of the other children. Although more adventurous and contemplative, the little blond-headed boy was also moody and sometimes withdrawn. In later years Edith would characterize Kermit as “the one with the white head and the black heart.”8 A dark perception which would be sadly verified in later years.

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  In 1899 the Roosevelt family moved into the governor’s mansion in Albany following Theodore’s close New York gubernatorial victory. He was riding an enormous wave of public adoration following his exploits in the jungles of Cuba.

  From his charge up Kettle Hill and military action in the San Juan heights, to his public criticism of the War Office for ill treatment of the troops, high office in New York was his for the taking. Edith was relieved by the family’s move into a higher income bracket, and Theodore was pleased to see his political career advance. Despite having the patrician roots of the Roosevelt name, Kermit was not raised in the 19th century opulence of such notable families as the Astor’s or Rockefellers. Although Theodore inherited a modest fortune from his family, most of the money was lost to his ill-considered ranching investments. Besides, he was never concerned with finances. Politics consumed his interests while Edith was burdened with making ends meet. The financial concerns of stretching the family resources continued even into the Roosevelt Presidency and only diminished as Theodore began continuously publishing books and magazine articles following his departure from office.

  For the next two years, Kermit’s education, along with his brother Ted, shifted from home schooling to the Albany Academy while the other children continued on with private tutoring. Following Kermit’s primary schooling in Albany, he entered the elite private boarding school, Groton in Massachusetts, where many of the moneyed Eastern establishment sent their children. While a student at the upscale Groton, his course schedule focused heavily on mathematics and foreign languages specifically designed for entry to Harvard or Yale. While not an exceptional student, he ranked about in the middle of a class of approximately twenty-five students.9 Even as a young secondary school student, Kermit was following the voracious reading habits of his father, displaying a love of books and reading. While at Groton, he was devouring works such as Thackery’s Pendennis, the Virginians and Don Quixote and the Pickwick Papers 10. In later years in his world travels he would search antiquarian book stores for first editions. He would read both the classics and popular novels in German, Spanish and Portuguese and during his life amassed an extensive, eclectic personal library with many first editions.

  His athletic skills at Groton were recognized in the Boston Journal11 when his boxing instructor Fred Bryson, a star in the lightweight class himself, commended Kermit’s skill and “scrap” in the ring, commenting “Strenuous is the only word to describe this youngster in the midst of a fistic mixup…” He engaged in canoeing, rowing, hockey and ice-skating. Later in Harvard, he would run cross-country track; complaining of one event in his diary entry of October 23, 1911, “We had a hard five-mile run in the afternoon.” The building of his physical stamina would serve him well in the coming years of big game hunting and wilderness exploration, but would greatly fail him in later years, ultimately leading to his tragic demise.

  As a young teenager, Kermit began to display the hunting instincts of his father. In 1905 he embarked on a ten-day bear hunt in South Dakota with his father’s friend, the legendary western sheriff and Spanish-American War veteran Seth Bullock. Displaying the typical Roosevelt competitiveness and the desire to emulate his father, a newspaper account of the time12 quotes sixteen-year old Kermit: “I want to get a bear” he said. “My highest ambition is to beat my father’s bear slaying record, but I scarcely expect to do that.” In 1908 he once again hunted in South Dakota with Bullock who arranged for a buffalo hunt as Theodore had in the bad lands of Dakota Territory many years before. This time, with the later conservation instincts of his father, Kermit refused to hunt the two or three buffalo remaining on the open range. According to Bullock,

  “We had a successful hunt, and the young man is a splendid shot but he declined to kill any buffalo, notwithstanding that it is a rare experience in these days when buffalo are all but extinct.”13

  Following both his father, older brother Ted and cousin Franklin, Kermit entered Harvard in the fall of 1908. Again, his studies emphasized languages: Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish and even Slavic.14 His social standing and engaging personality enabled entry into Harvard’s Hasty Pudding club, the Sphinx and the exclusive Porcellian Society, an organization with such restrictive admission requirements that even his cousin and future President, Franklin Roosevelt, was denied entry.

  In anticipation of his post-presidency African safari, with the accompaniment of Kermit scheduled to commence in 1909, President Roosevelt wrote to Harvard’s Dean, B. S. Hurlbut, requesting a one and a half year leave from study for his son.15With approval, Kermit left Harvard in the middle of Freshman year and at the close of mid-year examinations; he did not return until the fall of his Junior year.

  A young, dapper Kermit Roosevelt with his father in 1910.

  Following the African trip, in 1911 the President again wrote requesting a “three or four day delay” in Kermit’s return for the upcoming semester because “My son Kermit has been asked by the Smithsonian people to collect for them certain specimens of moose, caribou and beaver in New Brunswick for the National Museum.”16 Still, after working very hard at his studies, Kermit managed to makeup the absent years and graduate with his class in 1912.

  Although a bright student, able to recover and compensate for the extended absence from his studies at Harvard in just two and a half years, Kermit displayed an independent and recalcitrant nature toward his studies. In 1912, just before his graduation, he was absent without leave from school for one week causing Dean Hurlbut to write 17 to President Roosevelt:

  “…the members of the Administrative Board feel that Kermit needs a pretty forcible lecture from you on the subject of holding himself up to duty. This second half year his attendance has been decidedly unsatisfactory. He is hurting both himself and the college.”

  With graduation so near, Hurlbut and the board overlooked the violation, satisfied with Roosevelt’s firm admonition of Kermit. However, this infraction was indicative of his developing rejection of convention and his lack of a serious vision for the future. He would begin to address his future responsibilities with a romantic and dreamy, albeit impractical outlook.

  The summer of 1912 began with Kermit attending the Republican National Convention in Chicago,
the famous raucous political event in which Theodore was denied the Republican Party nomination for President in favor of William Howard Taft. Although Roosevelt won more delegates to the convention, backroom wheeling and dealing by Taft and his people awarded the majority of the large group of contested delegates to Taft. This forced Roosevelt to request that his delegates abstain from voting.

  Roosevelt and his supporters walked out of the convention claiming a stolen nomination and established their splinter-group headquarters at Orchestra Hall, less than a mile from the convention 18. This was the beginning of Roosevelt’s Progressive or Bull Moose Party and the splitting of the Republican Party portended the end of a possible Taft second term in the White House. The Oyster Bay Roosevelt clan was in attendance for this historic event. First daughter Alice spent much time as both cheerleader and advisor to her father. Amid the confusion and riotous affair of the convention, scrappy young Kermit engaged in a scuffle with the delegates while downplaying the incident commenting: a “Montana man clawed up a Florida delegate; I helped separate them.”19

  The final result of Roosevelt and his followers bolting the Republican Party enabled Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the 1912 Presidential election with a plurality of only 42 percent of the popular vote; Roosevelt won 27.5 percent with Taft receiving little more than 23 percent. Although losing the election, Roosevelt denied Taft a second term in the White House and gained the highest number of third-party votes in American history.

  Anticipating his graduation from Harvard without any firm plans, Kermit began thinking about pursuing a career. He had a business lunch with corporate executive, Elon Hooker, in April, 1912 to consider a job with the Hooker Electrochemical Company at Niagara.*[3] 20 Hooker was the Deputy of Public Works under TR when he was Governor of New York. Not surprisingly, the job never materialized. Office work in a corporate environment close to home simply didn’t appeal to Kermit’s adventurous nature at that time.