The year Alice died was Roosevelt’s last in the New York Assembly. For most of the summer and fall of 1884, Roosevelt traveled out west again. He had bought a cattle ranch in North Dakota along the Little Missouri River. For a few months he enjoyed a simpler life. Back in New York City, his sister Anna took care of young Alice, and work continued on his new home in Oyster Bay. It would be called Sagamore Hill.
In the West, Roosevelt often hunted, once spending twenty-four straight hours on horseback. At times he set out alone, cooking the animals he killed over an open fire and sleeping outside under the stars. The vast, open space of the West, he wrote Anna, “has a curious fascination for me.”
He soon bought more land and built a new ranch, which he named Elkhorn Ranch. When it was done, Roosevelt filled the wooden home with the trophies of animals he had killed—mounted heads, furs, and skins. Occasionally, he returned to New York, but he spent much of the next several years in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory. (North and South Dakota were not yet separate states.) The time spent outdoors was good for his health, and when friends back East saw him they marveled at how strong he had become.
As much as he loved the frontier, Roosevelt was still drawn to politics. In 1886 he returned to New York City to run for mayor. He lost the race, but he reconnected with an old friend: Edith Carow.
EDITH CAROW
Roosevelt had known Edith almost his entire life. She and Corinne Roosevelt had been best friends as young children. Edith often spent time at the Roosevelt home and joined them for summers in Oyster Bay. Theodore sometimes took her out in a rowboat and had even named the boat for her. On meeting again in the fall of 1885, they began a serious relationship. Soon after, they were married. Edith and Theodore moved to Sagamore Hill with little Alice. They also started their own family. Theodore III, who would be known as Theodore Jr., was born in September 1887.
Roosevelt spent much of his time writing the first volumes of a huge history of the American West. Still active in politics, he supported Republican Benjamin Harrison for president in 1888. Harrison won, and he rewarded Roosevelt by offering him a government job. Early the next year Roosevelt went to Washington as a member of the US Civil Service Commission. At first he went alone. Edith was pregnant with their second child, who would be born in the fall. The Roosevelts named him Kermit. Edith, Alice Lee, and baby Kermit joined Roosevelt in Washington at the end of the year. Roosevelt’s fourth child, Ethel, was born in 1891.
BENJAMIN HARRISON
In his new job, Roosevelt’s task was to make sure qualified people got government jobs, no matter which political party they supported. In the past, many of those jobs had gone to unskilled people, simply because they were friends of elected officials. As usual, Roosevelt tackled his new job with tremendous energy. He wanted to make politicians in both parties follow the rules for offering jobs. That eagerness upset some Republicans, who liked being able to reward their friends with government positions.
Overall, Roosevelt loved his job, his family, and his life. He was often heard whistling happily as he walked about. One friend said that for him, “life was the unpacking of an endless Christmas stocking.”
Roosevelt was always thinking of his family’s future. In 1894, he and Edith had another child, Archibald. He wanted to make sure his children received good educations and enjoyed the easy, comfortable life he had known as a child. He was also thinking about his own future. When he walked past the president’s home, then called the Executive Mansion, he imagined himself living there someday. But before seeking such an important office, Roosevelt turned his attention back to New York City.
Early in 1895, he took a job as one of the city’s police commissioners. His goal was to end corruption on the police force. For Roosevelt, that sometimes meant disguising himself and prowling the streets in the early hours of the morning.
One hot summer night, Roosevelt put on a long coat and pulled a hat down over his face. He searched the streets to see if the policemen were doing their jobs. He found one asleep when he should have been on patrol. Another was flirting with a young woman. Roosevelt approached the man and asked, “Is this the way you attend to your duty?” The officer threatened to “fan him” with his nightstick. Roosevelt then informed the officer who he was and told him to report to his office the next morning.
Roosevelt caught a total of six officers breaking the rules that night. The next morning, he yelled at them about the importance of doing their duty. He did not punish them, but Roosevelt promised to fine them if he caught them misbehaving again. His efforts to improve the New York police force won him praise from the city’s newspapers.
WILLIAM McKINLEY
He was winning support among important Republicans, too. In 1896 he strongly backed the party’s candidate for president, William McKinley. He traveled across the Midwest giving speeches. If McKinley won the election, Roosevelt hoped to work for him in Washington, DC. McKinley did win, and in 1897 he named Roosevelt the assistant secretary of the US Navy. Theodore Roosevelt’s political career was on the rise.