Around the Table
Family life at Sagamore Hill has become one of the endearing chapters of the Roosevelt Legacy. At a time in America where it was said children should be seen and not heard, TR tried to include his kids in everything.
There was swimming, hiking, hunting, rowing and horseback riding. He held plays in the barn and every summer they’d go campaigning. He’d cook dinner and breakfast and tell ghost stories.
Edith said her husband was just a big kid. One day when the White House was under attack by invisible renegades TR helped the kids escape out a second story window by lowering them down on a rope.
At Sagamore Hill TR held court in the dining room. He’d frequently talk hunting and detail the adventures behind each of the trophies laying on the floor, draped over a chair, or hanging from the walls. He’d discuss John Ingall’s, a favorite poet of his and Abraham Lincoln.
He’d bring out John Milton’s Paradise Lost and talk about the illustrations. He’d explain the drawings in the Nibelungen. History was a favorite topic. Washington crossing the Delaware, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Plymouth Rock, Yorktown, Appomattox, the Declaration of Independence, Lee and Grant, Cuba, Sherman’s March to the Sea, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Cavalry Campaigns of George Armstrong Custer and Phillip Sheridan.
Going around the table Alice began life as a Tomboy, but by the time she turned into a tall blonde teenager her interests had moved to fashion. It was a hobby bankrolled by the Lees.
Ted Jr. was his father’s shadow. TR called him a warm-hearted gallant little fellow. The two would climb trees in the orchard and then race to Cooper’s Bluff. On the way home it often turned into a piggy-back ride back to Sagamore Hill. He wore big glasses and carried a tin sword to fend off dragoons and bad guys. In 1896 at the age of nine he was the first in the family to receive public education when he was enrolled in Cove Neck School.
If Ted Jr. was his father’s shadow, Kermit was his mother’s. Unlike his older brother, he was introspective. He’d like to gaze out the window and stare at the moon. His hair was nearly as light as Alice’s. He was limber. He could scratch his nose with his toes. His favorite toy was a dustpan he’d use to help the staff clean the house.
Ethel liked to play with other kids rather than toys. She was strong and sturdy and looked the part. TR gave her the nickname “Elephant Johnny.” When she got into trouble she’d drop to the floor and have a temper tantrum.
Edith thought Archie was the most handsome of the bunch. TR said Archie had lots of character, all of it bad. One day Archie ran into Edith’s drawing room interrupting his parents and their guests shouting “Father…Bishop Doan had twins.” That was the day the Roosevelt’s discovered Bishop Doan was Mother Doan.
Quentin was born November 9th, 1897, just prior to TR heading to Cuba. She spent the following four months recovering from an abdominal abscess that ultimately had to be treated with surgery. One day he stuck a moth ball up his nose.
Roosevelt set the family standards and responsibilities. He told the children to “Fear God and Take Your Own Part.”
Breakfast was at 8am and lunch was always the busiest meal of the day. When the Summer White House was in full swing lunch had to be served in shifts to feed all the guests and staff.
The president was 5’9” and reportedly weighed between 185 and 225 lbs. He was probably at his heaviest when he left the White House. Self-control was not one of Roosevelt’s virtues. Gifford Pinchot observed TR’s endurance had little to do with his diet. In TR‘s world having everything was a big part of life.
His favorite food was chicken. Cecil Springs Rice said, “TR ate chicken like a wild animal.” He preferred his mother’s recipe of fried chicken in white gravy. Mittie said to do it right the gravy had to soak into the chicken. If the gravy was served on the side TR took a pass. He wasn't only addicted to coffee; he liked tea, and both had to be served with plenty of sugar.
Possibly the Last Photograph of the Roosevelt Family Together Taken on Christmas Day 1917