THE OTHER MRS. R. We read a great deal about Eleanor, but what about Edith. Roosevelt, that is.
The second wife of our 26th President, Edith Kimble, was a also a sturdy, strong-minded lady who birthed seven children over the years. We know now how much she did to solidify the District of Columbia and the White House as the Social Center of our nation. She also undertook raise Teddy's daughter Alice, as well. Her life was vibrant, telling presence to many individuals.
Teddy and Edith were small children together. She was a close playmate of Teddy's youngest sister. It appears it was assumed she was to become Teddy's wife but he met and married Alice Hathaway. He was left a widower, with one daughter after just five years. By 1890 Teddy overcome strong feelings had concerning remarriage and he and Edith were wed in London, England.
Later, as Vice-President, her husband was suddenly thrust into in being our 26th President when President William McKinley was assassinated.
Later when pressures of the job became evident, Edith Roosevelt, apparently on her own, visited Thomas Jefferson's section of Virginia where, near the small town of Keene, Va. , Albemarle County, she made a real estate purchase . She talked with two local bachelors named the Wilmer Brothers and paid them a total of $280.00 which made her the owner of small house and fifteen acres of forest land with which they were willing to part.
This small, log house is sturdy even today. It sports a sort of dormer window in the slanted roof along the slanted roof of an, otherwise, typical log cabin house
between two, fine brick chimneys. A front porch stretched a shadowy coolness across the front of it all. Three. flat-boarded, steps lead down to forest floor level. It acquired the name "Pine Knot" in pre-Roosevelt days - that "Teddy and Edith R."
The site became the Presidential Retreat in 1905-06. It must have been pretty much of a hush-hush thing because records indicate that only one person outside the family ever stayed there - John Burroughs, the celebrated naturalist. Maybe John Muir, as well, but just one mention suggests a confusion of naturalists. The Roosevelt's later purchased an additional seventy-five acres of woodland.
Anyone who "roughed it" with the Teddy and Edith Roosevelt understands and fully appreciates the Presidential idea of what is meant when the term "roughing it" is used.
"Pine Knot" has no heating system other than the fireplaces.
There is no insulation.
There is no indoor plumbing.
There is no water at hand.
Electricity? I don't see any wires on photos; no fuse boxes clutter the outside.
walls.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 6-2-06 [c469wds]
