The village of Cazenovia shone with a glowing pride for years in the aftermath of the 1887 two-day visit by sitting President Grover Cleveland, while residents also were proud that Cleveland’s former treasury secretary, Charles S. Fairchild, lived in their town after he left Washington. Just 13 years later, another nationally known figure stopped in Cazenovia, one who would also sit in the presidential chair and make an indelible mark on the country — Theodore Roosevelt.

Roosevelt visited Cazenovia on Oct. 24, 1900, as he campaigned in support of the Republican presidential ticket for the fall election.

Roosevelt, at the time Governor of New York State and running mate to President William McKinley, visited Cazenovia as part of an 11-day, two-state whistle-stop campaign tour that took him from New Jersey through Upstate New York and down to New York City.

Cazenovians were notified in the Oct. 18 issue of the Republican that Roosevelt would “pass through” Cazenovia on Oct. 24 where he would address the people for 10 minutes.

According to a train schedule published in Murat Halstead’s 1902 book, “The Life of Theodore Roosevelt,” Roosevelt’s special campaign train started out at 11 a.m., Monday, Oct. 22, in Weehawken, N.J., and did not stop until Friday, Nov. 2, in New York City, with Roosevelt speaking an average of 10 times per day. On Wednesday, Oct, 24, Roosevelt started his day at 10 a.m. in Norwich, after which he traveled to Earlville, Cazenovia, Canastota, Oneida, Rome, Utica, Herkimer and ended the day back in Utica at 6:20 p.m.

When the governor’s special train pulled into the Lehigh Valley Cazenovia Depot on William Street at approximately 11 a.m., an estimated 2,000 people crowded around the station to catch a glimpse of the Republican vice presidential candidate. The crowd was comprised of people of all ages and social classes, including members of The McKinley and Roosevelt Sound Money Club, students of the Cazenovia Seminary and pupils from the Union school, according to reporting in the Cazenovia Republican.

Speaking from the rear platform of his train car, Roosevelt’s brief speech was a rejection of the fiscal policies of the Democrat presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, particularly of Bryan’s preference for basing dollar value on the price of silver rather than the price of gold, as the Republicans supported.

According to the Republican, Roosevelt’s voice was hoarse, and he spoke “slowly and with evident effort,” although his speech was clearly audible to everyone in the crowd.

Roosevelt said he was especially happy to be in Cazenovia because it was the home of former Secretary of the Treasury Charles S. Fairchild, who, although a Democrat who served under Democrat President Grover Cleveland, was supporting the 1900 Republican ticket because of the silver versus gold monetary policy issue.

After Roosevelt’s remarks, as the train pulled out of the station, “there was a great rush to grasp the governor’s hand, and he stood stooping at the rear of the platform shaking hands with the people until the increasing speed of the train made it impossible to follow him,” according to the Republican. “Yesterday was decidedly Roosevelt day in Cazenovia. His coming was the all-absorbing topic of the day’s conversation, and but little business was transacted until after the special train had passed.”

While Roosevelt did not stay long in Cazenovia in 1900, local lore states that he visited the village multiple times in later years, staying at Notleymere, the East Lake Road home of his friend Frank Norton. No historical evidence of subsequent Roosevelt visits to Cazenovia has been found to support this local legend, however, according to Russell A. Grills, Cazenovia historian and author of the books, “Upland Idyll: Images of Cazenovia, New York, 1860-1900,” and “Cazenovia: The Story of an Upland Community.”

Unlike Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt was not president of the United States when he visited Cazenovia, although he was governor of the state. It was only 11 months after his visit here, however, that President McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo on Sept. 6, 1901. McKinley died eight days later, on Sept. 14, after which Roosevelt was sworn-in as the 26th president of the United States.

When President William McKinley was shot at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo on Sept. 6, 1901, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was at a luncheon at the Vermont Fish and Game League on Lake Champlain. He immediately traveled to Buffalo to be with the injured president. After a few days, McKinley’s doctors assured everyone that the president was improving every day and would survive, so Roosevelt traveled to the Adirondacks to join his family on vacation there. According to historian Edmund Morris, Roosevelt’s leavetaking from Buffalo was done to reassure the public that the president was recovering.

Just days later, as Roosevelt and his family were hiking up Mount Marcy, the tallest mountain in New York state, a man arrived bearing a telegram for the vice president saying the president’s condition was failing. After a second telegram was received saying that the president was dying, Roosevelt immediately set out for the nearest train station so he could get to Buffalo as soon as possible.

Roosevelt’s subsequent 35-mile journey down Mount Marcy in a buckboard in the dead of night has since become the stuff of legend.

Roosevelt left his camp just before midnight for a ride that would take at least seven hours during the day. The trip over winding and rain-slick roads took three changes of wagons, with fresh horses and drivers each time, and lasted about six hours. According to one account, during the last leg of the journey, Mike Cronin, proprietor of Aiden Lair and Roosevelt’s third driver that night, covered the 16-mile distance of winding mountain road in an hour and 41 minutes, with Roosevelt himself holding the lantern in an attempt to light the road.

According to writer Joan F. Aldous, Cronin stated that “Mr. Roosevelt was one of the nerviest men he ever saw” and that when he slowed the team in a dangerous place, Roosevelt responded, “If you are not afraid, I am not. Push ahead!”

When Roosevelt arrived at the North Creek train station at around 6 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 14, his secretary was waiting for him with a telegram stating that the president had died.