A very young Rough Rider, A.J. Hammond (left), poses with President Theodore Roosevelt and First Lady Edith Roosevelt, as portrayed by Larry and Julia Marple. The two perform at an outdoor musical every summer at Theodore Roosevelt National Park at the site of Roosevelt’s Ranch in North Dakota. This is the only national park named after an individual.
Kay Dawson | The Register-Herald
ENGLEWOOD — Nine-year-old A. J. Hammond met his commanding officer at the Northmont Branch Library.
A few years ago, the boy became interested in Theodore Roosevelt after seeing “Night at the Museum.” On March 2, dressed as a Rough Rider, he attended the talk organized by Dawn Lechner in which Larry and Julia Marples portrayed Theodore and Edith Roosevelt.
In character, “Theodore” described overcoming childhood asthma to the point that at age 22 he climbed the Matterhorn.
He was born in 1884 in New York City. As a boy, he watched President Lincoln’s funeral procession from a second-story window of his house with his brother Elliott and 3-year-old Edith Carow.
When the girl began to cry, he said, “Elliott and I knew what we needed to do. We picked her up, walked to the door, put her out of the room and locked the door!”
“He was a horrid little boy,” Edith said.
It was easy to enter into the world of the Roosevelts, as they talked of his marriage to Alice Hathaway Lee, her death after the birth of their daughter and his mother’s death the same day, his trip to a cattle ranch he had bought in the Badlands of North Dakota to overcome his grief and his eventual marriage to Edith Carow. The couple had five children.
He related his entry into politics and advance through several offices. Appointed police commissioner of New York City 1895, he reformed “one of the most corrupt police forces in the world.” (That’s why Roosevelt’s photo is on the wall behind Commissioner Frank Reagan in the TV show “Blue Bloods.”)
When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Roosevelt resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and raised a cavalry regiment.
First known as “Teddy’s Texas Tarantulas,” the company, to Roosevelt’s relief, came down through history as the Rough Riders. Despite being cavalry, they charged up San Juan Hill on foot; only the officers had been allowed to take horses to Cuba.
As governor of New York, he was such a nuisance that in 1900 party bosses made him vice president to get him out of their way.
Edith said she was at first opposed, since it meant a 20 percent pay cut and did not include a residence.
In September of 1901, the assassination of President McKinley made Roosevelt president.
Edith described the renovation of the White House (a term Roosevelt made official).
When his two youngest sons, riding a Washington trolley passed his carriage and began making faces at him, he responded in kind, until he suddenly realized the public was seeing the president making faces at children on a public street!
He also boasted of his conservation achievements. During his administration, he stopped plans to mine the Grand Canyon and preserved 230 million acres of land.
After their 45-minute talk the two stepped out of character to answer questions about their impersonations. They have performed as the Roosevelts for 16 years, acting every summer at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.
Julia Marples has worked for 29 years in the living history field, including at Carriage Hill in Vandalia, but the two will move to Michigan when her husband retires as a teacher this year.
In Washington, D.C., he approached the White House in costume and asked a Secret Service agent if he could walk down the blocked part of Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Yes, sir, Mr. President,” the agent replied solemnly.
