Shop MyTSHA Membership Renew Donate

Brachfield, Charles Louis (1871–1947)

By: Christopher Long

Type: Biography

Published: November 1, 1994

Updated: May 11, 2016

Font size: A / A reset Translate / Traducir / Traduire

Charles Louis Brachfield, lawyer and jurist, was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on January 10, 1871, the oldest son of Benjamin and Yetta (Baruch) Brachfield. In 1877 the family moved to Texas and settled in Henderson, where Benjamin Brachfield worked as a merchant. Charles attended Henderson College and subsequently clerked in the law office of Judge W. H. Wood in Waco. He was admitted to the bar in 1890 at the age of nineteen and set up a law practice in Henderson. He was elected county judge in 1897 and reelected in 1898 and 1902. He served in the Texas Senate for eight years, from January 1903 through September 1910, and was appointed District Court judge by Governor W. P. Hobby in 1918; he held this post until 1928. In 1926 Brachfield ran for attorney general, thus becoming the first Jew to seek statewide office. He lost the election, in part because of his strong prohibition views and the large slate of candidates, but came within 3,600 votes of forcing a runoff–a remarkable feat in view of the power and influence of the Ku Klux Klan at the time. Brachfield never married. He was active in the Masons and Odd Fellows and was a director of the First National Bank of Henderson. His law practice, which he continued until his death, included independent oil producers, Gulf Oil, and the Methodist church in Old London, Texas. He was widely respected in the community. After he died on June 6, 1947, a rabbi and a Methodist minister jointly conducted services.

Natalie Ornish, Pioneer Jewish Texans (Dallas: Texas Heritage, 1989). Texas Jewish Historical Society Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Ruthe Winegarten and Cathy Schechter, Deep in the Heart: The Lives and Legends of Texas Jews (Austin: Eakin Press, 1990).

Categories:

  • Law, Law Enforcement, and Outlaws
  • Politics and Government
  • Judges
  • Lawyers
  • General Law
  • Peoples
  • Jews

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Christopher Long, “Brachfield, Charles Louis,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 28, 2021, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/brachfield-charles-louis.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 related to Copyright and “Fair Use” for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. The TSHA makes every effort to conform to the principles of fair use and to comply with copyright law.

For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Original Publication Date:
November 1, 1994
Most Recent Revision Date:
May 11, 2016
handbook of texas logo
Become a TSHA member and get a FREE Texas Almanac!

Loading

tsha logo
legacy of texas logo
texas almanac logo