| Lord Ochiltree--Island of Jura,
Scotland--1739 David Ochiltree came
to America in 1739. Duncan Ochiltree came to America in 1739, no further record...As
I read this record, I surmise that David and Duncan are Lord Ochiltree's two sons. There
is no mention of Lord Ochiltree arriving in America.
David married and had four sons, Robert who
settled in New Jersey. Malcolm Hugh no further record. Wallace no further
record although some thought he settled in Virginia. David married and lived in
North Carolina. He had one son, Hugh who married Nancy McCraney.
Hugh Ochiltree married Nancy McCraney and
they had four sons.
David lived in North Carolina.
Murdock lived in North Carolina. Military
records reflect Murdock serving in the War of 1812 in Cumberland County North Carolina.
Hugh unknown.
Archibald unknown.
David Ochiltree lived in Cumberland County
North Carolina and could have been involved in the Highlander movement of the
Revolutionary War. We read he has a son, William Beck Ochiltree that was born in
1811 in North Carolina and lived there till 1840 at which time he moved to
Texas. William Beck had a son, Thomas Peck born in Texas.
Archibald is shown again married and having
two sons, Alexander and Hugh, being in Orange, Texas.
William Beck, Col. and
congressman from Texas, moved from North Carolina in 1839. He settled in
Nacogdoches where he became an attorney and judge. He was a prominent office holder
in the Republic of Texas or Washington on the Brazos. He was instrumental in the state
constitutional convention of 1845, and a member of the Texas legislature. He moved
to Marshall, Harrison County Texas in 1859.
During his early career, Ochiltree was a
member of the Whig party. In 1859, however, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a
representative of the ultra-Southern wing of the Democratic party against John Reagan,
whose opposition to reopening the slave trade had lost that group's support. In
November, 1860, Ochiltree was active in local meetings that demanded that state
leaders not submit to the election of Abraham Lincoln, arguing that his election
threatened slavery and a loss to Southern equality in the Union. He ran as a
secessionist for the state convention of February 1861 and was elected. As one of
the best-known members of the convention, Ochiltree was chosen as a delegate to the
Provisional Congress. Ochiltree was an active member, supporting measures that would
be to the advantage of his state. Including the construction of fortifications at
Sabine Pass, limiting the power of the central government to remove local militia forces
from their state, and settling affairs with Indians along the Texas frontier. He
also backed legislature designed to help local economy such as tax exemptions for
railroads, the construction of new railroads from his territory back east, establishing
ports of entry, suppression of import duties, and attempts to limit regulation restricting
planters from freely marketing their cotton crops. He announced at an early date
that he had no intention of serving in the regular Congress and gave up his seat when the
Provisional Congress adjourned in February 1862.
Returning to Texas, he organized the 18th
Texas Infantry and was elected its colonel..Ochiltree was with the unit until 1863 when he
resigned his position because of ill health and returned to Jefferson where he practiced
law.
Judge Ochiltree ran for Congress on a
conservative ticket in 1866 but was defeated..He died at Marshall Texas December 27, 1867.
Judge Ochiltree had seen Texas, as an
independent sovereign nation, as a prosperous State of the Union, as a gallant member of
the confederacy and as a conquered province, by military rule. It is a pity that he
did not live to see her rise like Thebes, from smoldering ashes clad in the robes of a new
prosperity. During a period of thirty years, his name was closely connected with the
history of Texas and she will preserve it as of one of her truest and most useful
citizens. In social life, he was generous and kind, courteous and affable in his
demeanor to all classes and attracted the regard of all who approached him. He was
greatly beloved by his family, esteemed by his neighbors and universally revered by his
fellow constituents.
Judge William Beck Ochiltree, a true Scot,
should always be remembered by the Bench and Bar and never forgotten in American History. |
