Gilpin County, History of Colorado, BIOS: TELLER, Henry M. (published 1918)
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"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II

Includes photo 
Pages 4-8

       HON. HENRY M. TELLER.

	Among the men whose careers reflect honor and credit upon the 
state that has honored them, none has risen to a position of higher 
distinction or left more indelibly his impress upon the history of the 
nation than did Senator Henry M. Teller. His ability to thoroughly 
grasp every point in all the great problems of the country, to look at 
any question from the broad standpoint of future needs as well as 
present opportunities, made him the peer of the ablest statesmen of 
America. Removing to the west with its boundless opportunities, he 
became one of the builders of the great western empire and the 
recognition of the important part which he was playing made him not 
only a leader of public thought and action in Colorado but in the 
nation as well. 

	Henry M. Teller was born upon a farm in Allegany county, New 
York, May 23, 1830, and traced his ancestry back to Wilhelm Teller, who 
was born in The Netherlands in 1620-the year that brought the first 
settlers from Holland to the new world. In 1639 he crossed the Atlantic 
to New York, settling at Fort Orange, now Albany, where by appointment 
of the king he acted as trustee of one of the tracts of land in that 
region which were under royal control. In 1664 he became a resident of 
New York city, there spending his remaining days. He wedded Mary Dusen 
and had a son, William, and the line of descent is traced down through 
William (III) and William (IV) to Isaac Teller, who became a prominent 
physician of New York. During the Revolutionary war he volunteered for 
service as a surgeon and died while faithfully performing his duties. 
He married Rebecca Remsen, a native of Brooklyn, New York, and their 
son, Remsen Teller, was born about 1769. He resided at Schenectady, New 
York, and married Catherine McDonald, of Ballston Spa, New York, a 
daughter of David and Sarah (DuBois) McDonald and a granddaughter of 
Colonel Louis DuBois, of Ulster county, New York, who won his title by 
service in the war for independence. 

	John Teller, son of Mr. and Mrs. Remsen Teller, of Schenectady, 
New York, was born February 15, 1800, and married Charlotte Moore, 
whose birth occurred in Vermont in 1808 and who passed away at her 
Illinois home in 1901, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. In 
early manhood John Teller removed to a farm in Allegany county, New 
York, and afterward established his home at Girard, Erie county, 
Pennsylvania, where he remained for ten years and then went to 
Morrison, Whiteside county, Illinois, where he passed away in 1879. 

	No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of 
farm life for Henry M. Teller during the period of his boyhood and 
youth. He was ambitious to enjoy excellent educational advantages and 
with that end in view he took up the profession of teaching and earned 
the money that enabled him to complete his academic studies. He 
afterward became a student in the law office of Judge Martin Grover, of 
Angelica, New York, and was admitted to practice on the 5th of January, 
1858. He then opened a law office in Morrison, Illinois, where he 
continued for three years, when he was attracted to Colorado, gold 
having been discovered at Pike's Peak. It was not the lure of the 
mines, however, that took him to the west but the belief that he might 
find opportunity to engage successfully in law practice in the newly 
developing district. He opened an office at Central City in April, 
1861, and after three years was joined by his brother, Willard, the 
firm of H. M. and W. Teller being thus established. He first came into 
prominence in 1865 as the founder and promoter of the Colorado Central 
Railroad. He drew up the charter for the line and presented it to the 
legislature and for five years after the organization of the company 
acted as its president, placing the corporation on a sound financial 
basis that insured its future permanence. His splendid qualities of 
leadership won him prominence in various directions. During the Indian 
troubles of 1863 Governor Evans appointed him major general of the 
territorial militia and he thus served for two years. A contemporary 
writer has said of him: "His decision of character, his admirable 
common sense and his versatility as a lawyer, added to his earnestness 
and straightforwardness as a man, commended him in every way to the 
struggling pioneers of those days, and marked him as a leader in 
whatever field he might enter."  

