Theodore Roosevelt married Ohio Congressman Nicholas Longworth
February 17, 1906. Bangor Daily News - February 17, 1906
Updated - July 2, 2026
My interest in Theodore Roosevelt was inspired by my passion as a volunteer at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, to advance the restoration of the 1912 Narcissus. The Narcissus operated in Maine from 1914 to 1933, with Theodore Roosevelt being a passenger on board on August 18, 1914. The Narcissus is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. My interest in Roosevelt expanded over time to where I founded the Theodore Roosevelt Maine Heritage Project (TRMHT)
Click here to view the post that kicked off the TRMHT Project.
Joe Banavige released this wonderful American 250 Tribute to William W "Bill" Sewall, TR's Maine guide (along with Wilmot Dow, Bill's nephew).
Click here to see Joe's Substack post.
This post includes newspaper clippings/articles/photos related to Alice Lee Roosevelt having a connection with and her visiting Maine during 1902, 1903, and 1904.
The summer visit in 1902 had some topics that expanded the connections outside of the research comfort zone :) While Alice was visiting family friends in Dark Harbor on Islesboro, Maine, her father visited Maine for two days during his Presidential Tour of New England states. Some newspapers mentioned Alice would be traveling to Bangor to meet with her father. Some newspapers mentioned that TR would be traveling to Dark Harbor to meet with Alice. Neither happened. POTUS TR traveled by train to and throughout Maine aboard the luxury Pullman car, Mayflower. Well, 1902 was also the year the POTUS TR supported work on the yacht Mayflower. The yacht Mayflower was also along the coast of Maine at the time Alice and TR were too.
Alice's summer visit(s) during 1903 are a little challenging to certify the details.
The newspapers state she arrived in York, Maine, on Tuesday night, July 28, through to either Saturday, August 1st or Sunday, the 2nd. She was in Portland on Monday the 3rd and Tuesday the 4th. Then left York at 1:30 on Tuesday the 4th to Newport, RI, until Tuesday the 11th, and headed north to Bar Harbor.
Of the 26 different newspaper archives I've been using, I haven't yet found any clippings or articles about Alice being in the Bar Harbor area. The next date/mention of Alice is August 28. That article mentions Alice and her mother, Edith, both attending a birthday party event in Yarmouth, Maine. The newspaper states the party was a few days earlier...but not the actual date. I found online a note that mentions Alice and Edith attended the party on August 23, but the name of Edith's friend having the party (Mrs. Alexander) is not mentioned in the newspaper clipping...sooo, more passages in this rabbit hole will need investigation.
Alice's summer visit in 1904
I'm sure I'll be searching various rabbit holes that are present in several of these newspaper clippings. I think I have clarified the description for some of the topics. I'll update this post with new info as I uncover it. I'm open to receiving feedback as well :)
You can click on the photo or the clipping to enlarge and view...
1902
Anna Colson Rich lived in Bangor, Maine, was a music teacher, and a well-known music composer.
Alice Roosevelt - (2/12/1884-2/20/1980) - she was 18 years old when she visited Maine in 1902.
Bangor Daily News - April 25, 1902
Bangor Daily News - July 15, 1902
Miss Cutting...Elizabeth Cutting was among the inner group of young society women who attended Alice's official White House debut in 1902 and frequently joined her in the massive whirlwind of parties and events that defined Alice's early social life.
Sun Journal - August 20, 1902 - page 4
Theodore's younger daughter, Ethel, married Richard Derby. Richard's parents owned a summer home in Dark Harbor, Isleboro, Maine. Islesboro is an island off the coast of Maine, between Camden and Belfast. TR, his wife, Edith, and their son Quentin's fiancée, Flora Whitney, visited Dark Harbor in Islesboro after Quentin died in the summer of 1918, during WWI.
Click here to view that story and see the homes they stayed in. The Derby home is in that post as well.
Miss Paul...Ellen D. "Drexel" Paul was from an elite, Gilded Age Philadelphia social family.
Bangor Daily News - August 20, 1902
Alice Roosevelt and Ellea Paul arrived by train in Rockland and took
Maine Central Railroad steamer, Pemaquid, to
Dark Harbor.
The steamer Pemaquid, passing the Rockland, Maine, breakwater
c 1930 by M. Harriman in the 1993 publication;
When The Maine Central Railroad Went to Sea - Train Boats
and Boat Trains by John P. Archer
Steamer Boothbay at the Dark Harbor landing.
