Cowles, Wm. S. (William Sheffield), 1846-1923

Anna Roosevelt Cowles apologizes for taking so long to return a deed to her brother, President Roosevelt, but explains the difficulty she had in getting a notary. She is glad to be able to gift him something that will be of use. Cowles promises to write Roosevelt about possibly visiting at Oyster Bay later in the summer, after the upcoming Naval Review. Her vacation has been pleasant so far, but she comments that sometimes “it is difficult being your sister to stay in a hotel and not be made too conspicuous just on account of the relationship.” She heard good things about the honeymoon Roosevelt’s newly married daughter, Alice Longworth, and her husband Nicholas Longworth were able to take to England, and hopes they had a good time. Cowles also shares a humorous story where her son, William Sheffield Cowles, shared that he hoped President Roosevelt could find something to do in Farmington, Connecticut, after leaving the presidency so that they could see him often.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-19

Creator(s)

Cowles, Anna Roosevelt, 1855-1931

Anna Roosevelt Cowles is glad President Roosevelt is at Sagamore and done with all of the hand shaking. Her husband William S. Cowles was home for the Fourth of July but has returned to Washington, D.C. Cowles recommends to her brother the volume Heretics by G. K. Chesterton. The Chinese minister mentioned while visiting that he plans to give suffrage to land owners based on a conversation he had with Roosevelt. Cowles’s son William Sheffield Cowles Jr. has been homebound much of the summer to avoid catching the whooping cough which is being passed around children in town, although he is canoeing, playing tennis, and vegetable gardening. The Chinese minister and Cowles both agree that horses are preferable to automobiles, as she is “in deadly terror of running into some one.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-08

Creator(s)

Cowles, Anna Roosevelt, 1855-1931

Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte asks President Roosevelt for his advice on two instances regarding promotions within the Navy. Bonaparte also includes a handwritten note because he had forgotten to inform Roosevelt during their meeting that he would be speaking in Chicago.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03-07

Creator(s)

Bonaparte, Charles J. (Charles Joseph), 1851-1921

Anna Roosevelt Cowles asks William Loeb to arrange a special train. She is unsure whether her son, William Sheffield Cowles Jr., will be well enough to be moved until she speaks to the doctor.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-03-30

Creator(s)

Cowles, Anna Roosevelt, 1855-1931

Anna Roosevelt Cowles is leaving to see her husband. She asks President Roosevelt to talk to Charles Hial Darling, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, about the work on the USS Missouri being completed quickly. Cowles also discusses appointments to the Red Cross committee and urges Roosevelt to contact Mabel Thorp Boardman if anything has to be done about these appointments.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-08

Creator(s)

Cowles, Anna Roosevelt, 1855-1931

The USS Missouri‘s boilers require two weeks of work, after which time, it is requested that the ship join the North Atlantic Fleet on the European Coast.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-04

Creator(s)

Darling, Charles Hial, 1859-1944

Henry J. Hendrix argues that President Theodore Roosevelt did not see diplomacy and the deployment of the United States Navy as separate and unrelated actions, but rather he saw and used them as complements to one another, and Hendrix cites examples of episodes during Roosevelt’s presidency to bolster his argument. Hendrix cites the Venezuelan crisis of 1902, intervention in Panama in 1903, the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris in 1904, and the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 as examples of Roosevelt deploying assets of the United States Navy in support of his diplomatic efforts. Hendrix asserts that Roosevelt used a very hands on approach to his statecraft, in effect acting as his own Secretary of State and Secretary of the Navy.

Two photographs of Hendrix and one of Secretary of State John Hay appear in the article along with a text box containing the mission statement of the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2007-10-27

Excerpts from the diaries of First Lady Edith Kermit Roosevelt edited by A. Richard Boera. The excerpts are taken from eight different years and most of the entries are short. Some of the most common topics include the various health issues of the Roosevelt family, lists of guests for lunch and dinner at the White House, and the riding excursions of Edith and Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt’s assuming the presidency after President William McKinley’s assassination, the final days of Roosevelt’s presidency, and the tour of Europe after Roosevelt’s African safari in 1910 are also covered. 

A photograph of Edith Roosevelt in 1901, a drawing of her by John Singer Sargent in 1921, and a family portrait of Edith and Theodore Roosevelt with all of their children at Sagamore Hill in 1903 supplement the text. A listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association along with the members of its executive committee appears on the second page of the excerpts.  

