President Theodore Roosevelt, Scottish On His Mother's Side

Theodore Roosevelt became President of the U. S. In 1901 with the murder of President McKinley. He served two terms. Roosevelt was Dutch on his father’s side but was Scottish on his mother’s side. His mother was descended from James Bulloch, born in Scotland about 1701 who emigrated to Charleston in 1728. George A. Bulloch was the first governor of Georgia after the Revolutionary War. His mother Martha Bulloch was a Southern bell from a slave-owning family and maintained her Confederate sympathies.

President Roosevelt is best known for leading the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War.

He was Governor of New York and was then elected Vice-President. When McKinley was killed in 1901, he succeeded to the P:residency. From his grandparents’ home in New York, he witnessed the funeral possession of Abraham Lincoln. His brother, Elliot became the father of Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt was her fathers’ fifth cousin.

Theodore Roosevelt’s administration had an aggressive foreign policy, In 1903, he acquired the Canal Zone and began to direct the building of the Panama Canal. He also increased the power of the Office and attacked big business trusts. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his efforts to promote world peace.

Roosevelt was a naturalist, hunter, author, soldier and explorer. At the age of 42, he was, and still is, the youngest to serve in our Highest Office.. Up to his time, he was the most traveled President of all time. Not so today. He ran again for President but lost to Woodrow Wilson.

He was the first President seen riding in an automobile. The police rode bicycles as protection. He also signed the proclamation establishing Oklahoma as the 46th stat of the Union.