Theodore Roosevelt becomes president

Born in 1858, New York City, Theodore Roosevelt as a child suffered many fevers, asthma attacks and stomach pains. So much so that blowing out a bedside candle would only add to his frailties. However, he was determined to better his strength and stamina, so he hiked, boxed, weight lifted and swam.  Doing so, allowed Roosevelt to become the great and influential president that history books, mountain sides, and people remember him to be.  He was elected to the New York State legislature at the young age of 23. Then, just three years later, his wife and mother died in the same day. Roosevelt fled.  To get away from the tragedies that came upon him so suddenly, he traveled to a 25,000 acre ranch in North Dakota badlands, and resigned himself to the cowboy lifestyle, spurs and all.  He returned, however, to serve as a U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, and went on to be New York's crusading police commissioner, the assistant secretary of the Navy, and governor of New York, all beofre his election as Vice President in 1900.  With William McKinley's sudden assassination, Roosevelt became the youngest president in american history, at the age of 42.