Roosevelt Scholar Shares Presidents' Groton Stories

Noted Roosevelt scholar Kathleen Dalton visited Groton Monday, giving a Chapel Talk and a midday lecture on several Roosevelts, including Teddy, Eleanor, and Groton’s most famous graduate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Dalton, author of Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life, a history teacher at Phillips Academy Andover, and an instructor at Boston University, introduced students to the close relationship between Groton School founder Endicott Peabody and President Theodore Roosevelt. Dalton covered a broad swath of history in her Roosevelt primers, including the influence Peabody had on FDR at Groton, the social programs FDR supported that remain in effect today, and the influence of Eleanor Roosevelt and other women on public policy.

During the morning Chapel Talk, Dalton described how young Theodore Roosevelt and Endicott Peabody watching disapprovingly as their peers “gave into dissipation and drunkenness.” They often traveled to Boston's Trinity Church to hear preacher Phillips Brooks, who sold them on the value of “muscular Christianity,” which Dalton explained as “a belief that Christian faith could be revitalized and made a living force in a new generation of young men if sports and outdoor activity became like a spiritual practice and a means to combat sin.”

Roosevelt maintained extremely close ties to Peabody, and ended up marrying Peabody’s cousin. The Groton rector was an usher at the president-to-be's wedding.

Dalton said that Teddy Roosevelt contacted Peabody when each of his four sons was born to enroll them in Groton. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Kermit, Archie, and Quentin all attended Groton. Even after he was in the White House, Teddy remained close to the School. “After he became president in 1901, as he found himself in the middle of labor disputes and racial conflicts and struggles with big businesses, TR would not turn down Reverend Peabody’s invitation to speak at Groton’s 20th Prize Day in 1904,” Dalton said.

When Eleanor, Theodore’s niece, ended up caring for her brother, Hall, she sent Hall to Groton as well. “As a young woman working as a teacher and Junior League volunteer with poor children in the tenements of New York, Eleanor would take the train to Groton and visit Rector and Mrs. Peabody with her brother, Hall, and she would look in on her cousins TR Jr. and Kermit, too,” Dalton said.

As the world knows, Eleanor married Franklin, who had been greatly influenced by his Groton education. “Franklin listened with care when the Rector insisted that it was a Christian’s obligation to battle for just causes, which reinforced Franklin’s father’s reminders that Christianity required the rich to help the poor,” Dalton said.

“Franklin became a member of the Groton Missionary Society, volunteering to care for the 84-year-old widow of a black Civil War drummer who lived near the School, and he worked with poor boys in the Boys’ Club of Boston and became the director of the Groton summer camp in New Hampshire. During his Groton years, Franklin excelled at few subjects except punctuality and Latin, but he showed his parents he was ready to act upon his social concerns.”

FDR and Eleanor sent their own four sons to Groton. Peabody put politics aside in his support for his former student. “Even though Rector Peabody did not vote for FDR, he welcomed him home to Groton in 1932 to speak to the students,” Dalton said. “Peabody reported that, ‘I reminded the boys that it was our constant effort to persuade our graduates to take an interest politics with a view to service to the nation. … Now that Franklin has been elected, we shall of course back him up.” Peabody presided over the service marking FDR’s first term in office.

During Dalton's midday lecture, she delved more deeply into the Roosevelts’ impact on America, and paid particular attention to Eleanor and the unsung women who influenced public policy. She discussed topics including Prohibition, the Progressive Party’s legacy, FDR’s approach to bank failures in 1932, and how the ailing FDR made “fateful decisions” shortly before his death.

Dalton ended her lecture with a photograph of Winston Churchill, FDR, and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, concluding, “There’s Groton in the middle of world events.”

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