On September 14, 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated. In 1901, Roosevelt became the 25th Vice President of the United States. However, when Roosevelt deviated from the plans of party bosses, they rigged the Republican convention to ensure Roosevelt would run on the McKinley ticket as his Vice President to “kick upstairs” and get him out of New York government. Platt assisted Roosevelt, “The hero of San Juan Hill”, to become Governor of New York in order to defeat popular Democrat, Judge Augustus van Wyck. Upon returning home, they received a war hero’s welcome. Comprised of men from varied backgrounds, education and race, they are remembered for the Battle of San Juan Hill, instrumental to defeating the Spanish. In 1897, he became assistant secretary of the Navy.ĭuring the Spanish- American War, Roosevelt left his position as assistant secretary of the Navy to be Commander of the First U.S. Civil Service Commission (1889-1895) and as President of the New York City Police Board (1895).

He was wholly committed to his career as a public servant serving as Commissioner of the U.S. Roosevelt authored about 35 books including The Life of Thomas Hart Benton (1887), The Life of Gouverneur Morris (1888), and The Winning of the West (four volumes, 1889-1896). They had five children Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin. After his wife’s death in 1884, Roosevelt rekindled a romance with his childhood love and second wife, Edith Kermit Carow (married 1886). Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee in 1880 and they had one child, Alice Roosevelt. Distraught, he sought refuge out West in the Dakota Badlands, returning to Oyster Bay, New York in 1886 after marrying his new wife in England. In 1884, Roosevelt lost both his wife and his mother within two days of each other. Upon graduating, he decided to pursue a career in public service. and Georgia-born mother Martha “Mittie” Roosevelt.Īs a student at Harvard University (1876-1880), Roosevelt studied German, zoology, natural history, forensics, and composition. Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City to glass importer and leading philanthropist Theodore, Sr.

Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, African Art.

David mccullough theodore roosevelt