Islesboro Historical Society image in the 1993 publication;
When The Maine Central Railroad Went to Sea - Train Boats
and Boat Trains by John P. Archer
In an earlier comment above in the August 20th Sun Journal clipping, Alice joining the massive whirlwind of parties and events that defined Alice's early social life is mentioned. Below, it mentions 500 people attending one event Alice was attending.
Bangor Daily News - August 22, 1902
Dr. Derby named his summer home "The Moorings" as a tribute to his deep passion for yachting and the maritime culture of the area.
Bangor Daily News - August 25, 1902
Ocean side view of the Derby cottage, circa 1905
Image from Maine Historic Preservation
Commission in The Summer Cottages of Islesboro
1890-1930 publication, by Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr
Senator Eugene Hale's Ellsworth home, "The Pines."
Maine's U.S. Senator Hale would host President Roosevelt
and selected guests at The Pines for a meal during
Roosevelt's visit to Ellsworth on August 27, 1902.
Richard Derby, the son of the host, Dr. Richard H. Derby, would marry Alice's sister, Ethel Roosevelt, on April 4, 1913.
Sun Journal - August 26, 1902
Evening Express - August 26, 1902
Wednesday was the 27th.
Bangor Daily News - August 29, 1902
Thursday was the 28th, when Alice used the Mayflower. The yacht Mayflower had been in a U.S. Navy activity (8/20-8/24) between Rhode Island and the Maine coastline up as far as Eastport. The Mayflower continued to cruise between Maine and Rhode Island for a few days. Based on the next three clippings below, the Mayflower clearly was hanging around the coast of Maine for a couple more days before heading back to NY. At the end of this segment of the post, I'll share some clippings that make me think the Mayflower became the Presidential yacht during the summer of 1902. When I 'Google" the question, the A.I. response was that the Mayflower became the Presidential yacht in 1905.
Bangor Daily News - August 30, 1902
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This original watercolor began being painted in 1902,
by Alfred Addy - White House Historical Association
The 20th was Wednesday. I grew up in Kennebunk/Kennebinkport/Cape Porpoise :)
Kennebec Journal - August 21, 1902
Thursday was the 23rd. Stage and Wood Islands are right by Biddeford "Pool", where the Saco River enters the Atlantic.
Biddeford-Saco Journal - August 23, 1902
Bangor Daily News - September 13, 1902
Bangor Daily News - September 18, 1902
1903
Circa 1903 - Everything Victorian and Edwardian
Bangor Daily News - January 8, 1903
Bangor Daily News - February 5, 1903
The Sewalls from Island Falls, Maine, visit the Roosevelts at the White House in WDC.
Click here to view the post on William W. "Bill" Sewall - 1878-1931
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Bangor Daily News - February 9, 1903
Bill Sewall's middle name is Wingate.
TR's daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt, was named after her mother, Alice Hathaway Lee.
Through her mother's Lee family, she is a direct descendant of John Wingate (1636-1687).
Bill Sewall was named after Hon. William P. Wingate.
William P. Wingate was also a direct descendant of John Wingate (1636-1687).
Bill Sewall himself was not a direct descendant of John Wingate. You can read the short story about why Bill's parents named him after William Wingate on page 17 of Andrew Vietze's award-winning book Becoming Teddy Roosevelt - How a Maine Guide Inspired America's 26th President.
Bangor Daily News - February 16, 1903
Bangor Daily News - April 13, 1903
Bangor Daily News - July 28, 1903
Evening Express - July 28, 1903
Miss Field ...Isabel Field. Daughter of a prominent Chicago department store magnate, Marshall Field.
Bangor Daily News - July 29, 1903
Sun Journal - July 30, 1903
A description of the daily activities - Tuesday the 28th, Wednesday, 29th, Thursday, 30th, Friday, 31st
Sun Journal - August 1, 1903
Even today, many elementary school field trips to York include visits to the old York jail.
Lewiston Daily Sun - August 15, 1903
Kennebec Journal - August 4, 1903
Evening Express - August 4, 1903
Evening Express - August 5, 1903
Sun Journal - August 5, 1903
Biddeford-Saco Journal - August 6, 1903
Evening Journal - August 6, 1903
This clipping states that Alice will be traveling to Bar Harbor later in the month. It seems to mention that Alice and maybe her father are going to visit Kennebunkport?
Evening Express - August 7, 1903
Sun Journal - August 10, 1903
Rock Ledge was a 15,000-sq ft summer residence in Yok Harbor, on ten acres overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. This clipping below states that Alice left York for Newport, RI, on Monday afternoon, the 10th, after being in York for a week
Lewiston Daily Sun - August 10, 1903
Visiting the Hales at State Street in Portland. Peaks Island is a short distance from Portland via ferry boats.
