Oscar Branch Colquitt - Early Years

Early Years

Oscar Branch Colquitt was born December 16, 1861 in Camilla, Georgia to Thomas Jefferson Colquitt and Ann Elizabeth (Burkhalter) Colquitt. His family had a long tradition of political service, and two of his uncles served as U.S. Senators, with one of them, Alfred H. Colquitt, also the Governor of Georgia. Colquitt's father served in the Confederate States Army as an officer, and after the Civil War, he attempted to farm using freed slaves as laborers. The weather destroyed the family's crops, and they lost everything.

Eager to start over, Colquitt's family moved to Morris County, Texas, arriving in Daingerfield on January 8, 1878. For three years he worked as a tenant farmer, walking the 2 miles (3.2 km) to school after the crops were in. Colquitt then spent one term at the Daingerfield Academy, where he boarded with the family of state legislator John A. Peacock. After leaving school, Colquitt unsuccessfully attempted to get a job as a brakeman or fireman with the East Line and Red River Railroad. Instead, he worked briefly as a porter at the Daingerfield train station and then spent several months working at a turning lathe in a local furniture factory.

In 1881, Colquitt became a printer's devil for the Morris County Banner. Several months after beginning his job his employer opened a new paper at Greenville, and Colquitt worked there until he purchased his own paper in 1884, the Pittsburg Gazette. Within two years Colquitt had purchased two newspapers in Terrell and combined them into one newspaper, the Times-Star.

During this time, Colquitt married and began a family. Alice Fuller Murrell of Minden, Louisiana became his wife on December 9, 1885. The couple went on to have four sons and a daughter. His sons included Oscar Branch, Jr, Rawlins M., and Sidney B.