CHAPTER III. 
LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
His Ancestors and Boyhood Days—College Studies—His Brilliant Political Career—On a 
Western Ranch—The Rough Rider—Stories and Anecdotes. 
T HEODOBE BOOSEVELT, twenty-sixth President of the United 
States, was born in New York City, October 27, 1858; son of 
Theodore (1831-78) and Martha (Bulloch) Boosevelt, grandson 
of Cornelius Yan Schaack and Margaret (Barnhill) Boosevelt, great- 
grandson of James (or Jacobus) John and Mary (Yan Schaack) Boose¬ 
velt, and is descended in a direct line from Claes Martensoon and 
Jannetje (Thomas) Van Bosevelt, who came to New Amsterdam from 
Holland about 1651. 
He attended for a short time the McMullen School, New York City, 
but was so frail in health that he was unable to continue, and was then 
placed under private instructors at his home. He was tutored for col¬ 
lege by Mr. Cutler, subsequently the founder of the Cutler School, and 
was graduated from Harvard in 1880. 
Was married September 23,1880, to Alice, daughter of George Cabot 
and Caroline (Haskell) Lee of Boston, Mass. She died in 1883, leaving 
one daughter, Alice Lee. 
He became a student in the New York law school; was a Bepubli- 
can member of the New York assembly 1882, 1883 and 1884; was candi¬ 
date of his party for speaker of the assembly in 1884; chairman of the 
committee on cities and of a special committee knpwn as the Boosevelt 
Investigating Committee. As a supporter of the civil service reform, 
he introduced bills which became laws affecting the government of New 
York City, and especially the patronage exercised by the sheriff, county 
clerk and register, which greatly reformed the conduct of their respect¬ 
ive offices. 
He was a delegate to the Bepublican State Convention of 1884; dele* 
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