Homesite of Gov. Oscar Branch Colquitt

The plaque tells the reformer; the Handbook of Texas shows a harder-edged career. Colquitt published Terrell's Times-Star from 1890 to 1897 and wrote the delinquent-tax laws that made him known as a state senator. He won the governorship in 1910 as an anti-prohibitionist. From 1914 to 1916 he was pro-German, and the Handbook says he tried to get German government money to buy the New York Sun and edit it as a propaganda organ. He lost the 1916 Senate runoff, bolted the Democratic party in 1928 to lead the "Hoover Democrats," and died in 1940.

What the plaque says

Homesite of Gov. Oscar Branch Colquitt (1861-1940) (This block is the former homesite of) Twenty-fourth Governor of Texas (1911-1915). Known as "The Napoleon of Texas Politics" and "Little Oscar" because of his short stature, Colquitt was a strong and independent chief executive. His stump speeches were among the most effective of his times. A descendant of American Revolution and Civil War fighters, Colquitt was born in Georgia. He worked as a tenant farmer and newspaperman before serving as a Texas Senator. He was railroad commissioner, 1903-1911, and his efforts in office for Galveston gained him the title "Daddy of the Causeway". In his second race for the office, he was elected Governor on an anti-Prohibition ticket. His legal residence was in Terrell during both terms and he had owned the Terrell "Times-Star" in the 1890s. While in office, Colquitt achieved prison reforms. (He campaigned with a bullwhip in hand to publicize prison brutality.) He helped preserve the Alamo as a Texas shrine. Homes for the insane and retarded were improved under him, and he also spearheaded advancements in education and backed labor bills. In 1885 he had married Alice F. Murrell, by whom he had five children. After 1915 he entered private business and worked as a U.S. government official. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 1.5 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 17 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• The American National Bank of Terrell — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Terrell — steps away
• Rockwall and Brin Church of Christ — 0.2 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Terrell — 0.2 mi