Theodore Roosevelt’s Diary on the Day his Wife and Mother Died

The diary of future President Theodore Roosevelt reveals the devastation he suffered when on February 14, 1884, his wife and mother died, only hours apart.

The double tragedy devastated him who wrote in his diary: “The light has gone out of my life.”

Roosevelt’s diary

The Diary of Theodore Roosevelt for the year 1884 also describes Roosevelt’s hunting and ranching experiences for the year in the Dakota Badlands. A list of photographs taken and his personal finance record is also included in the back of the diary.

Roosevelt was at work in the New York state legislature attempting to get a government reform bill passed when he was summoned home by his family.

He returned home to find his mother, Mittie, had succumbed to typhoid fever. On the same day, his wife of four years, Alice Lee, died of Bright’s disease, a severe kidney ailment. Only two days before her death, Alice Lee had given birth to the couple’s daughter, Alice.

Roosevelt ordered those around him not to mention his wife’s name. Burdened by grief, he abandoned politics, left the infant Alice with his sister Bamie, and, at the end of 1884, struck out for the Dakota territories, where he lived as a rancher and worked as a sheriff for two years.

When not engrossed in raising cattle or acting as the local lawman, Roosevelt found time to indulge his passion for reading and writing history.

After a blizzard wiped out his prized herd of cattle in 1885, Roosevelt decided to return to Eastern society. Once back in New York in 1886, he again took up politics and took over raising his precocious daughter, Alice, who later became a national celebrity.

After stints in the Spanish-American War and as governor of New York, Roosevelt won a spot as William McKinley’s vice-presidential running mate in 1900.

Roosevelt was the youngest President of the US

After McKinley was assassinated at the beginning of his second term in 1901, Roosevelt moved into the White House, where he and his family would spend the next eight years.

Roosevelt assumed the presidency at age 42 and remains the youngest person to become president of the United States. As a leader of the progressive movement, he championed his “Square Deal” domestic policies. It called for fairness for all citizens, the breaking of bad trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs.

Roosevelt prioritized conservation and established national parks, forests, and monuments to preserve the nation’s natural resources.

His successful efforts to broker the end of the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, making him the first American to ever win a Nobel Prize. Roosevelt was elected to a full term in 1904 and promoted policies more to the left, despite growing opposition from Republican leaders.

During World War I, he criticized President Wilson for keeping the country out of the war, and offered to lead volunteers to France, though his offer was rejected. Roosevelt considered running for president again in 1920, but his health continued to deteriorate and he died in 1919.

Polls of historians and political scientists rank him as one of the greatest presidents in American history.