Elliott Roosevelt I

Elliott Roosevelt I

Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (February 28, 1860 – August 14, 1894) was the father of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and the brother of US President Theodore Roosevelt. Elliott and Theodore were of the Oyster Bay Roosevelts. Eleanor later married their Hyde Park cousin and future US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Elliott was the third of the four children of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt. He had one older sister, Anna, and one younger sister, Corinne (grandmother of journalists Joseph and Stewart Alsop). His uncle was the former Confederate States Navy Commander and secret agent James Dunwoody Bulloch, who accompanied Elliott when he left Europe in 1892 to admit himself into an asylum in Virginia. Elliott had a competitive relationship with his older brother, Theodore. At a young age, Elliott (nicknamed Ellie or Nell) was academically more successful than Theodore; however, he was eventually surpassed by his older brother. This competition would continue into the next generation with Theodore's daughter Alice and Elliott's daughter Eleanor. Elliott maintained a charming and winsome personality all his life, which masked a growing drinking problem that started at a young age.

Elliott was Theodore's best-man on October 27, 1880, on Theodore's first marriage to Alice Roosevelt. When Elliott was 23, he met Anna Hall, and they wed quickly, producing a daughter and two sons, Anna Eleanor (1884–1962), Elliott Jr (1889–1893), and Gracie Hall, called Hall (1891–1941). After this point, Elliott Sr. developed a "casual drinking" problem, which soon became alcoholism, an affliction to which his son Hall later succumbed.

Due to his drinking problem, Elliott was exiled to Abingdon, Virginia, where he would constantly write letters, mostly to Eleanor. Eleanor later recalled that on his many horseback riding expeditions with the young children in Virginia, he became attached to "one girl in particular of whom I was jealous." On occasion, he would, to the jubilation of Eleanor, return back home for a few days. Theodore Roosevelt became the conservator for his spendthrift brother.

At the age of 34, Elliott attempted suicide by jumping out a window; he survived the initial fall, but suffered a seizure and died a few days later.

Elliott fathered a son with Katy Mann, a young servant girl employed by Anna. His brother sent a detective who specialized in likenesses to look at the child and subsequently the Roosevelts settled out of court for $10,000. The sum was placed in a trust, but according to the Manns the child never received a dime, the money having apparently been looted by Katy's lawyers. There was some correspondence between Eleanor Roosevelt and her half-brother Elliott Roosevelt Mann who died in 1941 while she was First Lady.

Elliott's grandson and namesake, Elliott Roosevelt, the third son of Eleanor and Franklin, became a war hero and author.