Archibald Roosevelt - Early Life

Early Life

Archibald, nicknamed both "Archie" and "Archikins", was born in Washington, D.C., the fourth child of president Theodore Roosevelt and his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow. His siblings included brothers Theodore Jr., Kermit, and Quentin, sister, Ethel and half-sister Alice. Archibald was named for his paternal great-great-great grandfather, Archibald Bulloch, a patriot of the American Revolution.

As a child, Archie was very quiet but very mischievous - especially when he was with his brother Quentin; growing up Archie and Quentin were very close. They rarely left each other's side and had very few fights. But as for the other siblings, Archie was not close to either Kermit and Ethel because they would gang up on him. Ted Jr. would help beat up Kermit for him, so Teddy would be Archie's other favorite brother; Teddy would also tell their mother, Edith, about Ethel - who would often get in big trouble. While Alice was ten years older than Archie, he barely remembers her around, since she would go places with other family members and friends. As for his smartness, Archie was an avid reader and very smart at putting puzzles together quickly. His father remarked to him by saying “Archie, my smart boy, never give up your smartness; that goes for you and your brother Quentin”.

After being expelled from Groton (among the alleged speculated reasons: the dean didn't care for him, writing a letter to the Headmaster criticizing the school, for insubordination, for being somewhat irreverent about matters of faith; take your pick), Archie continued his education at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., the Evans School for Boys, and Harvard University, where he graduated in 1916. Upon graduation, Archie's first employment was at the Bigelow Carpet Company, Thompsonville, Connecticut.

Archie married Grace Lockwood at the Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts on April 14, 1917. Grace was the daughter of Thomas Lockwood and Emmeline Stackpole of Boston. The couple spent most of their married life in a pre-Revolutionary house on Turkey Lane in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, not far from Oyster Bay, where they raised four children: Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr. (1918–1990), Theodora Roosevelt (1919–2008), Nancy Dabney Roosevelt (1923–2010) and Edith Kermit Roosevelt (1926–2003).

Read more about this topic:  Archibald Roosevelt

Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:

    ... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    Humanity has passed through a long history of one-sidedness and of a social condition that has always contained the potential of destruction, despite its creative achievements in technology. The great project of our time must be to open the other eye: to see all-sidedly and wholly, to heal and transcend the cleavage between humanity and nature that came with early wisdom.
    Murray Bookchin (b. 1941)

    These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.
    Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)