James Harvey Baugh

BAUGH, JAMES HARVEY (1884~1947) Born March 11, 1884, on a ranch near Brownwood, Brown County, Texas, James Harvey Baugh was one of eleven children born to Washington Morgan and Canzada Burnett Baugh. They came to Texas from Georgia about 1850 and first settled in Kaufman County. His father, Morg, a rancher and farmer, moved his family to Brown County in 1854.

Baugh was educated in a nearby rural school and in Brownwood. In 1904 he was graduated from Howard Payne College, Brownwood, from Baylor University in 1906, and studied law for one year at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, in 1907. He taught at Howard Payne College for a year before entering law school, and in 1922 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the college. Baugh was graduated from the law department of the University of Texas in 1911, admitted to the Texas bar the same year, and practiced briefly in Brownwood, then in Ballinger, Runnells County. He was elected to the Texas Senate in 1921 and held office until Governor Pat Neff appointed him to the Court of Civil Appeals at Austin on August 1, 1923, following Justice Jenkins' resignation.

Justice Baugh also enjoyed a military career that spanned twenty-seven years. He was graduated from the First Officers Training Camp, Leon Springs, Texas, in 1917, and during World War I he served in the Judge Advocate General's Department. Having obtained the rank of major at the end of World War I, he remained in the army reserve and took an active part in bringing the Reserve Officer Training Corps to The University of Texas at Austin. He was ordered again to active duty in 1941 at the beginning of World War II, at the age of fifty-seven. Taking a two year leave of absence from the court, he served as Staff Judge Advocate General, San Antonio Air Service Command, Kelly Field, Texas. He returned to the Army Reserve and in 1944 retired as a colonel.

Active in the Baptist Church, Justice Baugh was also a Mason and served as president of the Austin Lions Club in 1932 and 1933.

Justice Baugh died in office November 24, 1947, at age sixty-three. He had married Rosa Moffett of Dilley, Texas on December 2, 1917. They did not have any children.

Taken, with permission, from "The Court of Appeals at Austin 1892-1992" by Debrah O. Powers. State House Press. Austin, Texas. 1992.