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Teddy Roosevelt Growing up in Oyster Bay and Sayville

Theodore Roosevelt as a Teenager on Long Island

 President Roosevelt spent much of his time in Sayville, starting when he was a teenager after he returned from Europe. In Sayville, the teen who would become president was known by his nickname, "Teedie." He said in his autobiography, "We were always wildly eager to get to the country when spring came, and very sad when in the late fall the family moved back to town." The young Teedie was a sickly child and was often beaten up by other kids. Then he began to train by lifting weights and learning how to fight.

Teedie, his cousin John and his friends had a fight club. His sister Corrine quoted a letter about there training, "Father, you know, sent us a pair of boxing gloves apiece and Teedie, Johnnie, and I have had jolly fun with them. Last night in a round of one minute and a half with Teedie, he got a bloody nose and I got a bloody mouth, and in a round with Johnnie, I got a bloody mouth again and he a pair of purple eyes. Then Johnnie gave Teedie another bloody nose. [The boys by this time seemed to have multiplied their features indefinitely with more purple eyes!]"

William Roscoe Thayer said, "But I recall no other boy, enfeebled by a chronic and often distressing disease, who resolved as he did to conquer his enemy by a wisely planned and unceasing course of exercises." (http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/biography/TheodoreRooseveltAnIntimateBiography/chap1.html  William Roscoe Thayer,  Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography )

Teedie founded a group of kids called the Vandals. The Vandals were teens that were intellectual, but were both fighters and mischievous. The concept was that they would be able to outsmart the other kids.  Teddy Roosevelt's philosophy in his own words was, "I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at the expense of the weak." The gang's motto was, "Our way is to protect the weak from the strong." There are many legends about this group and various Vandals groups still exist in some Long Island high schools.
 

One of the Roosevelt houses in Sayville. Many Roosevelt Families lived in Dutch Sayville. Young Theodore spent much time with his Uncle Robert who lived on Lotus Lake. He spent a large part of the year on Long Island to get fresh air because of his health. Pictured is the home of John Roosevelt in Sayville. Used as the president's legal office of Teddy Roosevelt's summer White House comlex.

 

Young Theodore Teddy Roosevelt

 Young Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt with his brother Elliot and sisters on Long Island. Elliot was the father of Eleanor Roosevelt.

 

Actual fight that the president got into in his youth:

Roosevelt immediately dropped his hands, but the other man dealt him a savage blow on the face, at which we all shouted, "Foul, foul!" and hissed; but Roosevelt turned towards us and cried out "Hush! He didn't hear," a chivalrous act which made him immediately popular. In his second match he met Hanks. They both weighed about one hundred and thirty-five pounds, but Hanks was two or three inches taller and he had a much longer reach, so that Theodore could not get in his blows, and although he fought with unabated pluck, he lost the contest. More serious than his short reach, however, was his near-sightedness, which made it impossible for him to see and parry Hanks's lunges. When time was called after the last round, his face was dashed with blood and he was much winded; but his spirit did not flag, and if there had been another round, he would have gone into it with undiminished determination. From this contest there sprang up the legend that Roosevelt boxed with his eyeglasses lashed to his head, and the legend floated hither and thither for nearly thirty years. Not long ago I asked him the truth. "Persons who believe that," he said, "must think me utterly crazy; for one of Charlie Hanks's blows would have smashed my eyeglasses and probably blinded me for life." From ( http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/biography/TheodoreRooseveltAnIntimateBiography/chap1.html by William Roscoe Thayer)

 

The Rough Riders on Long Island. They were stationed in Suffolk County, and stopped in Sayville on the way to NY City, after they were mustered out. TR spent much time with Uncle Robert and John Roosevelt in Sayville when the summer Whitehouse was on Long Island. His cousin was the president's official legal advisor.


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http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/biography/TheodoreRooseveltAnIntimateBiography/chap1.html
In summer the children spent the long days out of doors at some country place, and there, in addition to the pleasure of being continuously with nature
Collected specimens whereever they went
1870 - started training
His father fitted up in the house in Twentieth Street a small gymnasium and said to the boy in substance, "You have brains, but you have a sickly body. In order to make your brains bring you what they ought, you must build up your body; it depends upon you." The boy felt both the obligation and the desire; he willed to be strong, and he went through his gymnastic exercises with religious precision. What he read in his books about knights and paladins and heroes had always greatly moved his imagination. He wanted to be like them. He understood that the one indispensable attribute common to all of them was bodily strength. Therefore he would be strong. Through all his suffering he was patient and determined. But I recall no other boy, enfeebled by a chronic and often distressing disease, who resolved as he did to conquer his enemy by a wisely planned and unceasing course of exercises.