The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968 Page: 350
686 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
excellent classical education with several prominent tutors, and
quickly learned not only Latin, but French, German, and Spanish
as well. At the age of sixteen, over parental objections, Tom joined
the Texas Rangers, then serving on frontier duty with Captain John
G. Walker, and saw action against the Apaches and the Comanches."
After a year of reading law in his father's office, and only eighteen,
he was licensed to practice law by a special act of the legislature.
At the same time, he was elected a clerk of the Texas House of Rep-
resentatives, and served in that capacity for three years, his "amiable
qualities" attracting the attention of newspaper editors around the
state."
With the disruption of the Union approaching, the fiery young
Ochiltree was elected Secretary of the Texas Democratic Convention
in 1859,18 and a delegate to the National Democratic Convention that
met in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1860." Along with other mem-
bers of the Texas delegation, Ochiltree opposed the nomination of
Stephen A. Douglas, demanding instead a southern candidate on a
southern platform for the national party. Such "fire-eating" pro-
clivities disappointed many of his older friends who had thought of
Tom only as a precocious and active red-headed boy, overly "fond
of the girls" perhaps; but here was Tom preparing an "Address to
the Democracy of Texas."" As one Unionist put it, "What a glorious
thing these conventions are, and what sublime representatives are
l"One of his tutors, Father L. C. M. Chambodut, considered a classical scholar and
linguist, was at the time a parish priest in Nacogdoches. After the Civil War, he became
Vicar General of the vast Galveston diocese. Judge Ochiltree's early hope that Tom
would enter the priesthood was soon abandoned, but Tom remained a devout Catholic
and kept in touch with his tutor. When Tom ran for Congress in 1882, it was alleged
that the Vicar General recommended him to all the priests as "a faithful son of the
Church," and a "Defender of the Faithful"-an endorsement Ochiltree very much appre-
ciated. Dallas Weekly Herald, July 31, 1884; Dallas Morning News, July 11, 1897, Novem-
ber 26, 19o2; Carlos Castafieda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas, x519-1936 (7 vols.; Aus-
tin, 1936-1958), VII, o107, 127, 212.
"Senator Louis T. Wigfall's daughter recalled years later that during the winter of
1859, which she spent in Austin at the Ochiltree home, the young Tom Ochiltree was
"full of spirit and mischief and cleverness." Mrs. D. Giraud Wright, A Southern Girl in
'6r: The War-Time Memories of a Confederate Senator's Daughter (New York, 1905),
20. An editor noted that in his three years in Austin, Ochiltree gave "universal satisfac-
tion for the manner" in which he had discharged his duties and complimented him on
"his capability, and the many amiable qualities that characterize him." Dallas Herald,
September 14, 1859.
"8Texas Republican (Marshall), April 8, May 20, 1859.
14Dallas Herald, April 18, 186o; Daily Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), April 28,
24, 27, 186o; The Standard (Clarksville, Texas), May 5, 186o.
5SDallas Herald, May 3o, 186o.350
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968, periodical, 1968; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117145/m1/400/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.