James A. Baker

James Addison Baker (1821 to 1897), known as the elder, was an American lawyer, state legislator and state judge, and the first of four generations of lawyers of that name. Born in Madison County, Alabama, he began a legal career in 1841 as a clerk for a chancery court and was admitted to the Alabama bar, practising from 1843. In 1852 he moved to Huntsville, Texas, where he practised for two decades, specialising in railroad matters, and in 1860 he was elected to the Texas legislature. In 1862 he won a special election to the 7th Texas Judicial District and was known as Judge Baker until the Reconstruction governor removed him in 1865. He then moved to Houston and joined the firm that became Baker Botts, whose railroad clients included the Houston and Texas Central and later the Missouri Pacific Railroad of Jay Gould.