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LIFE AND WORK OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL

 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 

A FAMILY OF PATRIOTS

Four Sons in Active Service—One Killed, Two Wounded, All Distinguished—Quentin's Grave Visited by His Mother—War Records of the Roosevelts—The Colonel's Family—Ideal Family Life—Love of the Outdoors—Oyster Bay a Mecca for Distinguished Visitors.
True American patriotism was inherent and hereditary in the Roosevelt family. In Theodore Roosevelt is found constant and practical expression. He lived and died the typical patriot of his country and his time. And his patriotism was transmitted in unstinted measure to his children.

Though he was not permitted to engage in the World War himself, with the division of volunteers which he had taken steps to recruit among his admirers, he was represented in the great conflict by his four sons—volunteers all—one of whom sealed his patriotism with his life, and by a son-in-law, Dr. Richard Derby, a Major in the Army Medical Corps. Two of his sons were wounded, all distinguished themselves in service.

His youngest son, Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, was killed in France in an air battle on the western front, in July, 1918. His machine was shot down by a German aviator, experienced and skilled, with a record of thirty-two planes downed to his credit. Young Roosevelt, though skilled, was inexperienced, his adversary said after he and brother officers' had buried and marked the grave of Quentin. The victor paid tribute to him in saying that he had fought courageously and gallantly. Colonel Roosevelt wished that his son's body remain in the soil that he had fought to free. "Let the tree lie where it falls," he said when asked if Quentin's body would be brought home.

In February, 1919, after the Colonel's death, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt carried out the intention which she and her husband had formed, of visiting their son's grave in France. Landing at Brest, she was met and welcomed by officials of the French Government, who placed at her disposal every possible facility and convenience for carrying out her sad mission. In the quietest and least ostentatious manner possible, the sorrowing and widowed mother was escorted to the spot in the battle-torn territory where lay the remains of her youngest son, a martyr in the cause of human liberty, interred by enemy hands in a grave that will be kept green for generations to come by the grateful tears of the French people, whom he crossed an ocean to aid. The heartfelt sympathies of the American people accompanied Mrs. Roosevelt on her sorrowful trip, and the deepest regrets that Quentin's father was not spared to stand by her side over that lonely but glorious grave. The parent oak fell soon after the sturdy sapling, and both lie where they fell.

Archie Wounded and Cited
Two of Colonel Roosevelt's other sons, Archie and Theodore, Jr., were cited for bravery in action with the United States Army and Kermit distinguished himself while fighting with the British forces in Mesopotamia. At his own request, when the United States got into the war, Kermit was transferred to our army.
In the fighting before Toul in 1918, Archie was wounded. He so distinguished himself that General Pershing personally recommended him for promotion to a captaincy, which he subsequently got, and he was also cited for gallantry in action. He was a Second Lieutenant when he first went into action. While leading his men he was hit by shrapnel that injured both a leg and an arm. He was taken to a Paris hospital, and while there learned that he had been awarded the French War Cross. When told of his son's gallant action and its recognition by two nations, the Colonel was "delighted."
"I am proud of my boys," he said.

Theodore, Jr., a Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore, Jr., was also wounded while he and his detachment were wiping out machine-gun nests near Plerigy, in the Soissons sector, in July, 1918. Shrapnel was imbedded in Major Roosevelt's knee, but he would not allow himself to be moved until the nests were cleaned out. He was taken to a hospital back of the lines and then transferred to a Paris hospital, where an operation was performed. He afterward was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and was cited for gallantry. His wife, one of the few who managed to get to their husbands fighting in France, reached him there. She was engaged in war work. During the same month, July, Quentin was killed.
Kermit Cited by the British
When America started preparing for the war, Kermit Roosevelt and his wife had just returned from Argentina, where he had gone to help establish a branch of the National City Bank. He immediately enlisted in the Officers' Training Camp at Plattsburg. While there he was offered a commission with the British forces. He accepted and later was cited in British dispatches. He had himself transferred to the American forces later, to "fight under his own flag."

Archie Roosevelt abandoned his business in a carpet factory in Connecticut, where Theodore, Jr., had started his career years before, and also went to Plattsburg. Archie won a Second Lieutenancy. Both Archie and Theodore, Jr., were among the first to go to France. Theodore, Jr., was prospering in the oil well business when he abandoned it for his country's service.
The Colonel's Family.
Mr. Roosevelt was twice married. His first wife was Alice Hathaway Lee, daughter of George Cabot Lee of Boston. She died February 14, 1884. On December 2, 1886, he married in London Edith Kermit Carow, daughter of Charles Carow, who was his boyhood friend.

