In my post of June 25, 2020, I touched briefly on a family story that my Great Grandmother, Vere Burrows Hansen, was the only one to shake hands with President Teddy Roosevelt during his train stop in Colfax, California on May 19, 1903. I suppose you could say that it was a family legend of sorts. Merriam Webster defines legend as a story handed down from the past, popularly regarded as historical but not verifiable. This story has indeed been handed down! But, as intriguing as that story was, I hadn't found any real proof that Vere was actually at the train depot, or had really shaken the hand of Teddy Roosevelt.
At the time I wrote the post of June 25, I had not yet rummaged through all the papers and photos that my Auntie Claire had in boxes that were semi organized. I spent the rest of the summer combing through newspaper snippets, receipts, unidentified pictures, obituaries, and report cards belonging to my grandfather and his brothers. I came across a fragile pile of whole newspapers from 1903 and 1904 that were published in Grass Valley and Nevada City, California. I could tell that several were saved as they contained articles relating to the death by suicide of my Great Great Grandfather, Alexander Burrows in 1904. He was Vere's father. Then, I came across two very brittle newspapers that I carefully unfolded and read several times, as I could not figure out why they were important enough to save. Lo and behold, this headline stood out in a small article on page 8 of the Daily Evening Tidings, printed May 21, 1903. HER PATRIOTISM UNBOUNDED it said....
Here is the transcribed article in its entirety.
DAILY EVENING TIDINGS May 21, 1903. Page 8. HER PATRIOTISM UNBOUNDED Young Lady of this City Receives Unusual Distinction. ________________ Miss Vere Burrows has the Honor of Being the Only One of Her Sex to Shake Hands with the President. _________________ Miss Vere Burrows of this city is a most enviable young lady. She has the distinction of being the last to shake the hand of President Roosevelt during his recent stop at Colfax. That is certainly an honor to be proud of and she is carrying the distinction with becoming grace. This young lady is nothing if not patriotic. She is imbued with the spirit which has made Columbia celebrated in prose and poetry for the daring and patriotism of her sons and daughters. When the idea of tendering a reception to the President was first mooted she made up her mind that she would see him. It would be her first glimpse of a President and she reasoned that it would be an honor worth going miles to witness. She was among the hundreds who left on the excursion Tuesday afternoon and when she reached Colfax her patriotism was ablaze at the sight of so many thousands waiting to do homage to the distinguished guest. She waited patiently for the President’s special to arrive and when it hove in sight her enthusiasm knew no bounds. When the train stopped she was one of the first to elbow her way to the platform on which the President stood. Nothing could cool her patriotic ardor or deter her from her purpose to get close to “strenuous Teddy,” as he is familiarly called. She jostled and elbowed with the good natured crowd until she found herself directly below the rear platform of the train on which the President travelled. Then the improvised platform from which the presentation speech was made was brought forward and she was crowded somewhat out of place. For a moment she was chagrined at being forced from her position, but for a moment only. She stood and watched the President as he intently absorbed every word uttered by Judge Nilon and when he began to speak she was brimful of enthusiasm and patriotism. What a pity it would be to permit such a splendid opportunity to pass without shaking the President by the hand. In a moment she was on the improvised platform standing face to face with the nation’s chief. The engineer had already whistled the signal to start and she saw the opportunity slipping from her when she reached out her hand and exclaimed “Mr. President I would like to shake hands with you.” “Glad to have the honor, young lady,” replied President Roosevelt, and he extended his hand and gave her a hearty strenuous shake. Just then the train pulled out and the President was quickly out of sight. That’s the reason why her friends are envying her the honor he had bestowed on her. And in the after years, when the evening of life begins to cast its shadows like the edge of an approaching shroud, and when the hair that is now beautiful and fair shall be supplanted with locks of silvery gray, she will delight in gathering her loved ones around the hearthstone and telling them that out of hundreds of women who went to Colfax to see the President she was the only one to shake him by the hand.
So, my Great Grandmother did indeed shake the hand of President Teddy Roosevelt! I had found verifiable proof that she not only was there, but that the family story was true. She had her "15 minutes of fame", and then went on to lead a life full of patriotism and pride in her country.
The local Grass Valley paper, The Union, recently published a story that involved this incident in Vere's life. The author, Steve Cottrell, was writing a series of stories on Teddy Roosevelt and his whistlestop tour that included Colfax, California. Margaret Hansen Boothby (my mother) relayed the information and the newspaper articles that I had discovered to Mr. Cottrell, thinking he could use the story somehow. He did use Vere's story as "bookends" to his story on the search for the Navy ship the Levant. Here is the article as it appeared in The Union December 25, 2020. I especially loved how he used Vere's High School Graduation picture from 1900. He got the marriage date wrong by a year...she married in 1904. And so, her story continues!