Bangor Daily News - August 10, 1903
A postcard of one of the steam ferry boats carrying passengers
between Portland and Peaks Island in the very early 1900s. PWM
Gem Theater would seat 1,200 people.
The Gem Theater, Peaks Island, just up the hill from the steamship
dock. Photo from Maine Memory Network #12895
Senator Frederick Hale and his wife hosted Alice at their home on State Street in Portland, Maine. Last year, the Hales hosted her father, President Roosevelt, at the Hale summer house (his father, Senator Eugene Hale) in Ellsworth, Maine.
The photo below, from the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library (TRPL), was shared with me in 2016, along with a request to help identify its location and date.
Click here to view the post about the process that led to the success in fulfilling the request :) In 2022, when the ground was first "broken" to begin construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, ND, that summer, I released the Theodore Roosevelt Maine Heritage Trail project, socially connecting the public to the thirty-plus communities in Maine with connections to Theodore Roosevelt.
Click here to view the post that kicked off the TRMHT Project.
During October 20206, I will be attending/participating in the Theodore Roosevelt Convention hosted at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library (10/9-11) in Medora, ND.
Click here to view/hear the post on the live broadcast by the TRPL with Maine award-winning author Jean Flahive and me as guest speakers talking about Theodore Roosevelt's connection to the Seashore Trolley Museum and communities in Maine.
Theodore Roosevelt with four prominent Maine Republicans.
Left to right: Bert (Albert) M. Fernald (Governor of Maine
1909-1911, Maine U. S. Senator 1916-1926), Frederick Hale
(Maine U. S. Senator 1917-1941, Hale served as U. S. Senate
Chairman of the Naval Committee, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles
B. Clarke (Mayor of Portland, Maine, 1918-1921), Carl E.
Milliken (Governor of Maine, 1916-1921). Photo courtesy
of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, Medora, ND
The Hale mansion on State Street, Portland, Maine.
Maine Memory Network #97950
Tuesday at noon, August 11, Alice returned to Maine from Newport, RI. The Bar Harbor Express was a train line that operated back and forth between Maine in the Bar Harbor area, along the coast, through Portland, and to Boston, MA.
Sun Journal - August 12, 1903
The clipping below is in the August 18 Evening Express and has Alice in Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY, on Monday, August 17, after being in Newport, RI.
Evening Express - August 18, 1903
The local Portland papers state that Cleveland's train arrived in Maine from Boston, heading Downeast at midnight (Monday night 10th/Tuesday morning 11th).
Rumford Falls Times - August 22, 1903
Wednesday was the 12th.
Sun Journal - August 13, 1903
The article below lists Mrs. Edith Roosevelt and her daughter Alice, both of whom attended this event. A lengthy list of guests attending a birthday party for Mrs. Childs in Yarmouth, Maine. I haven't found out who Mrs. Childs is or what her relationship with her family was to the Roosevelts. More research is needed, especially on Mrs. Roosevelt's attendance. An AI response states Mrs. Roosevelt attended a birthday party of her friend, Mrs. Alexander, in Yarmouth on August 25, 1903. No other details. Mrs. Alexander is not mentioned in the clipping below...hmmm?
Evening Express - August 28, 1903
Wikipedia
This didn't take place in Maine. While Alice was in Newport, RI, in September 1903, she boarded a U.S. Navy submarine, Moccasin. The sub didn't leave the dock, but it did partially submerge, making her the first woman to ever make a dive in a U.S. submarine. Like her father, he too was the first (President) to be in/aboard a few transportation-related vehicles.
Bangor Daily News - September 18, 1903
1904
Lewiston Daily Sun - August 1, 1904
Bangor Daily News - August 1, 1904
Theodore Roosevelt and his fiancée, Alice Lee (Alice Roosevelt's mother), visited Mount Desert Island/Bar Harbor in the summer of 1880. Click here to view the post of the visit.
This clipping below mentions Alice may not have visited Bar Harbor before, unless for a day. So far, it is difficult for me to clarify how many days Alice might have been in the Bar Harbor area in 1903.
Bangor Daily News - August 2, 1904
Bangor Daily News - August 3, 1904
Evening Express - August 3, 1904
Bangor Daily News - August 6, 1904
Bangor Daily News - August 8, 1904
Sun Journal - August 9, 1904
Alice visits Senator Hanes at the summer home in Ellsworth, Maine. Like her father did back on August 27, 1902, during the Presidential Tour of Maine.
