Bite-Sized Review: Becoming Teddy Roosevelt

Becoming Teddy Roosevelt: How a Maine Guide Inspired America's 26th President
Andrew Vietze

Despite visiting Maine only a handful of times, Theodore Roosevelt left an impression on Mainers, and Maine left an indelible mark on Roosevelt. Route 302 was designated as the Roosevelt Trail following his death in January 1919, and among Roosevelt's archives is a four-page letter he wrote entitled "My Debt to Maine."

To mark the 96th anniversary of Roosevelt's death and to provide more context for the rationale behind naming a Maine-based soccer club after the twenty-sixth president, below is a rough timeline of Roosevelt's Maine experiences, courtesy of Vietze's 2011 book:

1872
Fourteen-year-old Theodore Roosevelt is sent by his parents to Moosehead Lake to help ease his severe asthmatic attacks. En route to the Greenville area, Roosevelt is bullied by two boys and reportedly resolves to "embark on a training regimen to build his body" to avoid similar situations in the future.

September 7, 1878
Nineteen-year-old Theodore Roosevelt meets the rugged* Maine guide Bill Sewall for the first time at Sewall's bustling home in Island Falls, Maine.

February-March 1879
Roosevelt arrives at Island Falls for a second time, and Sewall meets him at an Aroostook County train station. After a daylong sleigh ride through frigid air and unplowed snow, Roosevelt and Sewall embark the next day on a six-hour snowshoeing expedition to check the latter's game traps. Roosevelt is impressed with the wintry scene: "I have never seen a grander or more beautiful sight than the northern woods in winter."

On this trip, Roosevelt upholds his Sunday routine of reading the Bible by hiking to the southern point of the Mattawamkeag River. The spot has since be re-named the Bible Point State Historic Site in observance of Roosevelt's frequent trips to the spot.

For the most part, Roosevelt and Sewall go on daylong snowshoeing and (unsuccessful) hunting expeditions throughout the Mattawamkeag region. But they also use a remote logging camp as home base for a few days and spend the subzero days snowshoeing and tracking game along the Aroostook River. Roosevelt kills his first deer on one of these trips, and it is brought back to the lumber camp to give the loggers a break from their everyday diet of salt cod, beanhole beans, sourdough biscuits, and pickled beef. Upon leaving, Roosevelt reflects "[I] have never passed a pleasanter [sic] two weeks."

August- September 1879
After spending about a day in Island Falls, Roosevelt; Sewall; and a hiking party that included Roosevelt's cousin Emlen, Roosevelt's tutor Arthur Cutler, and guide Wilmot Dow set out for Mount Katahdin on Tuesday, August 26. Along the 35-mile buckboard ride and hike from Island Falls to Katahdin, Roosevelt loses one of his hiking shoes and is forced to wear the soft-soled moccasins he had planned to use as slippers.

The group set up camp, hunted, and fished at the foot of Mount Katahdin before setting out for the mountain's peak before dawn on Friday, August 29. And despite Katahdin's rough terrain cutting up his moccasins and feet, Roosevelt was one of the party's three hikers to reach the mountain's ascent and returning to camp by nightfall. The weekend was passed fishing, hunting, and resting for the return leg to Island Falls.

A day after returning to the Sewall home in Island Falls, Roosevelt and Sewall set out for the Aroostook River, where they spent the next five days alternatively paddling, poling, and carrying their boat amid a steady rain. Once they reach Chase Lake, they retrace their upriver travels and return to Island Falls for a little rest and relaxation. It is the last time Roosevelt visits the Aroostook County outpost.

August 1902
In August 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt went on a train tour throughout New England,  including a carriage ride in Portland, a train stop in Old Orchard Beach, and a trip to Bangor.

While in Bangor, Roosevelt's speech includes a plea to be put in touch with Bill Sewall, and the two men re-connected and spent the next two days reminiscing while Roosevelt's presidential train continued its trek through Maine and New Hampshire. The visit led to an invitation for the Sewall family to join Roosevelt in Washington, D.C. later that winter. Sewall and his family subsequently made another trip to Washington, D.C. in 1905 to attend Roosevelt's inauguration.

March 1912
Dissatisfied with his successor William Howard Taft, Teddy Roosevelt embarks on a presidential campaign to challenge the Republican incumbent. On a campaign stop in Portland, Roosevelt speaks to an energetic crowd of 4,000 supporters, including Bill Sewall. Roosevelt subsequently loses the Republican Party nomination, so he mounts a 1912 presidential bid as a member of the Progressive, or Bull Moose, Party.

March 28, 1918
Roosevelt returns to public life after a disastrous and nearly deadly trip through the Amazon. His first public speech is scheduled for Thursday, March 28 in Portland. Roosevelt invites Sewall to attend. It is the last time two old friends enjoy each other's company, as Roosevelt dies in January 1919.

*Vietze describes Sewall in September 1878 as being a 6'4" thirty-three-year-old with strong, paw-sized hands and facial features that resembled those of Olaf Tryggvason, the 10th-century Norse king who inspired Roosevelt's favorite poem (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Saga of King Olaf).