Bully for Presidential Visits

Theodore Roosevelt has been on my brain lately.

It started a week ago Monday (Feb. 13) at the Northfield High School band concert, when the symphonic band played Karl King’s “Rough Riders.”  According to the concert notes (written by our friend Joseph), the piece is “perhaps a double reference to the nickname given the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry regiment commanded by Col. Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War and the portrayal of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in the popular Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World touring shows.”

A few days later, we saw Teddy in action, digging locks in the Panama Canal and crying “Bully” before charging up San Juan Hill.  It wasn’t the real Teddy, of course – it was a character in Arsenic and Old Lace who believes he’s Teddy Roosevelt.  Steve is performing in the Northfield Arts Guild’s production of the popular play (it’s funny and well-acted, and tickets are still available for this weekend’s shows; click here for information).  Steve is not playing Teddy; he’s Dr. Einstein (no, not that Einstein – Dr. Herman Einstein, a fictional plastic surgeon).  I went to the dress rehearsal with the kids on Thursday, and Louisa especially appreciated the historical references, since she’d just been learning about Roosevelt and the Progressive Era in her AP U.S. History class.

Then this past Monday, Presidents Day, I was revising a timeline of the life of my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, and decided to follow up on a clue I’d received from a relative about an encounter G. Oliver had with Roosevelt in 1903.

The 51st/55th Regimental Band. G. Oliver Riggs is in the back row, second from right.

My second cousin, Patricia, had mentioned to my dad and me last month via email that she had a newspaper clipping with a photo of G. Oliver’s band playing for President Roosevelt in front of a hotel; did we have that one?  I not only didn’t have it, I didn’t know anything about it.  I did, however, remember that an Iowa regimental band G. Oliver occasionally played in – led by his longtime friend, George Landers – had played for an appearance Roosevelt made in Keokuk, Iowa.  But that was in 1907, and I’m not sure G. Oliver was with the band at that event.

I also remembered that G. Oliver just missed seeing Roosevelt at the Minnesota State Fair in 1901.  The then-vice president spoke at the fair on Sept. 2, giving his famous “speak softly and carry a big stick” speech.  G. Oliver and his Crookston band performed at the fair that year, but they didn’t arrive in St. Paul until the day after Roosevelt’s appearance.

So I searched on Google and discovered (thanks to the Clarinda Chamber of Commerce website) that Roosevelt visited Clarinda, Iowa, in 1903 and had breakfast with Iowa Gov. Albert Cummins at the Linderman Hotel.  Now I was onto something!  Clarinda is where Landers’ band was based, and Cummins is the governor who accompanied the band members (including G. Oliver) and a delegation of Iowa Civil War veterans to the South in 1906, to dedicate the battlefield memorials to Iowa soliders (I wrote about this trip in a previous blog post, Vicksburg is the Key).

I have written an email to the historical museum in Clarinda, in hopes that someone there can provide me with more information about the event.  It would be fun to add that band photo to the collection – in fact, you could say it would be bully!