Last updated: June 19, 2021
Person
Martha "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt
NPS
Quick Facts
Significance:
Mother to President Theodore Roosevelt
Place of Birth:
Hartford, Connecticut
Date of Birth:
July 8, 1835
Place of Death:
6 W 57th St., New York, NY
Date of Death:
February 14, 1884
Place of Burial:
Brooklyn, NY
Cemetery Name:
Greenwood Cemetary
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt was born on July 8, 1835 to Major James Stephens Bulloch and Martha Elliott Bulloch (Nee Stewart) in Hartford, Connecticut. It was in Hartford where the newborn Martha's older brother, James Dunwoodie Bulloch was studying. Soon after, Martha and baby 'Mittie' returned to their home in Savannah, Georgia. Four years later, the Bullochs relocated to Cobb County, Georgia to a village that would become Roswell, Georgia. It was here that Major Bulloch became a partner in a cotton mill and had a mansion built. In 1839 the family moved into 'Bulloch Hall'. By 1850, the Bullochs were recognized as a wealthy planter family who owned as many as 33 slaves, most of whom worked in their cotton fields.
On December 22, 1853, Mittie married Theodore Roosevelt Sr. at Bulloch Hall in the formal dining room. Soon after, the newlyweds moved into their new home at 28 East 20th Street in New York City. The home was a wedding present from Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt. Mittie bore four children: Anna (1855), Theodore (1858), Elliott (1860), and Corinne (1861).
Mittie was considered a true southern belle who possessed great beauty, charm, and spirit. It is believed that the character of Scarlett O'Hara in Margaret Mitchell's novel 'Gone with the Wind' is partly based on her. Mittie was an unreconstructed confederate until the day she died, and her brothers James and Irvine served for the Confederate forces. Theodore Roosevelt Sr. did his part to support the Union forces as an Allotment Commissioner who met with President Lincoln and lobbied Congress for programs to support the northern troops.
In 1872, the Roosevelts acquired a new family home on 6 West 57th Street. This is where Mittie resided until her death due to typhoid fever on February 14, 1884. She was forty eight years old and died on the same day as her son Theodore's first wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt who died of Bright's disease. This resulted as a complication of childbirth with Mittie's granddaughter Alice. Martha Bulloch Roosevelt is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.