Oscar Branch COLQUITT Texas Governor - 12606
This is Oscar Branch Colquitt, an uncle
to Anna Lee Colquitt-Ritter.
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Birth: 16 December 1861 Place: Camila Mitchell Co Ga
Father: Thomas Jefferson COLQUITT - 12599 (1825-1886)
Mother: Ann Elizabeth BURKHALTER - 12601 (1833-1879)
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Marriage: 1 December 1885 Place: Camp Co Tx
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Wife: Alice Fuller MURRELL (MORRELL) - 12607
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Birth: 19 November 1865 Place: La
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Children...
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1. M Child: Rawlings COLQUITT - 12611
Birth: 22 April 1886 Place: Terrell TX
Spouse: Josephine HEARD - 12612
Marriage: 7 October 1914 Place: San Antonio Texas
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2. M Child: Sidney Burkhalter COLQUITT - 12613
Birth: 16 October 1888 Place: Terrell Texas
Spouse: Elise GARRISON - 12614
Marriage: 4 November 1912 Place: Garrison Texas
Spouse: Corinne LEVILLE - 12619
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3. M Child: Oscar Branch COLQUITT Jr - 12615
Birth: 11 September 1890 Place: Terrell Texas
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4. F Child: Mary Alice COLQUITT - 12616
Birth: 4 June 1894 Place: Terrell Texas
Spouse: Frank LAUBACH - 12617
Marriage: 16 February 1918
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5. M Child: (William) Walter Fuller COLQUITT - 12618
Birth: 25 June 1890 Place: Terrell Texas
Death: 1 August 1910 Place: Or 10 1 1910
Husband’s Notes...
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Research:
O.B. Colquitt fought a Border War
Born 12 16 1861, in Mitchel Co. GA, Oscar Branch
Colquitt was the son of an impoverished Confederate Soldier. His mother, a graduate of
Wesleyan Female College, died in 1879, a year after the family came to Morris County
Texas. Colquitt started school at Daingerfield; his total education was only a few months,
but while running a tenant farm he spent most of his spare time reading. Becoming active
in County politics at the age of eighteen years. He soon left the farm and "Got a job
as a Hod Carrier, then as a Porter at the Daingerfield depot, and did every other work I
could find; then worked in a furniture factory, turning out bedposts." He became a Morris County Banner printer's devil
at $12.50 a month, leaving his $1.25-a-day job at the factory because: "I am
ambitious to be an Editor or Lawyer." With
his savings -- $175 -- he started the Pittsburg Gazette in 1884. After selling the
paper to his brother, he bought the Terrell Star. In 1890, after merging the Times
with the Star, Colquitt supported Jim Hogg.
Colquitt was elected to the State Senate in 1894. (A
losing candidate was William H Murray, who became Governor of Oklahoma.) Supporting a
lower school tax rate, Colquitt
Colquitt, who studied Law over the years, began practice
at Terrell in1899. He succeeded the 83-year-old John Reagan on the Railroad Commission in
1903 and built an admirable reputation in the next eight years. In 1906,he ran for
Governor against Thomas Campbell, of Palestine, Judge M.M. Brooks, of the Dallas Court of
Civil Appeals, and Attorney General Charles Bell of Ft. Worth. His opposition to statewide
prohibition and the earlier statement about teachers were factors in his loss.
Colquitt sought, in 1910, to succeed Campbell. His
competition included Cleburne attorney William Poindexter, Cone Johnson, of Tyler,
Attorney General Robert V. Davidson. Prohibition was the big issue. Colquitt favored local
option but opposed statewide prohibition. The next important issue - in this contest of
irrelevancies - was Baileyism: the candidate's position on the integrity of Senator Joseph
Weldon Bailey. Colquitt promised prison reform, including the abolition of whippings,
which gave him the opportunity to demonstrate the "bat", a brutal whip, formerly
used at Huntsville, made of three inch cowhide strips nailed to a large wooden handle.
Colquitt, weighing 180 pounds, could barely wield the five-foot whip as he flogged an
imaginary prisoner tied spread-eagle on the floor. George Huckaby, after researching his
fine dissertation thirty years later, wrote that everyone he interviewed mentioned
Colquitt's showing the bat. Despite Campbell's efforts against him, Colquitt prevailed
with 146,871 votes to Poindexter's 80,060, Johnson's 76,268, and Davidson's 53,366. By
154,609 to 125,809 voters approved submission of a constitutional prohibition amendment.
(That amendment, in 1911,was voted down, 237,393 to 231,096.) In the general election Colquitt received 174,596
votes to Republican J.O. Terrell's 25,191, Socialist Redding Andrew's 11,538, and
Prohibitionists Andrew Jackson Houston's 6,052 votes.
The most difficult of Colquitt's problems concerned the
Mexican Border. In 1910 revolution broke out against Porfirio Diaz, who had been dictator
since 1876,and the disorder spilled across the Rio Grande as bands of Mexicans invaded
Texas to kill, steal and destroy. Colquitt was soon at odds with Washington over the lack
of protection. In September 1911, President Taft promised reimbursement for the state's
expenses in defense of lives and property, along the border. Colquitt increased the Ranger
force from 15 to 50 Rangers, and ordered Mexican revolutionaries to leave within 48 hours.
Taft sent in troops, who argued, with the Ranger's over jurisdiction.
Although Texas Governors usually have little difficulty
in re-election, his efforts against the prohibition amendment made Colquitt's future
uncertain Supreme Court Justice William Ramsay, with precisionist backing-they called the
Governor Oscar Budweiser Colquitt- announced against him. Once again Colquitt demonstrated
the "bat”, claiming to have banned its use in the penitentiary. He complained of
county and city prisoners wearing "ball and chains" to their ankles and working
while guards "snoozed in the shade of the building." Colquitt, the first to use
the automobile extensively in
his Texas campaign, spent 85 days on the stump.
In Colquitt's first term there was controversy over the
textbook board's rejection of a History Book containing the picture of Abraham Lincoln.
Colquitt stated, "I want the truth of History to be taught. I had rather resign the
Governor's Office of Texas than to have my children studying a textbook in the Public
Schools of Texas with Abe Lincoln's picture left out of it, and I am the son of a
Confederate Soldier.
Speaking to a large picnic crowd at Hamilton, Ramsay
drew prolonged applause and moved the band to play "Dixie" by eulogizing
Confederate Veterans. He said that Governor Campbell had stopped the use of the
"bat" at the penitentiary a year before Colquitt took office. He pointed out his
resignation from the Supreme Court to run for Governor, while Colquitt still drew his
$4000 per year salary. Most newspapers supported Ramsay, but Colquitt won the Democratic
Nomination, 215,808 to 179,857, and in the general election he overwhelmed 234,352 to
24,253, the Socialist Andrew Redding Andrews, who ran well ahead of the Republican nominee
and prohibitionist Andrew Jackson Houston.
The border troubles worsened. Francisco Madero, who had
overthrown Diaz had been killed by General Huerta, who now held the government against
General Carranza and others. The complaints of South Texans brought Colquitt into conflict
with the Wilson administration.
Colquitt supported Herbert Hoover in 1928.He was working
for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, when he died on 3 8 1940. His wife, Alice
Murrell Colquitt, died nine years later.
Last Modified: 31 May 2000
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