Presidential Biographies | Franklin D. Roosevelt Administrations - Early Life

Early Life

There was absolutely nothing in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's background that would have supported a prediction of his future greatness. He was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, Duchess County, in upstate New York. He was the only child of James and Sara Roosevelt, people of considerable wealth and privilege. James was of Dutch descent—the family having come to America in the seventeenth century—and had prospered through investments in mining, shipping, and railroads. Sara Delano Roosevelt was descended from Flemish immigrants. She had wealth of her own derived from her father's investments in the tea and opium trade in China. She was a strong-willed woman who exerted a dominant influence on Roosevelt, not only during his childhood, but throughout his life. James, who was 26 years older than Sara, died in 1900; Sara lived on until 1941.

The home where Roosevelt spent his early years is called Springwood. It...