Searching for an uncharted Pacific island
The search for an uncharted island
Last month we explained how three Nevada County men arranged to present President Theodore Roosevelt with a collection of gold specimens when his train stopped at the Colfax depot on May 19, 1903. It was a brief stop, less than 15 minutes, but those who were present never forgot seeing and hearing the president — especially Vere Burrows.
A 1900 graduate of Grass Valley High School, Vere managed to nudge her way through the crowd and stood below the train’s rear platform as Roosevelt spoke. When he finished to loud cheers, Miss Burrows called out, asking to shake his hand, so the president reached down and obliged.
Roosevelt then began motioning to James Hague, president of the North Star Mine and one of the Nevada County men who arranged for the Colfax ceremony. Hague and Roosevelt knew each other as members of the elite Century Association, a private club in New York City, and the president wanted his friend to join him as the train proceeded to Sacramento.
While Vere Burrows and other Nevada County residents headed home with life-long memories, Hague sat with Roosevelt in his private car, explaining why a search of the Pacific Ocean south of Honolulu, in an area where Navy sloop-of-war Levant apparently met with tragedy in 1860, was needed. The Navy had long ago concluded that Levant foundered in a storm, but Hague believed it wrecked, not foundered, and some survivors might still be alive on an uncharted island. He needed Roosevelt’s help to undertake a search.
Hague’s theory was based in large part on a mast that washed up south of Hilo in May 1861. It was consistent with a Levant mast and had spikes driven into it in a manner suggesting it came from a jerry-rigged raft. The August 4, 1861, New York Times reported that if the mast was from Levant, “it would go far to sustain the belief that the ship had been wrecked on some shoal, reef, rock or island, and not foundered.”
James Hague was 24, living in Hilo, when Levant set sail for Panama, and prior to its departure had become friends with the ship’s commanding officer, William Hunt, and several sailors. Forty-three years later, with TR’s assistance, the 67-year-old Nevada County mine owner hoped to solve the mystery of the vessel’s disappearance.
Asking Roosevelt to make a ship available to hunt for an uncharted island more than four decades after Levant disappeared may have been stretching their friendship, but in 1904, as part of a May shakedown voyage for the freshly christened Navy cruiser USS Tacoma, Roosevelt and Secretary of the Navy William Moody authorized the ship’s commanding officer to work with a special passenger, James Hague, to search for a possible Pacific island and any evidence of it having been a safe haven for survivors of Levant.
SEARCH
Nearly 8,000 square miles were covered during a zigzag search hundreds of miles south of Honolulu, but no uncharted land was spotted. Although Hague’s charts encompassed about 30,000 square miles, Tacoma, running low on coal, was forced to return to San Francisco after only four days of searching. On June 3, 1904, the Associated Press reported that in addition to needing more coal, “(Tacoma) carried no appliances for deep-sea sounding, so her exploration was wholly superficial.”
Three months later, Hague spoke at a session of the International Geographical Congress in New York City, introduced by Arctic explorer Robert Peary. His topic, naturally, was Levant’s 1860 disappearance and the search for an uncharted Pacific island.
“I had the honor to bring the matter to the attention of President Roosevelt,” Hague told the IGC delegates, “and thereafter…Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Moody, determined to send an expedition as soon as one or more suitable vessels could be spared for the service.”
Although the ill-prepared search was unsuccessful, Hague remained optimistic, suggesting to his audience that the ship’s company “might have landed without the loss of a single life, in which event there might still be some survivors.”
During his lecture Hague talked about a possible second search, but it never materialized. And on August 3, 1908, the 72-year-old owner of the North Star Mine died at his summer home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
As for Vere Burrows, 45 days after shaking TR’s hand she married miner John Hansen, a native of Norway and veteran of the Spanish American War. Vere, a founder of the Grass Valley PTA and charter member of the Nevada County Historical Society, died in Grass Valley in 1974.
Historian Steve Cottrell, a former Nevada City Council member and mayor, can be contacted at exnevadacitymayor@gmail.com.
Courtesy Library of Congress
Courtesy Searls Historical Library
Courtesy Patricia Alden and Margaret Boothby
Relationship Reference: Me->Margaret->Harold Hansen->Vere Burrows Hansen
