OCHILTREE, WILLIAM BECK (1811-1867). William Beck Ochiltree, pioneer settler, judge, and legislator, was born on October 18, 1811, at Fayetteville, North Carolina. The family lived for a time in Florida and after 1820 in Alabama, where Ochiltree began practicing law. In 1839 he moved to Nacogdoches, Texas, and continued the practice of law. During the Republic of Texas^qv era he was judge of the Fifth Judicial District, secretary of the treasury in 1844, adjutant general in 1845, and delegate to the Convention of 1845.^qv After annexation^qv he was a representative in the Sixth Legislature in 1855 and delegate to the Secession Convention^qv in 1861. He was elected to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States but resigned after a short time to return to Texas and raise a regiment. Ill health forced him to resign in 1863. He subsequently lived at Jefferson until his death on December 27, 1867. The community and county of Ochiltree were named in his honor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: George L. Crocket, Two Centuries in East Texas (Dallas: Southwest, 1932; facsimile reprod. 1962). Carolyn Reeves Ericson, Nacogdoches, Gateway to Texas: A Biographical Directory (2 vols., Fort Worth: Arrow-Curtis Printing, 1974, 1987). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941). Texas Republican, January 4, 1868. Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker, eds., The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863 (8 vols., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1938-43; rpt., Austin and New York: Pemberton Press, 1970).

Robert Bruce Blake