Lore Accurate Humans: Theodore Roosevelt

Have you ever found yourself looking at a mountain in South Dakota? I haven't seen this particular mountain in person, but on it, there are four former presidents of the United States. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were champions of democracy and key to raising the union from infancy, Abraham Lincoln put an end to slavery in America, and then there's Theodore Roosevelt.

Born in 1858, Roosevelt was a sickly child who suffered from asthma. Doctors were quick to recommend the young boy lead a sedentary lifestyle to avoid further health complications, but Teddy had other plans. At age 7, he was given the head of a dead seal at a market, sparking a lifelong interest in animals and taxidermy. He established the Roosevelt Museum of Natural History with his cousins, and aimed to fill his room with anything he could catch or kill.

At age 9, he discovered on a family hike in the Swiss Alps that overexerting himself physically actually aided in minimizing his asthma. This discovery led him into boxing and rowing, among other physical activities, as he approached adulthood.

Roosevelt attended Harvard University, where he displayed, what many would consider, a near-photographic or truly photographic memory in his pursuit of a natural sciences degree. He would participate in many activities and clubs on campus, graduating magna cum laude from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts. Roosevelt would then pivot to studying law at Columbia Law School before deciding that law was irrational and he should pivot to a more rational field — politics.

From 1882 to 1896, Roosevelt occupied local office in the New York State Legislature and later became the president of the New York City Police Commissioners, taking a hiatus in between to retire to his ranch. The reason he came out of retirement? Nature. A gruesome winter in 1886 killed Roosevelt’s whole herd, forcing him to return to the political battlefield he thought he had managed to leave behind.

In 1896, Roosevelt helped William McKinley campaign for President, leading McKinley to appoint Roosevelt as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy when he won office. At the time, the Secretary of the Navy was struggling with health concerns, essentially making Roosevelt the Secretary of the Navy. He began bolstering the naval forces of the United States, building battleships and pushing McKinley to forcibly remove Spain from Cuba. But even when the U.S.S. Maine exploded, McKinley was still hesitant to go to war. Roosevelt instructed many naval vessels to prepare for combat, resulting in the Navy being ready when McKinley and Congress officially declared war on Spain.

You would think that Roosevelt would stay in his office, but instead, he resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, formed the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment — nicknamed the Rough Riders — and rode through Cuba, leading charge after charge against Spanish forces until their victory at the Battle of San Juan Heights.

Recognized throughout the United States as a hero for his military successes, Roosevelt was propped up by Thomas Platt upon his return to New York to run for governor. Platt wasn't actually a fan of Roosevelt, but needed a strong Republican candidate to win office. Escaping with a narrow victory, the office of Governor is largely what shaped Roosevelt’s time as President of the U.S., where he continued his anti-corruption focus.

Roosevelt was thrust into the vice-presidency when the sitting vice president died, and then became president when William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. His two terms in office consisted of prosecuting bad trusts throughout America, building the Panama Canal and facilitating the peaceful end of the Russo-Japanese War — for which he would be given a Nobel Peace Prize. He is also credited for his work on conservation within America through the creation of national parks.

Rather than running for a third term, Roosevelt promptly left America following his time in office for Africa, where he, and a group of explorers sponsored by the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History would kill or trap over 11,400 animals to be brought back overseas. He then toured across Europe, returning to America only to be disappointed by the Taft administration that he had propped up.

So he created the Progressive Party and campaigned for another term as president, where at one point he would be shot while giving a speech. The bullet was slowed enough by his eyeglass case and the 50-page copy of his speech that it didn't kill him. He would then resist going to the hospital so he could finish delivering his 90-minute speech to the crowd as blood seeped into his shirt.

After losing the election, Roosevelt led an expedition to the Amazon basin where he would nearly die from a disease he contracted. He then attempted to be sent to the front lines of World War I, but was denied by then-President Woodrow Wilson. In the same conflict, his youngest son would be shot down behind enemy lines, a loss Roosevelt would never recover from.

Roosevelt's health declined until he passed away in his sleep due to a blood clot in 1919. Vice President Thomas Marshall was quoted as saying “Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.” And that quote sums up Roosevelt's life: a stubborn fighter who took on anyone in his way.