Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small]

henry Moore Teller

The sturdy Holland ancestors of Henry Moore Teller settled in the State of New York about two centuries before his birth. He came of that sternly moral, patriotic and intelligent stock which reached full fruition in his great character.

His father, John Teller, settled on a farm in Allegheny County, New York, where Henry Moore Teller was born on May 23, 1830. In 1852 the family moved to Erie County, Pennsylvania, and again in 1862 they moved to Morrison, Illinois, where his father died in 1879.

His early years were passed on his father's farms, where he followed the usual pursuits of a country boy.

His instinctive taste for learning lead to the resolve to acquire a proper education by his own efforts, for as the family consisted of six children, the farm could not provide the desired education for all. By teaching school, he took a course at Rushford Academy, and then took up the study of law in the office of Judge Martin Grover, at Binghampton, New York, where he was admitted to the Bar in January, 1858. He then returned to Morrison, Illinois, and began to practice law.

The lure of the West and a belief in the opportunities it presented, brought him to Central City, Colorado, in 1861. About three years later his brother, Willard Teller, removed to Central City, and the law firm of H. M. and W. Teller then formed, continued until the public duties of Senator Teller required his whole attention.

This was the period of the early development of mining law, and the firm at once assumed a leading place in mining litigation, leaving its lasting impress on the history of our jurisprudence.

Henry Moore Teller secured the charter from the territorial. legislature in 1865 of The Colorado Central Railroad, financed

the construction of this railroad, and for a number of years was

its president.

He was a major-general in the State militia during the Indian troubles of 1863, under appointment by Governor John Evans, and served for three years in that capacity.

In 1876, when Colorado was taken into the Union, he and Jerome B. Chaffee were chosen Colorado's first United States Senators. Mr. Teller drew the short term of three months, and at its expiration in 1877, was elected for a full term of six years. While serving this term, he was appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Arthur, and held that office until March, 1885, when he was again returned to the United States Senate, and there served continuously until the year 1909, giving thirty-three years of the best years of his life to the service of State and Nation.

Upon his retirement from the Senate, he was elected a member of the United States Monetary Commission by his confreres in the Senate, which was his last public service.

In the Senate he was ever a conspicuous figure, a national leader, and a recognized authority on constitutional and international law; his views and advice on all public questions, were sought by men of all parties, and his counsel and influence were continually in demand in the consideration of the most vital governmental affairs.

The very extent and diversity of his activities in the Senate. prevents even a partial enumeration and analysis of them here. It need only be said that throughout his public life he proved himself a statesman in the truest sense, a commanding figure of whom Colorado was rightly proud. His greatness was set in a becoming modesty, his disposition cheerful and amiable, his personality charming, his charity as broad as it was little known, and his standards and religious connections high and firm, but his love of home and family was, perhaps, his most conspicuous purely personal trait.

Mr. Teller was devoted to the Masonic fraternity, and for thirty-two years held and with unflagging energy performed the duties of the highest office in this jurisdiction within the gift of that Order.

He left as his immediate surviving family, Mrs. Marriett M. Teller, his widow; Mrs. Emma T. Tyler, his daughter; Harrison J. Teller, a son; Henry B. Teller, a son; Henry M. Tyler, a grandson; Addison B. Teller, a brother; James H. Teller, a brother, and Miss Mary E. Teller, of Morrison, Illinois, a sister, to whom we extend our cordial sympathies.

Our country has suffered no greater loss than the passing of this great man from its life and councils.

William Henry Bryant

William Henry Bryant was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia, in 1863. His father was Alexander Bryant, a prominent railroad man in Virginia just before the war. His paternal grandmother. Dorothy Campbell Bryant, was a sister of Alexander Campbell, who was the founder of the "Christian Church."

Harry Bryant, as he was known to all, received his education in the common schools of Virginia, and at the State University, where he studied law under Professor Minor, well known head of the law department of that university, from which he was graduated in 1886.

Bryant first came to Colorado in 1880 and went to Leadville, where he was associated with the late Ernest L. Campbell, whose wife was his cousin. In 1885 he entered the law offices of Patterson & Thomas in Denver as a student, and after his graduation from the University of Virginia he became a member of the firm of Thomas, Hartzell, Bryant & Lee, and continued until his death. a member of the law firm of which Senator Charles S. Thomas has been the head.

For many years Harry Bryant was a member of the Board of Regents of the State University, an office which he filled with credit to himself and with great honor and benefit to the State. In 1889 he was appointed Assistant United States District Attorney for Colorado, and in May, 1912, was appointed City Attorney for the City and County of Denver. On the day he left Denver in search of relief from the sickness which finally claimed him in death he was appointed special attorney for the Public Utilities Commission in Denver, and these offices constitute the only official positions he ever held.

In 1889 Bryant was married to Miss Birdie Routt, daughter of former Governor Routt. Four children were born to them, of

« ZurückWeiter »