Teddy Roosevelt told the press he was "dee lighted" to throw his hat in the ring in the 1912 Presidential competition. (Photo courtesy Wisconsin State Historical Society) Teddy Roosevelt in 1914 Visits Scene Here of Launching of Bull Moose Party
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Two years after his ill-fated Bull Moose Party bellowed into life in Bay City, Teddy Roosevelt visited to the scene -- The National Guard Armory here.
The former President's trip was an anti-climatic, a meeting of the already fading Republican Progressive Party, but it was historic for Bay City since it was TR's first visit here.
The maverick party had won its moniker from Roosevelt's comments after being shot earlier in an assassination attempt. Asked whether he was able to campaign, TR barked: "I am as strong as a bull moose!"
TR's speech at the armory Sept. 30, 1914, however, made national news, The New York Times reporting: "ROOSEVELT IN MICHIGAN: Speaks in Bay City Hall, Scene of Split Two Years Ago."
Roosevelt, said, in effect 'we wuz robbed' in reference to the riotous convention two years before. "They stole it from us," was the Colonel's comment. "They took the delegates by force, but when the votes of the people were counted we had them beaten two to one."
The little noticed visit of the famed ex-president didn't even make front page news in the Bay City Times, being relegated to page 10 in the section labeled "Woman's Realm" flush with such hot stories as "Miss Woolfitt Is Wed to Iowa Man."
"ROOSEVELT IN BAY CITY LAUDS STAND OF BULL MOOSE," The Times headlined. "Former President Declares Old Parties Are Boss Ridden."
Little wonder the local press was not overwhelmed by TR's trip to Bay City; he had lost the audacious 1912 run on the Progressive Republican (Bull Moose) ticket. TR and incumbent William Howard Taft divided the Republican vote, allowing mild-mannered Princeton professor Woodrow Wilson to slide into the Presidency on the Democratic ticket.
The greatest third party movement in American history had started right here on Washington Avenue April 11, 1912, at the Michigan Republican Convention.
It was there and then that "America's Most Famous Little Town" hit the history books again as the Republicans divided in a contentious battle. Fistfights and semi-brawls were the order of the day and the Michigan National Guard was ordered by Gov. Chase Salmon Osborn to "protect state property."
Chaos ensued when competing delegations supporting Taft and Roosevelt tried to get into the armory at the same time. Pushing, shoving and fistfights broke out and windows were the objects of attack by some would-be delegates.
A crowd estimated at 1,800 included about 1,000 convention delegates who thronged the steps and the lawn of the armory until the doors were opened at 12:10 p.m. Thursday, April 11. "Never in the history of the Republican party has there been a more disorderly scene at a state convention in Michigan," opined the Bay City Times in a story headlined "PANDEMONIUM AT G.O.P. CONVENTION."
Some reports had guardsmen keeping order at the points of bayonets, but the violence seems to have been exaggerated. The worst incident was when Judge W.D. Gordon of Midland, a Roosevelt man, was pushed off the platform by a Taft supporter, W.F. Cremer.
Although Judge Gordon fell onto newsmen at the press table, Bay City historian Les Arndt later reported in his book, "The Bay County Story" that he suffered injuries from which he never recovered.
"The police and the militia forced back a hundred men who sought to engage in the fight precipitated by Gordon and Cremer," reported The Hutchinson (KS) News. "All attempts to quiet the excited delegates seemed useless."
In the end, two delegations were formed, the Roosevelt forces under Frank Knox, of Grand Rapids, who had served in the Rough Riders in Cuba with TR during the Spanish-American War, and the Taft backers under Alex Groesbeck, Detroit area lawyer, state party chair and later governor.
Former Indiana Senator Albert J. Beveridge waited for three hours to make the keynote address at the convention but never was able to reach the podium to speak. At one point, despite being guarded by two hulking policemen, Beveridge was nearly pushed off the platform by the jostling politicos.
Bay City Mayor Roy O. Woodruff, later a longtime representative in Congress as a Progressive, activated the entire police force for the GOP convention.
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