John Ellis Roosevelt

John Ellis Roosevelt (February 25, 1853 – March 9, 1939) was a lawyer with the Wall Street firm of Roosevelt & Kobbe, the president of the Elkhorn Valley Coal Land Company and secretary of the Broadway Improvement Company. They were the first cousins of President Theodore Roosevelt through their shared paternal grandfather, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt.

He also had three half-siblings; Kenyon Fortescue, Granville Roland Fortescue, and Maude Fortescue. They were the children of Robert Barnhill Roosevelt and his second wife, Marion (Minnie) Fortescue, also known as Marion O'Shea Roosevelt.

Career Law practice During his career as an attorney, John Ellis Roosevelt was a partner in the Wall Street law firm of Roosevelt & Kobbe, along with George C. Kobbé, at 44 Wall Street. Before her death of typhoid in 1912, they had three daughters:

Anita Blanche "Pansy" Roosevelt (1882–1929), who was "ill from nervous prostration in a sanitarium in New York" in 1903. Gladys Roosevelt (1889–1926), who married Fairman Rogers Dick (1885–1976), son of Evans R. Dick, in 1913. Fairman's sister, Isabelle Mildred Dick (1884–1972) was married to Stuyvesant Fish, Jr. (1883–1952), and stood up in their wedding. Gladys was killed in a horse riding accident at the Meadow Brook Hunt Club in 1926. Jean Schermerhorn Roosevelt (1891–1984), who married Philip James Roosevelt (1892–1941), a cousin and the son of Emlen Roosevelt, in 1925.

His wife died on September 26, 1912, of typhoid.

On January 6, 1914, he married Edith (née Hammersley) Biscoe (1884-1943), the former wife of Lt. H. E. Biscoe. Edith's sister, Lillie O. Hammersley was married to John's brother, Robert. In 1915, Roosevelt tried to have the marriage annulled, claiming he was the victim of misrepresentation. The case was heavily reported in the News at the time. Edith won the case in 1916 and Roosevelt was ordered to pay her $400 a month in alimony.

John E. Roosevelt was a founder of The Sayville Yacht Club and served as its inaugural Commodore from 1901 to 1907.

His former summer estate, Meadow Croft is now a county park in Suffolk County.

Roosevelt died on March 9, 1939, in Delray Beach, Florida.