BITES

 

Human interest stories make history come alive. There were many interesting stories about members of the Roosevelt family during the last 300 years. There was a Roosevelt respect about important things like health, family obedience, family secrets, and financial matters. The parents would lay down directives of how the children should live. The wealthy families were consistent with their "blueprint of instructions."

The motto from the Roosevelt crest, "Qui Plantavit Curabit", loosely translates to "He who sews shall reap."

Claes Matenszen Van Rosenfelt brought his wife Jannetjé from Holland to New Amsterdam (now New York ) on the South end of Manhattan. Whether Rosenfelt was one of the wealthy or just an emigrant was not clear, but he definitely began his new life with hard times through the next 300 years, each generation of Roosevelts improved the conditions of their lives through hard work and family rules of behavior that were handed down.

Nicholas I was probably the first notable Roosevelt when he became successful in fur trapping. He was considered a leading citizen. Correct marriages were a large part of the early success of the Roosevelts as Nicholas had six sisters and five daughters and they all married well-to-do men.

The third generation of Roosevelts were led by Johannes (called John) of Oyster Bay and Jacobus (James) of Hyde Park The family founded a hardware business on Maiden Lane in New York and eventually they spread the business into building supplies and the real estate business. Both of the brothers got involved in politics and were soon considered a part of the better sort, but they were not yet aristocrats. Linseed oil, used to make paints, made Johannes the first wealthy Roosevelt.

Financial success continued through the next several generations mainly through business and civic activities and their association through the church. Politics also played an important role in the family success.

Theodore (called Thee) Roosevelt, Teddy's father, was the first humanitarian in the family. He was heavily involved in New York 's charity after the mid-nineteenth century. He was especially concerned with young newspaper boys who had left home at a very young age. Several Roosevelts were involved in efforts to improve conditions of mental health, especially in hospitals.

Thee married a young Georgia girl, Martha (called Mittie) Bulloch. Her parents owned a large plantation which they lost during the Civil War. The wedding between Mittie and Thee may have been the wedding duplicated in the classic novel, Gone With The Wind, written by Margaret Mitchell many years later.

He married Alice Lee, a young woman from a wealthy Boston family. Two years later Alice died while giving birth to a daughter. Unfortunately Teddy's mother Mittie died on the same day, causing the family a double tragedy.

Teddy got out of politics and went out West where he became a rancher and cowboy and he wrote the first of thirty-eight books.

He then married his former sweetheart, before he met Alice, Edith Carow, and the wedding took place in England.

In 1905, Teddy's niece, Eleanor, married her third cousin, Franklin, who was from the Hyde Park clan of the family. Eleanor was the daughter of Teddy's late brother Elliot.

"Naughty Alice " kept the political fires burning, especially after her father died and Franklin was the President. She also disliked her cousin, Eleanor, whom she played with at their grandmother's house as little girls.

Most of the wealthy Roosevelts lived before the days of modern medicine and the affluent families endured many of the same illnesses that ordinary people suffered. All of Teddy's family suffered many illnesses as did the Hyde Park Roosevelts. But the most devastating illness to any member of the family came when Franklin suffered infantile paralysis. He was attacked with polio in 1921 while visiting the family resort at Campobello in Canada just outside of Maine.

He had already been the Democrat's candidate for Vice President in 1920, but his political career seemed to be at an end with his illness. The illness changed his life from an "arrogant playboy" to an understanding President.

As a young writer at the age of fourteen Eleanor was to give us an insight as to the kind of person and thinker she was to become. One of the stories she wrote was about ambition.

President Harry Truman appointed her as the first woman representative from the United States to the United Nations. She was appointed chair of the Human Rights committee at the international organization.