Emlen Roosevelt
New York City banker (1857–1930)
William Emlen Roosevelt (April 30, 1857 – May 15, 1930) was a prominent New York City banker who held a wide range of positions in numerous organizations and was a cousin of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. He was president of Roosevelt & Son, the banking firm founded by his father James Alfred Roosevelt.
Early life
William Emlen Roosevelt was born to James Alfred Roosevelt and Elizabeth Norris Emlen. His maternal grandparents were William Fishbourne Emlen (1786–1866) and Mary Parker Norris (1791–1872) and his paternal grandparents were Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt (1794–1871) and Margaret Barnhill (1799–1861).
Career
He was director of the Chemical Bank of New York, the Gallatin National Bank, and the Astor National Bank, and later sat on the boards of the Grand Hanover and the Bank of New York. He was president of Roosevelt Hospital, founded by his distant cousin James H. Roosevelt. He was an officer of the National Guard for 16 years, major and quartermaster of the First Brigade. Roosevelt became involved in telecommunications companies, formed the Mexican Telegraph Company and Central and South American Telegraph Company, and was eventually director of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Theodore Roosevelt and he had a very close relationship as cousins. Emlen was not interested in politics other than to support his cousin's bids for public office, and Theodore, busy with conservation advocacy, had little time to attend to financial matters.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Emlen Roosevelt” is new York City banker (1857–1930). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Emlen, Roosevelt and York, not as a finished interpretation.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5372659. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1857, 1930, 1786 and 1866.
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This entry incorporates text from “Emlen Roosevelt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.