William Sheffield Cowles, son of Admiral William S. Cowles and Anna Cowles, died in Farmington, Connecticut, on May 2, 1986. Cowles was a nephew of Theodore Roosevelt, who praised his military service in World War I. In addition to his military service, Cowles worked as an investment banker and in Connecticut state politics. Cowles is remembered as “a man of charm, hospitality, wit, and intelligence.”

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1986

Creator(s)

Unknown

Rear Admiral Barker reports to Secretary of the Navy Moody that the Court of Inquiry has cleared Captain Wm. S. Cowles of all responsibility regarding the April 13, 1904, fatal turret fire on board the USS Missouri.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-29

Creator(s)

Barker, Albert Smith, 1843-1916

Seth Low expresses sorrow concerning the naval explosion on the USS Missouri, which killed 36 of its crew. He commends Admiral William S. Cowles, the commander of the ship and Roosevelt’s brother-in-law, for saving the ship from sinking. Low was presented to French president Émile François Loubet, who asked about Roosevelt’s campaign. He also mentions having met French General Henri Joseph Brugè.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-16

Creator(s)

Low, Seth, 1850-1916

Francis C. Travers was pleased to see in the newspaper the telegram from President Roosevelt’s brother-in-law Captain William S. Cowles to Archbishop John M. Farley in reference to U.S. Navy Chaplain Matthew C. Gleeson. Travers praises Cowles’s bravery amidst hardships. He extends sympathies concerning a recent accident, probably the explosion on the USS Missouri, to Roosevelt and to Anna Roosevelt Cowles.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-19

Creator(s)

Travers, Francis C., 1849-1905

Francis C. Travers shares with President Roosevelt part of a letter he received from Father Matthew C. Gleeson, chaplain of the USS Missouri, on which a recent explosion had occurred. Gleeson asserts that some people want to hurt the President through Captain William S. Cowles, his brother-in-law, commander of the Missouri, by casting aspersions on the Captain’s leadership in light of a collision which occurred between the Missouri and the USS Illinois the previous year. Gleeson avows that Cowles saved both ships on that occasion through his expert seamanship. Gleeson urges that the Navy ought to have the Missouri brought to New York, to ensure that the truth be known about the recent accident.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-21

Creator(s)

Travers, Francis C., 1849-1905

Chaplain Gleeson thanks Francis C. Travers for his good wishes after surviving an explosion on the naval ship the USS Missouri. Gleeson praises the conduct of the ship’s Captain William S. Cowles, President Roosevelt’s brother-in-law. He had hoped the Missouri would be ordered to New York for repairs, and that would allow him and others from the ship to tell the story in New York of Captain Cowles’s bravery and strong leadership in the crisis; but the ship has been ordered to Newport News. Gleeson comments that Roosevelt is a friend to the Catholics and that the Archbishop of New York, John M. Farley, and he support Roosevelt’s re-election.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-24

Creator(s)

Gleeson, Matthew C. (Matthew Carlin), 1870-1927

Anna Roosevelt Cowles writes following an accident which killed thirty-six men on the USS Missouri, the ship commanded by her husband William S. Cowles. The wife of one of the men who died has asked Cowles to be with her when her husband’s body arrives for the funeral.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-15

Creator(s)

Cowles, Anna Roosevelt, 1855-1931

The U.S. Naval Court submits a statement of facts concerning an investigation into the collision between the USS Illinois and the USS Missouri. It concludes that Captain R. B. Bradford of the Illinois was not at fault for the collision.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-11

Creator(s)

U.S. Navy Department

Corinne Roosevelt Robinson is not sure whether her letter will reach John Campbell Greenway, but sends “warm, affectionate greetings.” She reminisces about their last visit at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and discusses the death of Anna Roosevelt Cowles’s husband, William S. Cowles. Robinson inquires about where to send a volume of poems called Roosevelt as the Poets Saw Him.

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1923-06-11

Creator(s)

Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt, 1861-1933

Kermit Roosevelt describes a Roosevelt family Thanksgiving in Farmington, Connecticut. He requests a photograph of Martha and Robert Munro Ferguson. Roosevelt looks forward to visiting them next summer.

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1910-11-26

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Kermit, 1889-1943

Police Commissioner Roosevelt asks if James Roosevelt Roosevelt could give away Anna Roosevelt at her upcoming wedding to William S. Cowles. He cannot be there and is comforted that James can be with her. Roosevelt has been working very hard over the summer.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1895-10-20

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Theodore Roosevelt encourages William Sheffield Cowles to “make good” on his first few difficult months at school. A gentleman must be educated and be able to “hold his own among other gentlemen.” Roosevelt is proud of Cowles and wants him to “work hard and play hard at school.”

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1911-12-03

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919