fl. early 1900s · farmer, Widener's Valley, Virginia
Squire Bill Widener was a farmer of Widener’s Valley in southwestern Virginia, otherwise unrecorded by history. He owes his one line of fame to Theodore Roosevelt, who in his 1913 Autobiography quoted Widener’s “homely philosophy” — “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are” — as a summary of one’s duty in life. Because Roosevelt was famous and Widener was not, the saying was gradually re-credited to the President, erasing the man who supplied it.