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President Roosevelt suggests to California Governor James Norris Gillett that they should be responsive to the protests at the University of California, Berkeley, of the appointment of Charles E. Thomas as postmaster. Roosevelt wishes there could be a consensus on the appointment or Clarence S. Merrill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-31
President Roosevelt informs California Senators Perkins and Flint that he cannot appoint Charles E. Thomas as postmaster in light of the “emphatic protest” of those connected to the University of California, especially President Benjamin Ide Wheeler.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-29
President Roosevelt expresses to Representative Knowland his desire to heed the people of the University of California, Berkeley, concerning the appointment of Berkeley’s postmaster. He suggests Clarence S. Merrill as a suitable candidate for the position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-21
University of California President Wheeler is satisfied with President Roosevelt’s letter to Representative Joseph R. Knowland. He reports that the post office has been “miserably managed for years,” a claim confirmed by an inspector’s reports. Knowland’s underhanded attempt to appoint Charles E. Thomas reflects poorly on both his and Thomas’s characters. Wheeler calculates that the university produces half, if not more, of the city’s mail. He highly appreciates Roosevelt’s Provincetown speech.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-26
Moses Bernard asks Fred W. Carpenter, private secretary of Secretary of War William H. Taft, to inform Taft that Charles E. Thomas should not be appointed Berkeley postmaster, an opinion which the community shares.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-21
Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California, Berkeley, apologizes to William Loeb for being “obliged to trouble” President Roosevelt with the issue of appointing a postmaster for Berkeley. However, he strongly opposes the appointment of Charles E. Thomas as it fulfills the “private purposes of a political candidate,” that candidate being Representative Joseph R. Knowland.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-20
Arthur Walbridge North has sent President Roosevelt the hide of a bighorn sheep which he hunted in Lower California, Mexico. He did not send the head as he donated it to his alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley, but he sends a photograph of the sheep after it was shot. While he was in Mexico, North learned about two types of lions, designated as mountain lions and pumas, with distinct physical and behavioral characteristics.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-22
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary is not sure which article Charles W. Beard might be seeking, as Roosevelt has never written one about Sunday school. Beard may be thinking of one of the speeches which Roosevelt gave in San Francisco at the University of California in which he did discuss Sunday school. The text of the speech, entitled “The Bible and the Life of the People,” may be obtained by writing to the Pacific Theological Seminary.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-29
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary asks Frank C. Clarke to contact Governor Hiram Johnson and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. regarding the elder Roosevelt’s California itinerary.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-21
Theodore Roosevelt writes Benjamin Ide Wheeler that he is pleased that the Commonwealth Club affair is to be combined with the public meeting.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-14
Theodore Roosevelt writes to Professor Kofoid of the University of California, Berkeley, regarding articles and pamphlets written by Henry Chester Tracy, Abbott Handerson Thayer, J. A. Allen, and Edward William Nelson on the topic of birds, plumage, and biological research.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-02
On behalf of Theodore Roosevelt, his secretary thanks M. L. Requa for the copy of his address to the Mining Association for the University of California.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-18
Theodore Roosevelt writes Benjamin Ide Wheeler that he is glad to see the list of birds on the Berkeley campus. Roosevelt also wonders why California is resistant to making defense preparations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-03-01
Edwin T. Earl notifies Theodore Roosevelt his corrected lectures have been sent to Charles Sumner Nash, a professor at the Seminary. Earl assures Roosevelt he has asked Nash to send him a check for the lectures.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-09
William R. Sherwood informs Theodore Roosevelt that his mother, Eliza Neill Sherwood, greatly regretted being unable to attend his speech in Berkeley, California. Many American abolitionists met at Sherwood’s home in Belfast, Ireland, in her youth.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-01
Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University, reminds Theodore Roosevelt to visit alum, and bird enthusiast and photographer William L. Finley while in Portland, Oregon.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-31
Charles H. Dwinelle writes to Theodore Roosevelt to express some of his thoughts on the errors in forestry made by the United States government. Dwinelle notes that he knows of Roosevelt’s interest in conservation. Dwinelle reflects on the topic of forest fires, noting that if small fires were prevented, it would eventually produce conditions that could lead to even greater wildfires, causing considerable destruction. Dwinelle surmises that the reason Western forests survived as they did was a policy by Native Americans of allowing smaller fires to clear underbrush–a policy that Dwinelle seems to advocate. European forestry policies, Dwinelle notes, do not transfer well to American forests.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-25
Amanda M. Hicks petitions Theodore Roosevelt to come speak to a group of young women from the University of California while he is in Berkeley, California. She had previously written to several people to try to ascertain Roosevelt’s plans, and was told to ask him directly when he was in the state. Hicks hopes that Roosevelt will agree to speak to her group, representing “the rank and file of the young women who are to be the future makers of our homes and of our nation.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-21
Benjamin Ide Wheeler believes the only other speech Theodore Roosevelt should plan on giving apart from the Charter Day address and lectures at Berkeley is the one at the Commonwealth Club. The elephant has yet to arrive.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-26
Edgar Pomeroy of the Barbarian Club discusses rugby football in California. The Club has arranged exhibitions of the sport to promote its adoption by universities and is willing to come to the University of California. If so, Pomeroy requests a monetary guarantee to cover travel expenses.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-18