Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
AR406-2-95-44
Pres. Theodore Roosevelt plants elm tree next to Fort Worth's Carnegie Library, April 1905
It really should be no surprise that Teddy Roosevelt felt at home at the Fort WorthStock Show.Cowboys, he had written in his Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, were "except onsprees ... quiet, rather self-contained men, perfectly frank and simple, and on their own ground treat a stranger with the whole-souled hospitality."
Roosevelt visited the Stock Show in 1911 on his second trip to Fort Worth. (The first came in 1905 when he went wolf hunting with Burk Burnett and W.T. Waggoner in Oklahoma.)
"When I was given the chance to come to Fort Worth, I jumped at it," Roosevelt told the Fort Worth Record. "In the first place because of Fort Worth itself, and in the next place because the invitation came through some old and valued friends."
Little else is known about his 1911 visit. But certainly, he would have been comfortable in the cattle barns.
Long before he became a hero of the Spanish-American War and the 26th president, Roosevelt spent time in the Badlands of the Dakotas to dabble in ranching from 1884-1886. He found relief during his stay, the open range and hunting a temporary remedy for his grief over the sudden death of his first wife. Roosevelt had invested more than $40,000 on about 1,450 head of cattle. That translates to well over $1 million today. It was small potatoes compared with the big cattlemen of Texas that he ran around with, people such as Burk Burnett.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
AR407-7-57
Pres. Teddy Roosevelt in Fort Worth speaking to a crowd, 04/08/1905
During his first visit to Fort Worth — the first time a president had visited Cowtown — the highlights were a parade through downtown and a stop at the Carnegie Library to plant a tree. The tree planted in 1905, however, did not survive. Roosevelt replaced it with a Chinese tree that also died. Legend has it that Roosevelt brought a third three, an elm, in 1911, which survived and was supposedly transplanted on the grounds of the Will Rogers Memorial Center in 1938.
The city, however, can only raise its hands in surrender about it. The city’s forester, when asked several years ago, said staff had scouted for an elm that would have met the age requirement but found nothing on the Will Rogers grounds.
Roosevelt initially planned to come to Texas between March 25 and April 5 for “the avowed purpose of shooting jackrabbits and other things.” Roosevelt, of course, was renowned for his itchy trigger finger as a hunter. If it moved, he shot it, one of his associates said of him.
But, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram assured, “If he could arrange to hit Fort Worth on March 21, when the cattlemen’s convention and fat stock show are in full bloom, he would be assured the time of his life. ”And merely a day or so after his inauguration for what amounted to a second term, Roosevelt said he was coming to Fort Worth in a just a few weeks as part of a trip to Texas. But he wasn’t coming for the Stock Show. Instead of March 21, he would come on April 8.
“I had long made up my mind," he told a crowd in San Antonio, according to theFort Worth Record, "that after coming back from my trip to Africa and Europe, I wanted to have a chance to go around the country and, if possible, speak in each state and to say 'Howdy' and 'Thank you,' for any man who has been made president of the United States by the American people remains forever their debtor."
A throng of 30,000 people greeted him in Fort Worth when he arrived at 9:45 a.m.He was here for an hour and 15 minutes.
“President Roosevelt’s reception in Fort Worth was the greatest ovation he has receive[d] since leaving Washington,” reported the Associated Press. “In decorations, enthusiasm, and perfection of arrangements, Fort Worth surpassed every other city in Texas.”
After a parade, Roosevelt addressed the crowds.
“Texas has such an enormous extent of territory — a territory so widely diversified that almost all the things which culminate in some particular state, all come to the front in Texas, and therefore, we have a right to expect that more than almost any other state Texas stands for an epitome of our whole national life.
“And let me repeat here what I have said to various audiences, and I mean it literally, every word of it. I did not need to come here in order to be a good citizen and a good American, but if I had needed it, I would have gotten what I needed here.”
The president was interrupted by cheering before continuing.
“And although I came to Texas a pretty good American, I want you to understand that I feel that no president, while he is president, can afford not to come to Texasf or he will leave, not matter who he is, a better American than he came.”
In 1911, Roosevelt, by then plotting a return to the White House, came back toFort Worth — this time for the Stock Show and an address in the CowtownColiseum. It was all part of another hunting trip he was making with Burnett and others. Burnett was just about to introduce Roosevelt to a crowd on that March morning when Fort Worth Mayor W.D. Davis abruptly stopped him to make way for a special visitor.
"Walking on his crutches and accompanied by three of his six little children,Charlie Buckholtz of San Angelo, headquarters cook for the Rough Riders, was escorted to the stand," the Fort Worth Record reported. Buckholtz was an applicant for a pension that had stalled in bureaucracy. The mayor thought Roosevelt could help. Roosevelt, the Record reported, asked for the claim number and promised to write a letter on his behalf.Roosevelt's arrival coincided with a massive fire that swept through 6 acres of stables and cattle pens the morning of March 14.
"The Stockyards are burning up," the Record quoted an attendant while later tempering the panic. "While it was bad it might have been worse, infinitely worse."Roosevelt was in and out that day, too. He had places to be and more Texans to see. He was thinking about another run for the White House after all.
"I want to congratulate you on the astonishing growth of your city," Roosevelt told those gathered in the Stockyards, according to the Record. "Just one word. You know that I always preach a little ... I am so glad to see this great material prosperity, but I want you to see, however, that as you build up the material prosperity ... your people grow in the spirit as well.
"The man who is not decent and square with his family is a poor citizen. Develop the right kind of citizenship, especially here in Texas."
