Eastside Business group hears about Teddy Roosevelt

David Caswell, the speaker at the East Side Business Association April 6, spoke about President Theodore Roosevelt and his children.

According to Caswell, Roosevelt was the youngest president in the nation's history. He was 42 years old and vice president of the United States when he took office after President Willam McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

Roosevelt was from an extremely wealthy family, but his life was filled with misfortunes, Caswell said, and he struggled with ill health.

His first wife Alice died during childbirth the same day his mother died. Roosevelt left a note in his personal journal that tragic day saying the light of his life had gone out. He retreated to his ranch in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory to grieve.

He later married Edith Carow who became the mother of his four sons and daughter.

As a father, Caswell explained, Roosevelt was less than successful. His eldest daughter was difficult to restrain and defied cultural rules of the day — driving her own convertible and smoking in public.

Her father remarked to the press, "I can either manage Alice or the country — I can't do both."

All four Roosevelt sons enlisted in WWI.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. graduated from Harvard in 1908. When America entered WWI he enlisted and was severely wounded and gassed. That experience didn't stop him from re-enlisting at the start of WWII. He was awarded every military combat decoration — including the Congressional Medal of Honor, a distinction he shared with his father who served in the Spanish-American War.

Quentin left Harvard at the outbreak of WWI and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. German pilots shot down his plane and he crashed behind enemy lines July 14, 1918. The Germans buried Quentin with full battlefield honors.

Archibald Roosevelt was his fifth child who joined the Army in 1917 after graduating from Harvard. He was wounded in WWI and later served in the World War II where he received  many decorations.

His son Kermit shared the president's love of adventure, accompanying his father on an African hunting trip. After the trip Kermit returned to Harvard and completed his studies. Kermit and his father explored the Amazon jungles in 1913. Kermit served in WWI and WWII. He committed suicide in 1943.

Caswell concluded that Roosevelt was one of the greatest presidents of all time — an opinion he said is shared by Democrats and Republicans. Roosevelt appears alongside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln in the Mount Rushmore Memorial.

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In an interview after the meeting, Caswell commented on how he became interested in American presidents and elaborated on the life of Ted Roosevelt Jr.

"It started in 1963, with the death of John F. Kennedy," Caswell said.  I couldn't believe how his murder affected the whole world instantly. Living through that experience was a life-changing period in my life. I, like others, who lived through those three days in history can remember fine details about those moments — like where we were, what we were wearing, the cars we drove and what we heard on radio and television. Those thoughts were involuntarily welded into our minds. I wondered why, and began my study of the presidents."

"At this point I have been studying U.S. presidents for 48 years," Caswell noted.

"I didn't elaborate in my presentation on the importance of the contribution of Ted Roosevelt Jr. in WWII. People need to know that he was instrumental in bringing the war to an end on the beaches of Normandy. Ted's actions on the beach D Day gave the Allies the opportunity to bring the war to an end in less than 11 months," Caswell said.

"Ted's death a month later changed American history too. He wanted to be president because he was in competition with his father. And as a Congressional Medal of Honor winner it is likely he would have gotten that wish," Caswell added.

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