Josiah
TR went out west for 8 weeks from April 1st to June 5th. In California he meets John Muir and spends 2 weeks camping in Yellowstone. He travels 14,000 miles and goes to 25 states and 150 towns delivering 262 speeches, some from the back of his lavish 7 car presidential train.
Roosevelt is given the Badger Josiah in Sharon Springs, Kansas (Not Sharon Springs, NY) May 8 - 9, 1903. After church a 12-year-old Pearl Gorsuch was reported to have shyly stepped forward and asked the president if he'd like a badger? TR answered, “yes I think I would like a badger.”
Pearl ran off and returned about an hour later with a 2-week-old baby badger and other of her family. The president then presented Pearl with a carnation and a gold and silver locket and took the badger from her father, Josiah Gorsuch. He then gave her a tour of his private railroad car, the Elysian.
As Roosevelt was examining the tiny badger, it began to nibble on his finger. He said he was delighted with the gift.
When Roosevelt’s train left Sharon Springs, the little badger took up residence in the presidential car. He dined on milk and potatoes and slept in a cage.
“I rather think you will like Josiah the badger,” Roosevelt said in a letter to his children. “So far he is very good tempered and waddles around everywhere like a little bear.”
Once at the White House, Josiah became a celebrity pet to Ethel, who was 12 years old. Archibald was 9 the two played the most with Josiah giving him the run of the presidential mansion.
Ethel Roosevelt would write in her journal on Aug. 21, 1903: Josiah “is always amusing us with his antics, like shredding the furniture with his sharp little claws, or chasing the gardener up a tree. Father just throws his head back and laughs his booming laugh.”
The pet badger lived with Roosevelt’s menagerie of pet animals that included 10 dogs, two cats, two ponies, a hog, a garter snake, five guinea pigs, a rat, a macaw, a hen and a one-legged rooster.
As Josiah grew and aged, he developed an ugly temper. TR said he could be heard “hissing like a teakettle.”
In less than a year, Josiah was sent to the Bronx Zoo where he lived out the rest of his life. He was buried in the Pet Cemetery at Sagamore Hill.
Believed to be the only photograph of TR and Josiah - Taken in Sharon Springs, Kansas in 1903