Less than one year before his death in 1919, Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “I owe a personal debt to [the state of] Maine because of my association with certain staunch friends…; an association that helped and benefited me throughout my life...”

Theodore Roosevelt first met William “Bill” Sewall and Wilmot Dow this week in September 1878 while hunting in the state of Maine. Sewall, a woodsman who never drank or smoked and read his Bible daily, had been hired, along with his nephew Wilmot Dow, to act as guides for Roosevelt’s hunting party. Over the next two years Roosevelt stayed with the Sewall family in Maine on other occasions prompting a strong kinship to develop between the families.

Six years after their initial meeting, Roosevelt invited Seward and Dow to the Badlands of Dakota Territory to work for him as foreman at the Elkhorn Ranch. The party arrived in October of 1884 and spent the following winter cutting and collecting cottonwood logs for the construction of a cabin complete with eight rooms and a porch. Mrs. Sewall and her daughter, along with Mrs. Dow joined their husbands in Dakota Territory the following summer of 1885. Within one year, both women had given birth to a son at the Elkhorn Ranch.

Thirty-two years later, Roosevelt described their time spent in Dakota Territory in a letter now held by the Maine Historical Society.

“…In one room, where I kept my books and did my writing, we built a big fireplace, and I imported a couple of rocking chairs. (Only one would have made me feel too selfish.) The veranda, its open fireplace, the books and the rocking- chairs represented my special luxuries; I think Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Dow enjoyed them almost as much as I did. We had stoves to keep us warm in the bitter winter weather and bearskins and buffalo robes. Bill and Wilmot and I, and usually one or two cowhands worked hard. But it was enjoyable work, and the hunting, on which we relied on for our meat, was of course sheer fun…The house of hewn logs was clean and comfortable, and we were all of us young and strong and happy.”

The Sewall and Dow families remained at Elkhorn Ranch until the autumn of 1886, at which time they returned to their homes in Maine. After their time in Dakota Territory, the Sewall and Dow families continued to correspond with Roosevelt. They were even special guests at his inauguration as President of the United States in 1901. Of these families, whom Roosevelt first met this week in September in 1878, he wrote, “Never were there more welcome guests at the White House.”

Written by Christina Sunwall

Sources:
Maine Bureau of Parks and Land http://www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/history/biblepoint/letter.htm
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
< http://www.nps.gov/archive/thro/tr_ranch.htm>

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