Born in Feliciana, Kentucky, James Richard Fleming (1848-ca. 1904) was the son of William Carpenter Fleming and Arlette Davis. After moving with his family to Tennessee, Fleming enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861. Following the Civil War, he moved to Columbus, Texas in 1867, where he bought the local newspaper, the Times. Publishing the paper for only one year, Fleming was admitted to the bar in 1870. That same year, he married Mary McLeary Grace, and the couple moved to Comanche County, where Fleming established a law practice. He was appointed a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1875 and as judge of the 12th Judicial District, a position he held until he relocated to Cisco, Texas in 1880. In 1883, Fleming was elected to represent the 29th District in the Texas Senate as well as being appointed commissioner for Texas at the Southern Agricultural and Cotton Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky. Additionally, Fleming served as a delegate to both the state and national Democratic conventions in 1894.
Source:
Comprising correspondence, financial records, broadsides, and newspaper clippings, the J. R. Fleming Papers, 1875-1927, document Fleming’s career as a judge and politician as well as his familial affairs. Correspondence consists of a letter to Mary Fleming from a friend and a printed letter from Fleming regarding the validity of warrants, while financial papers include receipts and stock certificates. In addition, the collection contains broadsides such as Democratic Party election rosters and a memorial for President William McKinley, and two scrapbooks of newspaper clippings concerning Fleming and political issues in Texas, among other topics.
This collection is open for research use.
J. R. Fleming Papers, 1875-1927, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s