	Senator Teller was long a most prominent figure in connection 
with the political history of his state. Soon after taking up his abode 
at Central City he came into prominence as a political leader and in 
1876, when Colorado was admitted to the Union, was enthusiastically 
chosen one of its two representatives in the United States senate. He 
drew the short term of three months and on the expiration of that 
period was elected for the full term of six years, serving from 1877 
until 1883. His senatorial record forms an important chapter in the 
history of national legislation during that period. Soon after becoming 
a member of the senate, he was appointed on a committee on privileges 
and elections and went to Florida to investigate the alleged frauds in 
the election of 1876. In 1878 he was made chairman of a special 
committee to investigate the alleged election frauds in the southern 
states and his report was a model document for thoroughness and close 
analysis of facts and conditions. As chairman of the committee on civil 
service he did efficient pioneer work in directing public attention to 
the importance of radical changes and in the formulation of practical 
measures of reform and relief. When Chester A. Arthur as president 
formed his cabinet Senator Teller was chosen secretary of the interior 
and added new laurels to his already untarnished record by his devotion 
to the interests of the department and by the energy and consummate 
judgment which characterized his work in connection with his position. 
On the 4th of March, 1885, with the termination of his service as 
secretary of the interior, he again became a member of the upper house 
of congress as successor of Hon. Nathaniel P. Hill. While seated in the 
national halls of legislation he was chairman of various important 
committees, including that on pensions, patents, mines and mining and 
also served as a member of the committee on claims, on railroads, 
judiciary, finance, appropriations and public lands. His legislative 
experience was most broad and he was regarded as authority upon many 
subjects of national concern. He never hesitated to freely express his 
honest convictions, even when at variance with other leaders of the 
party. This was manifest when he became the avowed champion of the free 
coinage of silver and until his death he remained a stanch advocate of 
bimetalism, believing that the act of 1873 in demonetizing silver 
proved most prejudicial to the welfare of the nation and especially 
injurious to the interests of Colorado. He gave much time to the study 
of all problems relative to coinage, and that the people of Colorado 
recognized him as a most stalwart champion of their interests is shown 
by the fact that upon his return to the state, following the senate 
session of 1893, they accorded him a most enthusiastic and brilliant 
reception. In the national republican convention of 1896 he labored 
most earnestly to make the free coinage of silver a plank in the party 
platform. Disappointed in this, he and his followers left the 
convention hall, and though his disappointment at the decision of his 
party was most keen, the people of his state rendered him their 
heartfelt thanks for his steadfast support of their interests. Senator 
Teller's work in behalf of Cuba constitutes one of the glorious pages 
of American history. The account of this has been given as follows: "On 
April 15, 1898, in the United States senate, there was added to a joint 
resolution concerning the Island of Cuba the following paragraph, which 
was drawn and submitted by Senator Teller of Colorado: "4th. That the 
United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise 
sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Island, except for the 
pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is 
accomplished, to leave the government and control of the Island to its 
people.' On May 22, 1902, the senate having under consideration a bill 
to provide for the civil government of the Philippine Islands, Senator 
Hoar of Massachusetts said: 'I do not know how other men may feel, but 
I think that the statesmen who have had something to do with bringing 
Cuba into the family of nations, when they look back on their career; 
that my friends who sit around me, when each comes to look back upon a 
career of honorable and brilliant public service, will count the share 
they had in that as among the brightest, the greenest, and the freshest 
laurels in their crown. * * *' Speaking of Senator Teller, Senator Hoar 
said: 'I doubt whether any man who has sat in this chamber since 
Charles Sumner died. or whether all who sit here now put together, have 
done a more important single service to the country than he did in 
securing the passage of the resolution which pledged us to deal with 
Cuba according to the principle of the Declaration of Independence.' 
Senator Spooner of Wisconsin on the same day said: 'I voted with great 
pleasure for the resolution offered by the senator from Colorado as 
wise, as statesmanlike, and from my point of view it was of infinite 
consequence. We declared to the world that in stepping between Spain 
and her revolting colony we had no purpose in the end to make of Cuba 
an American asset. It is important to a government which holds colonies 
that this principle of international law should be strictly observed, 
and I believe, if my friend the senator from Colorado will pardon me 
just a moment longer, that the resolution introduced by the senator 
from Colorado, and its adoption by the senate, had more to do than all 
other things in preventing a combination against us among the nations 
which hold colonies.' Senator Hale of Maine, speaking of the Teller 
resolution on the same day, said: 'I look upon it as a most 
providential thing in the course of this whole matter that the senator 
from Colorado had the forethought, the prescience, to submit that 
resolution and attach it to the proceedings, and thereby make it for us 
a constraining force from that day to this. I believe that had it not 
been for that declaration always standing before us as an outright and 
express pledge and agreement Cuba today would not be a free re public. 
* * * The senator from Colorado, for initiating this most beneficent 
proposition, and the senator from Wisconsin, with the attitude that he 
held at that time, almost equal with him, are more to be thanked than 
any others for our having first made this promise and then kept it.' On 
the same day Senator Teller, after referring to the fact that the 
resolution had been condemned by some newspapers upon the ground that 
it prevented our taking Cuba, and that he had delayed tor a long time 
to defend the resolution, said: 'I never could do it better than now, 
when the American flag has come down from Cuba, but, better still, a 
flag for Cuba has gone up. The American flag is the best flag in the 
world for Americans. It is not the best flag for men who do not want 
it. It is not the best flag for Cuba. Cuba's flag, not representing a 
hundredth part of the power or glory of ours, Is the flag for Cuba, and 
when the Filipinos shall put up their flag and ours shall come down, as 
I believe it will some day, it will be a better flag to them than ours 
can be, although you may administer your government with all the 
kindness and all the wisdom of which human beings are capable. The best 
flag is the flag that the men themselves put up. It is the only flag 
that ought to command the admiration and love and affection of the men 
who live under it, and it is the only flag that will. Liberty-loving 
men will never have any love for a flag that they do not create and 
that they do not defend.' " 

