ADULTHOOD
Since Theodore still had asthma attacks at the age of ten, he agreed with his
father that he would work out at a gymnasium for several months to improve his health.
Then with permission of his father, he took boxing lessons and began sparring with a
former professional boxer named John Long with who he practiced and became a skilled
boxer. After Theodore grew stronger, Sr. Theodore wanted him to go to Harvard
University so he hired a private tutor to prepare Theodore for the entrance exams which
he shortly after passed with little problem. In his time in Harvard, Theodore had very
good grades in his classes. As he got older, his grades improved even more and his body
matured as well with the decrease of asthma attacks and other illnesses. After he
graduated from Harvard on June 30, 1880 as the twenty-first of 177students in his class,
he entered Columbia law school. Shortly after entering Columbia law school he turned to
writing and politics as a career. In 1880 after much persuading Theodore marries Alice
Hathaway Lee in Massachusetts with whom he had one daughter Alice. Unfortunately
four years later his wife, Alice dies of Bright‘s disease and in the same day Theodore‘s
mother dies of Typhoid. After Alice’s death, in 1886 Theodore marries Edith Kermit
Carow with whom he had 5 children Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin.
Theodore lived with Edith his rest of his life.