It was Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. TR 's pappy. He hired the surrogate to maintain domestic bliss. His wife "Mittie" was from the prominent Bulloch family from Roswell, GA and her brothers fought for the Confederacy. One was killed in combat.
In an interview years later TR described his mother as "a lovely southern woman ....who was Unreconstructed until her dying day."
Many sources say that "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt was who the character of Scarlett O'Hara was based on
Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. served as the Allotment Commissioner for NY which was essentially a man who sold Union soldiers a form of a life insurance plan with the premiums paid by what we would call a payroll deduction today.
His mother in law also lived with the Roosevelts during the Civil War and being a good southern woman of Scottish extraction, Mother Bulloch had her own still for making whiskey and knitted socks for care packages she sent to Confederate soldiers back home in GA.
Here is a superb look, one the best History books ever written really, at TR's early life and his family done by David McCullough:
