Henry Moore TELLER, Congress, CO (1830-1914)

TELLER, Henry Moore, a Senator from Colorado; born in Granger, Allegany County, N.Y., May 23, 1830; attended Rushford and Alfred Academies in New York; taught school; studied law and was admitted to the bar in Binghamton, N.Y., in 1858; moved to Illinois in 1858 and to Colorado in 1861; major general of Colorado militia 1862-1864; involved in railroad and real estate development; upon the admission of Colorado as a State into the Union in 1876 was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate; reelected, and served from November 15, 1876, until his resignation on April 17, 1882, to accept a Cabinet position; chairman, Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Forty-fifth Congress), Committee on Pensions (Forty-seventh Congress); appointed Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Chester Arthur 1882-1885; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1885 and 1891, as a Silver Republican in 1897, and as a Democrat in 1903, and served from March 4, 1885, to March 3, 1909; declined to be a candidate for renomination; chairman, Committee on Mines and Mining (Forty-ninth Congress), Committee on Patents (Fiftieth through Fifty-second Congresses), Committee on Privileges and Elections (Fifty-second Congress), Committee on Claims (Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Private Land Claims (Fifty-sixth through Sixtieth Congresses); member of the United States Monetary Commission 1908-1912; engaged in the practice of law until his death in Denver, Colo., February 23, 1914; interment in Fairmount Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Ellis, Elmer. Henry Moore Teller: Defender of the West. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1941; Holsinger, M. Paul. “Henry M. Teller and the Edmunds-Tucker Act.” Colorado Magazine 48 (Winter 1971): 1-14.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present