O. B. Colquitt was born in Camilla, Mitchell county, Georgia, December 16, 1861; came to Texas in January, 1878, with his parents and located with them on a rented farm near Daingerfield in Morris county; entered the "Morris County Banner" printing office at Daingerfield in 1880; followed the office on its removal to Greenville, Hunt county, in December of that year, where its owner, J. P. Mitchell, established the "Independent Banner," a name subsequently changed to "Greenville Banner;" having learned the printer's trade, established the "Pittsburg Gazette," at Pittsburg, Camp county, in 1884; married in 1885, Miss Alice Murrell and has five children—four sons and a daughter; sold the "Gazette" in 1886 and in November of the same year moved to Terrell, Kaufman county, where he purchased the "Terrell Star," a paper he continued to own until November, 1898, when he retired from the newspaper business to engage in the practice of law; was appointed chairman of the County Democratic Executive Committee of Kaufman county in 1890; was selected in 1892 to represent the Ninth senatorial district as a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee, by which body in March, 1894, he was made a member of a sub-committee that conferred with a sub-committee appointed by the Clark, or Matlock, State Democratic Executive Committee, so called, and reached an agreement that resulted in the disbandment of the Clark, or Matlock, Executive Committee; was elected State Senator from the Ninth district in 1894, on the Democratic ticket, and won an enviable State reputation during four years service in that position; was appointed State Revenue Agent by Gov. Culberson April 21, 1898, and served as such until January 18, 1899; was appointed a member of the State Tax Commission by Gov. Sayers in 1899, and November 4, 1902, was elected by a popular majority of 283,989 votes, a member of the State Railroad Commission, to succeed Hon. John H. Reagan.