Chapter 12
Spiro Agnew's Twin Brother
Very few people know that Spiro T. Agnew, 39th Vice President of the U.S. had a twin brother. It’s true, and there’s an interesting story about it that follows
Spiro Theodore Agnew was, at birth, given the name Spiro Theodore Agnew by his mother, Harriet Akers. His birth certificate says his mother was Margaret Akers-Agnew, and that’s where the story gets interesting. Harriet and Margaret were sisters, born in Virginia in the late 19th century. Margaret married once, but her husband died, and she later married Theofrastos Spiros Agnew of New Jersey. Harriet was just 16 at the time and orphaned, so she moved into the Agnew house with Margaret and her new husband
-- Harriet Akers
Harriet was known to be a beautiful girl, and she must have caught the eye of her new brother-in-law, because a year after she moved into the house, she came-up pregnant. As was the custom in those days, the whole sorted episode was kept quiet and Harriet was sent away to live in the west on the Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota. It was a ranch owned by a friend of Mr. Agnew, the 26th president of the U.S., Theodore Roosevelt
-- President Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch, near Medora, North Dakota
President Roosevelt, who left office in 1909, didn’t live on the ranch at the time, and this story was told by an Indian woman named Awanata who lived and worked on the ranch most of her life
-- Awanata, Lakota squaw
Awanata said that Harriet came to the ranch in the spring of 1918, already heavy with child. She became one of the staff and worked as a maid and cook there. Awanata learned Harriet’s story over time, but at first only knew that she was the daughter of a friend of the President
Harriet was found to be pregnant with twins by the local physician in Medora. She was a healthy young girl the doctor said, and she gave birth to twin boys late in 1918. She named them Spiro Pollard and Spiro Theodore, not an unusual set of names in those days, as both were named indirectly after their real father’s name (Spiros)
When Margaret learned of the twin boys, she wrote her sister, asking if she needed help of any kind with them. After the exchange of several letters, they agreed that Margaret would take one of the boys, disguising the truth by misrepresentation and forgery. The story Margaret told was that she’d adopted the baby boy of a Virginia cousin, though she and her husband registered the birth certificate of their new son as if he were their own
The years went by and both the boys grew and thrived. But Harriet never had any further contact with her sister Margaret, suggesting there had been some hard feelings on Harriet’s part about separating the boys. Spiro Pollard Akers (as he became known) became a ranch hand cowboy, working on the president’s Elkhorn Ranch and others in the area, while Spiro Theodore Agnew (as he became known) entered politics, first in Baltimore County, Maryland, then as governor of Maryland, and finally becoming the 39th Vice President of the U.S. under Richard Nixon. As far as Awanata knew, neither of the boys ever learned the true story of their birth or about each other
The secret almost got out at one point though, when Awanata told this story to a couple of Hollywood types who were in Medora researching local history for a movie they were developing. They were fascinated by her story and she later said she thought they took an unusual interest and made a lot of notes. She later found much of the story show up in the movie, Legends of the Fall. Fortunately, for all involved, the names and some of the story were changed to maintain discretion
I heard this story from my father, who heard it from Awanata when he worked as a plumber at the Elkhorn Ranch, which had become, by that time, the Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park. He said he listened with fascination to her story, and asked her what ever happened to Spiro Pollard. Awanata said that his mother was very proud of her son, and she was glad he never had an interest in politics, especially seeing what had happened to his brother
Awanta said that she had asked Harriet the same question
"No," Harriet answered proudly,
"My Spiro has always been a cowboy."
Featured Music Video:
Waylon Jennings' and Willie Nelson's
"Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys"
