PAT MORRIS NEFF BIOGRAPHY

Pat Morris Neff Biography

Pat Morris Neff Biography

Introduction

Pat Neff was Governor of Texas from 1921 to 1925 and President of Baylor University from 1932 to 1947. He also served on the Texas Railroad Commission, the Texas State Parks Board, the National Board of Mediation, and the Texas Centennial Commission. He held the highest positions among Texas Masons, Texas Baptists, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Among his achievements as Governor was the foundation of the State Parks system in Texas, an attempt to strengthen the law enforcement of the Prohibition era, and the pardon of folk singer Lead Belly. As Neff is an important figure in Texas politics in the 1920s and 1930s and in education in the 1930s and 1940s, his collection of personal and professional papers is among the most popular for research at the Texas Collection at Baylor University. He donated them towards the end of his life at the urging of Guy B. Harrison, director of the Texas Collection, and Baylor University President W. R. White. Recently, the Texas Collection has undertaken a project to process the Neff Collection in order make it more accessible to researchers. The arrangement and description of the Pat Neff Collection is being done in compliance with the newly-drafted Texas Collection archival processing manual and the Society of American Archivists' Describing Archives: A Content Standard. Shortly after Neff's death, the papers in his collection were altered from the original order. While subsequent processers worked to achieve an understandable arrangement, arrangement had never been completed.

Discussion

Pat Neff attended the McGregor High School and then to 1894, the Baylor University. He subsequently spent two years as a teacher at Magnolia in Arkansas before he in 1897 at the University of Texas at Austin completed his law degree and work in Waco in his new career began. Neff was a member of the then dominant in the Texas Democratic Party. Between 1899 and 1905 he was a deputy in the House of Representatives from Texas, where he was president of the House since 1903. From 1906 to 1912 he was district attorney in McLennan County. During this time he got 422 complaints, of which he lost only 16 cases. At that time he twice refused an offer to be deputy attorney general of Texas.

The Neff papers were stored in old archival-safe boxes, but very few of the folders were acid-free. Many of the folders were reused from other collections. Additionally, many of the folders and boxes in the Neff Collection were overstuffed and bulging. These are being replaced with new acid free boxes and folders in order to preserve the papers. The boxes are being replaced leaving enough space to avoid bulging. According to Morris Rieger, “over packing [boxes] will make for difficulty in inserting and removing files, thus crushing or tearing them.” Each folder will contain between ten and fifteen items in order to further protect the papers. Very few metal fasteners were left in the collection, presumably removed by previous ...