Ochiltree was a volunteer in 1854 as a private in Capt. John G. Walker's Texas Rangers and was in the campaign against the Apache and Comanche Indians in 1854 and 1855. He was admitted to the bar as a lawyer by the Texas Legislature in 1857. During the Civil War he was in the Confederate States Army in the First Texas Regiment and rose to the rank of major. After the War, he was the editor of the Houston Daily Telegraph from 1866-1867. He became the commissioner of immigration for Texas in Europe from 1870-1873. He was also the appointed U.S. Marshal for the eastern district of Texas in 1874. He was elected as a Representative of the 48th Congress from March 1883-March 1885. He retired in New York and died in Virginia in 1902. This cabinet photograph by Newsboy, New York was taken of him in the 1890s.