Houston Benge Teehee

Class of
1942
Houston Benge Teehee

Houston Benge Teehee

“[He] was highly regarded in public life…an inspiration to the Cherokee people and to all who had business and social relations with him during the years of his active life.”
Marie Wadley

Biography

A lifelong Oklahoman, Houston Benge Teehee was born in Muldrow to a prominent Cherokee family and graduated from the Cherokee Nation Indian Male Seminary in Tahlequah. He attended Fort Worth University in Texas before returning to Tahlequah, where he was ultimately promoted to cashier of the Cherokee National Bank in 1906. He became interested in law and studied under Judge John Pitchford before opening his own legal practice in Tahlequah in 1908. In the same year he was elected mayor of the city and served in that role until 1910. Teehee served as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1911 to 1912 and was appointed U.S. probate attorney for Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma from 1914 to 1915. He served as registrar of the U.S. Treasury under President Woodrow Wilson before becoming assistant attorney general of Oklahoma (1926-1927). He was a member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court Commission until 1931, when he returned to private practice in Tahlequah.

Fun fact

Houston Teehee served as registrar of the U.S. Treasury (1915-1919) and during one five-month period he was signing nearly 2,000 war bonds every single day.

Oklahoma connections

Teehee was born in Muldrow, Oklahoma.

Hometown

Tahlequah

Profession

Public Servant

Presenter

Born

1874

Died

1953
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