Clinton Roosevelt

Clinton Roosevelt (November 3, 1804 – August 8, 1898) was an American politician and inventor from New York, and member of the prominent Roosevelt family.

Clinton Roosevelt
Member of the New York State Assembly for New York County
In office
January 1, 1837 – December 31, 1837
Personal details
Born(1804-11-03)November 3, 1804
New York City New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 8, 1898(1898-08-08) (aged 93)
Fisher's Island, New York, U.S.
RelationsSee Roosevelt family
Peter T. Curtenius (grandfather)
ParentsElbert Roosevelt
Jane Curtenius Roosevelt

Early life

Roosevelt was born in New York City on November 3, 1804 and raised in Pelham, New York.[1] The site of the house he was born in was later occupied by the Standard Oil building in New York.[2] He was a son of Elbert Roosevelt (1767–1857) and Jane (née Curtenius) Roosevelt (1770–1846). Among his siblings were Peter Curtenius Roosevelt and the Rev. Washington Roosevelt.[3]

A member of the Roosevelt family, he was a great-grandson of Johannes Roosevelt, making him a distant cousin of U.S. Presidents Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt.[3] Through his maternal grandmother, Catharine Goelet Curtenius, wife of New York State Auditor Peter Theobaldus Curtenius, he was also a member of the Goelet family. His grandfather was partners in business with his grandmother's brother Peter Goelet.

Career

Roosevelt was an early and prominent member of the Locofocos, or Equal Rights Party, a radical faction of the Democratic Party.[4] He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1836 and served one year.[5] Roosevelt was an opponent of the monopoly banking system and cited bank paper currency as the cause of economic problems. After the Panic of 1837, when New York's economy worsened and the working population suffered, he changed his views, calling for a communist economic system with greater government involvement.[5]

Roosevelt was also an inventor and an advocate of patent reform. In the 1850s, he invented a warship design, but neither the United States nor Russia were interested; he later proposed trade unions to increase the profits of inventors.[6] Roosevelt was also a diplomat in Russia during the Crimean War (from 1853 to 1856),[1] where he was the "herald who carried the official dispatches between St. Petersburg, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin."[2]

In 1884, he gave a "rambling talk" at the People's Hall about "bulls and bears, the Stock Exchange, national banks, over-speculation, specie and paper currency, and financial depression."[7]

Personal life

In New York City, Roosevelt had an office at 52 Exchange Place,[6] and lived at 411 West 23rd Street.[2]

Roosevelt, who never married, died on August 8, 1898, in his 94th year, at Fisher's Island, New York.[2] His funeral was held at Christ Church in Pelham Manor, New York and he was then buried in Beechwoods Cemetery in New Rochelle, New York.[8]

Works

References
  1. "Clinton Roosevelt". New York Observer. August 18, 1898.
  2. "Death List of a Day. Clinton Roosevelt" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 August 1898. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  3. Whittelsey, Charles B. (1902). The Roosevelt Genealogy, 1649–1902.
  4. Byrdsall, Fitzwilliam (1842). The History of the Loco-foco, Or Equal Rights Party. Clement & Packard.
  5. Greenberg, Joshua R. (2007-10-12). "The Panic of 1837 as an Opportunity for Radical Economic Ideas" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-01-02. Retrieved 2008-03-06. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. "To Secure Inventors' Rights.; Mr. Clinton Roosevelt Calls for a Conference". The New York Times. March 31, 1893.
  7. "It Was Not That Roosevelt" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 April 1884. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  8. "DIED. ROOSEVELT" (PDF). The New York Times. 1898-08-11.
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