PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 08/04/1915 - HFSID 30773

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.
In July and August, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy recovers from appendicitis on Campobello Island.
Typed Letter Signed: "Franklin D. Roosevelt" as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1p, 7x9¼. On official Washington, D.C. letterhead, but written from Eastport, Maine, 1915 August 4. To Hon. Clayton L. Wheeler, Hancock, Delaware County, N.Y. In full: "Many thanks for your kind note. I am up here for a few weeks and am nearly all right again and expect to return to my work about the middle of the month. I hope all goes well with you." In July 1915, FDR had undergone surgery after an acute attack of appendicitis. After he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913, Roosevelt and his family moved to Washington, D.C. but continued to spend their summer vacations on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada, off the coast of Maine. Throughout his boyhood, FDR and his family had spent their summers there, and he and Eleanor had bought a second cottage to accommodate their growing family in 1909. His new position greatly changed their life there, however. FDR was able to get away less often, and when he was able to get to the island, it was likely aboard a large naval vessel. Two years earlier, on the Fourth of July weekend in 1913, the North Dakota, one of the fleet's most powerful ships, was anchored off Eastport. It fell to Eleanor to entertain the ship's senior officers, not only during the weekend, but for several additional days after the ship's departure was delayed by fog. Lightly creased. Fine condition.