ROOSEVELT, Theodore,' American thor, naturalist, explorer, statesman and dier, and 26th President of the United States: b. New York City, -27 Oct. 1858; d. Sagamore Hill, N. Y., 6 Jan. 1919. He was born at No. 28 East 20th street, New 'York His father (of the same name) was a prominent merchant and a man noted for patriotism, public spirit and enlightened interest in many movements for social betterment. His mother's maiden name was Martha Bullock; she was a native of Georgia and had two brothers who served in the Confederate navy during the Civil The Roosevelt family is descended from Klaes Martensen Roosevelt, who came from Holland to what was then °New Amsterdam" in 1644; for seven generations thereafter all of dore's paternal ancestors bearing the family name were born on the island of Manhattan. and were well known there as leading Young Theodore was a sickly child, greatly troubled with asthma and extremely sighted; the condition of his health somewhat retarded his education, but he developed, when he was still very young, a passion for serious reading and an intelligent interest in natural history. In 1876 he entered Harvard College and received his degree of bachelor of arts in 1880. Before going to college and while there, as well as afterward, he gave much time to letic exercises of various kinds and, although seriously handicapped by physical deficiencies, became, by sheer force of will and indomitable perseverance, a good boxer, a good rider and a i good marksman, while, by frequently living the open air and persistence in strenuous exer cise, he not only threw off the maladies of his childhood, but became a tireless walker and rider and developed a magnificent physique, able to respond for many years to the exhaust ing calls he made upon it While in college he began a History of .the Naval War of 1812, which he completed after graduation; this is a work of much greater literary merit than he himself afterward ascribed * to its opening chapters, but the most interesting and cant incident connected with its preparation is the generally admitted fact that he undertook it because he found all the American narratives of that conflict, then current, untrustworthy, prejudiced and unfair to the public enemy; then, as ever throughout his life, his love of truth and fair play was, perhaps, his most striking characteristic; hypocrisy, humbug and obtaining praise through false pretenses were always, for him, the very abomination of desolation.
At the age of 23 he was elected to the New York assembly. Through family tradition and personal conviction he was a Republican, and his district was normally Republican also; but, two years before, the local bossling, to please the supreme party boss, had caused the nomi nation and election of a candidate whose rec ord at Albany of unscrupulous subserviency to the boss in question had so disgusted decent people among his constituents as to make the choice of a Democrat reasonably certain, were he renominated by the Republicans. Neverthe less, the boss insisted on his tool's renomina tion, and the bossling proceeded to obey orders; young Roosevelt reluctantly consented to be a candidate in the primaries, at the urgent en treaty of a local politician named Joe Murray, who pointed out to him how his party was about to suffer defeat merely to promote the discred itable personal ends of its unscrupulous leaders; and, to the great astonishment of these leaders, the supposed stripling was nominated, despite their hostility, and easily elected. In the as sembly his independence, courage, devotion to duty, outspoken enmity to corruption in every form and enlightened and fearless efforts to promote practical reforms and truly progressive legislation, in the face of bitter hostility on the part of wealthy °interests') and politicians owned by them, soon made him a figure of national prominence. The sudden deaths of his mother and his first wife within a few hours of each other in February 1884, and the discouraging political outlook after the nomination by the Republicans of James G. Blaine for the Presi dency, a nomination which Roosevelt, as a delegate to the National Convention, had sought vainly to prevent, caused his temporary retire ment from public life and led him to become for some two years a ranchman in the wild country then given over to cowboys and their herds.