Bulloch Hall
Bullock Hall is a Greek revival mansion in
Roswell, Georgia that was constructed in 1839 and one of the
most historical significant homes in the city and listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. It is here that Martha
Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th
president, would live as a child, and where she would marry,
Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. The hall had been constructed by
Martha's father, Major James Stephens Bulloch, a prominent
planter from the coast who had been invited to the area by his
friend Roswell King. After his first wife, Hester Amarintha
Elliot, passed on, Bulloch would marry the widow of his first
wife's father, Martha Stewart Elliot and had four children that
would pass on before reaching adulthood. The family would move
here in 1839, and it wasn't long before Bulloch bought land for
cotton production and slaves to work the fields. The 1850 slave
schedules show that Martha Stewart Elliot Bulloch, who had been
widowed a second time, owned 31 slaves, who would labor mostly
on the cotton and crop productions, with a few working in the
mansion as domestic slaves. In 1835, Martha went to Harford,
Connecticut for a visit, when James' wife gave birth to a
daughter, that would also be named Martha, but affectionately
called, Mittie, who would be raised at Bulloch Hall. Theodore
Roosevelt, Sr. was about 19 at the time and came to visit with a
friend, Hilborne West, who had married Mittie's half sister,
Susan Elliot, but Martha didn't care for him much. They would
meet again in Philadelphia in 1853, and fall in love, marry in
the dining room of the Bulloch in December, 1853, with folks
coming from miles around.
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