William Wingate Sewall, the first white baby born in Island Falls, learned some

Andrew Vietze

Source

Down East

Date

2-1-2008

Pages

42-45, 61-63

Abstract

William Wingate Sewall, the first white baby born in Island Falls, learned some of his Maine Guide skills from the Penobscots living nearby. He ran a sporting camp on Mattawamkeag Lake and became a lifelong friend of Theodore Roosevelt, fostering some of the characteristics, like his passion for conservation, that defined him as a president. They met in 1878, after Roosevelt's father, Theodore, Sr., died. The vigorous outdoor life and exposure to Sewall benefited the asthmatic Harvard student. Sewall worked as a foreman when Roosevelt started a cattle ranch after the deaths of his mother and wife. During T.R.'s presidency, he was made a customs agent in Maine and a member of the "Tennis Cabinet." The pair remained close until Roosevelt's death. Sewall remembered their friendship in his book, "Bill Sewall's Story of T.R."

Subjects

Island Falls, Penobscot Indians, Sewall, William W, Roosevelt, Theodore

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