Henry M. Teller: Colorado's Grand Old Man

by Duane A. Smith

Serving longer in the U.S. Senate than any other Coloradan, Henry M. Teller was one of the Centennial State's greatest statesmen and political leaders. Now Duane A. Smith, author of Horace His Life and the Legend , rescues this larger-than-life figure from obscurity in this new and definitive biography of the Central City lawyer turned Colorado senator. Teller was a prime example of what a politician should be in an era when elected officials left a great deal to be desired. As Colorado's representative, Teller stated his beliefs and stuck by them. Not all agreed with him, but all admired him for his honesty and integrity. His legal career in Colorado encompassed much of the early legislation in the territory, such as developing mining law and the organization of the Colorado Central Railroad, while his Washington career touched on nearly every important western economic development issue that occurred in Colorado between 1876 and 1909. Teller declared to the U.S. Congress that Colorado was a part of the nation, and that the West deserved a say in its decisions. Incorporating extensive primary and secondary sources, federal documents, the Teller papers, a wealth of newspaper articles, and a superb array of photographs, Smith's biography will be a wonderful source for anyone interested in Colorado history and the political past of the state and nation.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2002

About the author

Duane Smith received his academic degrees from the University of Colorado and completed his Ph.D. in 1964. That year he began to teach at Fort Lewis College where he is a Professor of Southwest Studies. His areas of research and writing include Colorado history, Civil War history, mining history, urban history and baseball history. He is an extremely popular professor at Fort Lewis, and he is the author of over thirty books on a variety of subjects including Rocky Mountain Mining Camps: The Urban Frontier; A Colorado History; Horace Tabor: His Life and the Legend; Silver Saga: The Story of Caribou Colorado; Colorado Mining: A Photographic History; Fortunes Are for the Few: Letters of a Forty-niner; Rocky Mountain Boom Town: A History of Durango; A Land Alone: Colorado’s Western Slope; Song of the Hammer and Drill: The Colorado San Juans, 1860-1914; Mining America: The Industry and the Environment, 1800-1980; Mesa Verde National Park: Shadows of the Centuries; The Birth of Colorado: A Civil War Perspective; and Sacred Trust: The Birth and Development of Fort Lewis College.

Reviews

[David Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short biography of Henry Teller hits the high points of early Colorado history. Teller was Colorado's longest serving US Senator and was Secretary of the Interior under Chester Arthur. He was prominent in Colorado's quest for statehood and had roles in most of the major stories in Colorado in the last few decades of the nineteenth century.

Teller was a lawyer by trade and never was wealthy the same way many of his notable contemporaries were. He had small stakes in mining, railroads, and banking but his efforts went to serving the public for 33 years rather than on making himself wealthy.

The author makes the case that Teller supported the causes he supported because that's what he felt the people of Colorado, his constituents, wanted. He was an early member of the Republican party but became a "Silver Republican" before leaving the party and becoming a Democrat. He even made a minor run for US President, which ended pretty much with William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech.

I've read a few other biographies of political figures of the time. All touched, at least briefly, on the silver issue of the 1890's. None of them went very far in explaining just what it was all about. I think Smith has done the best job I've found so far of laying out the arguments.

I think Teller is a keystone figure in early Colorado history. Anybody wanting to understand Colorado's history needs to know Teller's role, so I would recommend this book.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book on Henry M. Teller, longtime Colorado statesman.

This book was really insightful about the 1870s-1900s. Even though the focus was on Henry Teller, the author used it as a lens to highlight the birth of the Republican party and shift from addressing popular concerns after the Civil War, to becoming aligned with big business. (Teller was one of the people who left the party when it became clear that its interests no longer aligned with Colorado.)

The book consistently showed how the sausage was made, as it were, in business, law, and statescraft, without putting its subject up on too much of a pedestal or demonizing his opponents.

VERY well written. It's a bit of a niche subject but nevertheless highly recommended.