Wilmer, Joseph, 1848-1912

President Roosevelt writes Richard Watson Gilder a lengthy refutation of an article in the Evening Post in which William Garrott Brown misconstrues his actions in the Republican Party. Namely, Brown accuses Roosevelt of neglecting Republicans in the South and of doing a poor job of making nominations to local offices and positions. Roosevelt asserts that where the Republican party is not strong in the South, he has had to appoint Democrats who were quality men, rather than incapable men who are Republicans. Where he believes the party has a chance to compete with Democrats, he does all he can to support it. Roosevelt also writes that he did not use his influence on officers to get William H. Taft the nomination, but rather Taft was nominated because Roosevelt’s policies were popular, and Taft is the man who will continue those policies. Roosevelt believes that Brown is either ignorant or willfully ignorant of a number of facts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-16

President Roosevelt tells his son Kermit Roosevelt about the trip he and Edith Roosevelt just took to Pine Knot with John Burroughs. He also says he is “in busy correspondence” about the upcoming Africa trip, and notes that Congress “will end in an ugly fight” with him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05-10

President Roosevelt writes to Archibald B. Roosevelt to update him on some things going on with their family. Roosevelt praises his son for his monthly report, and warns him against working too hard, as he does not want to get more headaches. Joseph Wilmer is going on the Mississippi River trip. Douglas Robinson and Corinne Roosevelt Robinson are visiting currently, and are having a nice time. Roosevelt believes that public school and the Y.M.C.A. have been good for Quentin Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-16

President Roosevelt has found corroborative evidence for his sighting of passenger pigeons at Pine Knot in Albemarle County, Virginia. Dick, the foreman of Joseph Wilmer’s farm, saw two small flocks and his description of the birds match the passenger pigeon described in the fifth volume of Audubon. Roosevelt believes that Dick is reliable and views him as a “singularly close observer.” He requests that John Burroughs write to Lyman Abbott about the Long controversy.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-08

Theodore Roosevelt believes he was correct about the passenger pigeons he saw. He includes evidence in the form of a letter written by Joseph Wilmer, whose place Plain Dealing is near Roosevelt’s Pine Knot. Roosevelt also includes an excerpt from George Shiras discussing various topics, including the timber wolf and how lynx hunt, and disagreeing with William J. Long’s texts on the subjects.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-08

President Roosevelt tells Kermit Roosevelt about the holiday he had at Pine Knot, Virginia, with Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt. The president tells Kermit, “Mother is a great deal more pleased with it than any child with any toy I ever saw.” The president and Edith spent time with Joseph Wilmer and William Nivison Wilmer, who are “the most generous, thoughtful, self-effacing friends.” The president talks about his attempts to cook fried chicken and how Edith “greatly enjoyed” it as well as his attempts to encourage peace negotiations between Russia and Japan. The president looks forward to seeing Kermit at Bishop William Lawrence’s house and appreciates the recommendation of “that piece in Collier’s.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-11

In a letter to his son Kermit Roosevelt, President Roosevelt describes a weekend visit to Pine Knot, the rural retreat purchased by Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt in Virginia. Roosevelt notes that he did the cooking for himself and Edith, and that they enjoyed walking the property and sitting on the piazza. Roosevelt also writes of his efforts to bring the Russians and Japanese to the negotiating table to achieve a diplomatic settlement to the Russo-Japanese War.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1905-06-11

In “The Sighting at Pine Knot, Virginia,” Alton A. Lindsay explores the question of whether Theodore Roosevelt was the last person to report a credible sighting of the extinct passenger pigeon near his presidential retreat, Pine Knot in Virginia, in 1907. Lindsay provides a history of Pine Knot and also looks at the making of Roosevelt as a naturalist going back to his childhood.  He notes some of the defining experiences in Roosevelt’s life that made him a naturalist and conservationist, such as his time in the Dakota Badlands. Like other scholars he pushes back against the idea that Roosevelt was merely a man of action and asserts that he “was a man of intellect.”

 

He details Roosevelt’s sighting of a small flock of passenger pigeons in May 1907, and argues that Roosevelt’s history and experience as a naturalist and ornithologist lend credibility to his claims to have seen the birds. 

 

President Roosevelt describes his trip to Pine Knot Cottage with Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, including two days of failed turkey hunting expeditions that finally succeeded on the third day. He ends by saying Secretary of State Elihu Root’s speech went well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-04

Memorandum with the Roosevelt family’s travel plans for a trip to Rapidan, Virginia.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-12-15