	It was at Cuba, New York, June 7, 1862, that Senator Teller 
wedded Miss Harriet M. Bruce, a daughter of Picard Bruce, an Allegany 
county farmer, and they became parents of three children, all born in 
Central City, Colorado. Senator Teller was a thirty-second degree Mason 
and his high standing in the order is Indicated by the fact that for 
seven years he was grand master of the state and was the first grand 
commander of the Knights Templar of Colorado, while in the Mystic 
Shrine he was honored with the most Important offices. In 1886 Alfred 
University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. We again 
quote from a contemporary biographer, who drew a most correct picture 
of Senator Teller while he was still an active factor in the world's 
work, death claiming him February 23, 1914, when he had attained the 
age of eighty-three years and nine months. The writer said: "Of the 
personal characteristics of Senator Teller, one of the most conspicuous 
is that quality which enables him to look ahead, discerning and 
measuring the political and economic influences which bear upon the 
welfare of the people. As a leader, he is calm and keen, maintaining 
such a steady control over his own mind and emotions as to throw upon 
others the same dispassionate spirit in the formation of their 
Judgments upon public questions and men. Because of this wonderful 
self-control, Senator Teller has sometimes been called cold; but like 
the broad and deep ocean, his warm currents of sociability, kind ness 
and sympathy flow beneath the surface of his character. From a 
character sketch, contributed to the Denver Evening Post by the 
brilliant writer, Fitz-Mac, the following extract is offered as a 
concise and striking estimate of Senator Teller's personality: 'He has 
this mark of genuine greatness above any man I know in Colorado, or 
perhaps any that I personally know in public life, except Tom Reed, 
speaker of the house of representatives. He is simple. He is natural. 
He is without affectation. He is simple, because it is natural for him 
to be simple; and simplicity indicates the calm mind and clear vision 
as to the relation of things, their real values, It seems to me that 
the holy spirit of patriotism has descended upon Teller and enveloped 
him, and entered into his soul, and sanctified his purposes. He stands 
before the country as the tongue of Colorado, but he speaks not for 
Colorado alone, not alone for the United States, but for the humbler 
three-fourths of all humanity. Soberly, bravely and ably he is fighting 
humanity's holy cause for one and all, and it behooves us, as an 
intelligent, appreciative and generous people, to hold up his honored 
hands steadfastly, and stand by him with a courage as dauntless, as 
devoted as his own.' "