"But thank you for asking!" and there is a pleasant and friendly
note in his voice, which perhaps surprises some of those who,
though they had heard much of his emphatic speech, knew but little
of his gentleness. He waves his hand, steps into the automobile,
and is gone.
Theodore Roosevelt was born October 27, 1858, in New York City, at
28 East Twentieth Street. The first Roosevelt of his family to
come to this country was Klaes Martensen van Roosevelt who came
from Holland to what is now New York about 1644. He was a
"settler," and that, says Theodore Roosevelt, remembering the
silly claims many people like to make about their long-dead
ancestors, is a fine name for an immigrant, who came over in the
steerage of a sailing ship in the seventeenth century instead of
the steerage of a steamer in the nineteenth century. From that
time, for the next seven generations, from father to son, every
one of the family was born on Manhattan Island. As New Yorkers
say, they were "straight New York."
Immigrant or settler, or whatever Klaes van Roosevelt may have
been, his children and grandchildren had in them more than
ordinary ability. They were not content to stand still, but made
themselves useful and prosperous, so that the name was known and
honored in the city and State even before the birth of the son who
was to make it illustrious throughout the world.
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