Born in New York City. Graduate of the Massachusetts State Normal School at Westfield, Massachusetts in 1882. Married Lily Morris Hinds in 1888. They had five children. Received LL.B. from Georgetown University in 1895.

Cortelou served as confidential secretary to Presidents Cleveland, McKinley and Roosevelt. During coal strike negotiations in 1902, President Roosevelt named him Secretary of Commerce and Labor. In 1904 he was chairman of the Republican National Committee and managed Roosevelt's election campaign.

President Roosevelt appointed Coutelyou as Postmaster General. He served March 4, 1905, to March 3, 1907. Later Roosevelt appointed him as Secretary of the Treasury. He served from March 4, 1907, to March 4, 1909.

In 1909 he became president of Consolidated Gas Company of New York. It would later become Consolidated Edison Company. He died at Huntington, New York.

Cortelyou appears on the Assay Commission Medal for 1909 (AC-53). The medal is a 40 x 57 mm plaque with dies by George Morgan.

Cortelyou appears on a rectangular mint medal (USM 207) issued as part of the series of medals for Secretaries of the Treasury. The obverse die was the same die used for the 1909 Assay Commission Medal. The reverse is blank.

bio: BDEB; DAB; Failor; NCAB 13, 14; TCBDA; WAB; WWWA-1 obit: CBY 1940