Brunswick Record - August 12, 1904
Bangor Daily News - August 13, 1904
Kennebec Journal - August 15, 1904 - page 1
Kennebec Journal - August 15, 1904 - page 3
Local is Portland, Maine. Looks like Alice was back in Portland on Sunday (14th) and Monday (15th), then on Tuesday (16th). One newspaper mentions Alice would be returning to Bar Harbor on Tuesday (16th). A newspaper south of Portland, the Biddeford & Saco Journal, states that Alice, on a train, passed through Saco, then Biddeford, heading south, exiting Maine.
Evening Express - August 13, 1904
Below is the clipping stating Alice returns to Bar Harbor. Nope, she didn't.
Bangor Daily News - August 15, 1904
Bangor Daily News - August 15, 1904
Evening Express - August 15, 1904
Kennebec Journal - August 16, 1904 - page 6
Kennebec Journal - August 16, 1904 - page 10
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Bangor Daily News - August 16, 1904
Percival O. Baxter (11/1876-6/1969) became Governor of Maine in 1921 and in 1941 was successful in the opening of the Baxter State Park, which includes Mount Katahdin. Climbing Mount Katahdin was a goal for Theodore Roosevelt when he was in Island Falls, Maine, during his visits with William Sewall and Wilmot Dow in 1878-1879. They climbed Katahdin in August 1879. The route they took to camp out near the base of Katahdin at Katahdin Lake is now a part of the Katahdin Woods and Water National Monument. The application seeking approval of the 87,500 acres to become the National Monument included Theodore Roosevelt's experience in hiking through, camping out, fishing, and hunting on that property in 1879. Click here to view the post when TR climber Mount Katahdin in 1879.
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Biddeford -Saco Journal - August 16, 1904 - page 4
Portland Press Herald - November 30, 1941
Below is the clipping stating Alice left Maine.
Biddeford-Saco Journal - August 16, 1904 - page 6
Union Station in Portland, Maine, in the early 1900s. Poscard PWM
Boston & Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroad both used this
station. A section of the overhead metal roof on the right was saved
and is used for outdoor events. Thompson Point, Portland.
Thompson Point, Portland - image from Google Maps
Kennebec Journal - August 18, 1904
"Yellow Journalism" in some newspapers ignites a follow-up response to correct the misinformation. The August 26th clipping below states the misinformation stated in the post below.
The phrase "yellow journalism" was used to draw attention to the misinformation.
Evening Express - August 17, 1904
Sun Journal - August 26, 1904
A few additional newspaper clippings that mention Alice.
1905
Bangor Daily News - March 3, 1905
Bangor Daily News - March 8, 1905
1922
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Bangor Daily News - August 7, 1922
Bangor Daily News - August 7, 1922
Mayflower posts with TR connections...just a few that describe TR using it during his summer in Oyster Bay at Sagamore Hill. Perhaps he used it only in the summer and just didn't have it "officially" be certified as the Presidential yacht until 1905.
The Times Record - July 15, 1902
The Times Record - July 25, 1902
Sun Journal - July 28, 1902
The Lewiston Daily Sun - July 30, 1902
Kennebec Journal - August 20, 1902
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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We continue the restoration work on the 1912 Narcissus, the only surviving high-speed, luxury interurban coach of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban.
Click Here: Narcissus Restoration-Related Posts
Being more than a century old, the stately "Elegant Ride," Narcissus, is a gem. This shimmering precious stone of Maine transportation history is brilliantly resplendent as it emanates so many elements of history, including time, places, people, and events, that it was coupled to, that when just a smattering of its seemingly innumerable stories are shared, the contents first captivate, fascinate, then generate interest to learn more 🙋. The majestic Narcissus is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Please consider joining the epic journey to complete the Narcissus Project by making a donation today!
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The restoration of this majestic icon of Maine's electric railway history is but one in a series of captivating stories containing an abundance of incredible coalition narratives.
Click Here: History-Related Posts - Narcissus and Portland-Lewiston Interurban
Click Here: Series of posts featuring the Founding of the Trolley Museum in 1939
Click Here: for the post on Brochures of the STM 1955-2025
The Narcissus is featured in the national Gold Award-winning novel, Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride. The "Elegant Ride" is the Narcissus. Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914, between Lewiston and Portland, Maine, while campaigning for the Progressive Party candidates.
Click Here: Bookstores and Businesses promoting the Narcissus Project
Click Here: for 3rd Grade Lesson Plans - Example for Viewing the Vocabulary Activities for Grades 3-8
Independent book publisher Phil Morse, holding the
Gold Book Award Winner plaque for the Middle Reader
category for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Congratulations to
award-winning Maine author Jean M. Flahive 😊