The only child of his first marriage was his daughter Alice, the clever and attractive girl who became the wife of Congressman Nicholas Longworth. The children by his second marriage were Ethel Roosevelt, who became the wife of Dr. Richard T. Derby; Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Kermit, Archie, and Quentin.
Ideal Family Life
The warmth of the affection shown within the Roosevelt household was a notable part of the life at the homestead, Sagamore Hill, near Oyster Bay, N. Y.

When a Western visitor was at the hospital in New York just before Christmas, 1918, Captain Archie Roosevelt, who was wounded in France and invalided home, came in to bid the Colonel good-by—a slight, boyish figure, with the arm paralyzed by shrapnel still supported by its metal brace. They talked a few minutes about a trip they planned to harpoon tarpon in Southern waters in March, the Colonel explaining with enthusiasm that harpooning was particularly adapted to such cripples because it could be done with one arm. And then the Captain crossed the room and kissed his father good-by.

It was the same with all the members of the family. When his children saw their father after a separation they would pat him on the shoulder as they passed him in the room, and he would detain them a moment to hold their hands.

"I must talk that over with Edith (Mrs. Roosevelt) and Alice" (his daughter), was his frequent reply when some personal matter was up for his consideration. "They have such good judgment."

Family All Outdoor Folk
The whole family was devoted to outdoor life. During the Colonel's terms as President, the White House stables contained excellent riding horses. There was a horse or pony for every member of the family. There were two mounts for the President, one being Rusty, a bay heavyweight hunter on which the President frequently jumped fences in the country to remind him of the time when he once rode to hounds on Long Island.

Because of the President's example there was probably more good healthful exercise taken in Washington during his administration than has been known there before or since. Americans are not generally credited with being anemic, but the official and social duties of the capital never before were so crowded in between sets of tennis, riding and walking expeditions.

His contests President Roosevelt held not only with his boys and other members of his family, but with Cabinet officers and foreign diplomats. Capitals of Europe were sometimes highly entertained by accounts of their representatives following the President, who had invited them for afternoon walks, across fences, ditches, and through mud ankle deep. Pouring rain never prevented the President from taking his walks with members of the foreign embassies, and he was always delighted with credit given him for inaugurating the strenuous life in Washington. And the outdoor life lived in Washington was but a repetition of that enjoyed at Sagamore Hill, typical haven of domestic bliss and always a scene of rational pleasures. Whether the Colonel was in or out of office, his delightful country home was always his favorite abode.
Mecca of Distinguished Men
Distinguished guests were nearly always to be found at the Roosevelt table at Sagamore Hill. Jacob Riis tells of his going there during the Colonel's Presidency, to complain that a rule had been adopted by the War Department, discontinuing the custom of having the names of private soldiers who were killed in the Philippines cabled home. The reports merely dismissed the matter by saying that so many unnamed privates had fallen. Mr. Riis' chance to speak of the matter did not come until he had luncheon. Adjutant-General Corbin was present, and the President at once turned to him and asked, "General, is there such a rule?"

"Yes, Mr. President," he answered.

"Why?"

"The department adopted it, I believe, from motives of economy."
"General, can you telegraph from here to the Philippines?
General Corbin thought that if the order were to be repealed, it could better be done from Washington. But the President said:

"No! No! We will not wait. The mothers who gave the best they had to the country should not be breaking their hearts, that the Government may save twenty-five or fifty dollars. Save the money somewhere else."

Forthwith from the table at Sagamore Hill went the new ruling that the names of the privates as well as those of the officers falling in the Philippines, should be sent home by cable.

An English guest of world-wide experience pronounced the table-talk at Oyster Bay as brilliant as any he ever had heard. The variety of the President's topics, his grasp of subjects, his out-of-the-way knowledge, and his marvelous memory reminded him of the conversation of Gladstone. A British army officer, with a long experience in India, declared, after his visit, that President Roosevelt knew more than he did about the history and the administration of the Indian government.

An Ambassador, lunching at Oyster Bay, made some remark about a buffalo head on the wall. This led Colonel Roosevelt to express his regret that we in this country should have exterminated the American bison in a dozen years, where Europe was a thousand years in killing off the auroch. Then he talked of the migration of the fauna of South America across the isthmus and of the fauna of Asia across Behring Strait, with the resultant intermingling of the species in North America.

The Ambassador was amazed at the extent of the President's information on such subjects, but those who knew how truly great a naturalist he was had ceased to be surprised at any outcropping from his marvelous fund of special knowledge.

 Until the last days of the Colonel's life, his home continued to be a Mecca for distinguished men and women of all nationalities and opinions. There they found a private forum for the free expression of all beliefs, but all who came left with the same impression stamped upon their memories—that it was the home of a live, practical American patriotism, the abode of a of patriots

San Francisco Chronicle, January 7, 1919