The Court of Appeals was created by the Texas Constitution of 1876, Article V, Section 4, which removed all criminal jurisdiction from the Supreme Court. Organized by the legislature effective May 1876, the Court of Appeals had final and exclusive appellate jurisdiction in all cases not appealable to the Supreme Court; this included all criminal appeals (for both felonies and misdemeanors), and all civil appeals of which the county courts had original or appellate jurisdiction. The court consisted of three judges elected by the voters, for terms of six years. The judges selected one of their number to be presiding judge. Like the Supreme Court at that time, the Court of Appeals held three terms annually, of three months each, at Tyler (October through December), Galveston (January through March), and Austin (April through June). The court appointed a separate clerk, and maintained separate records, for each geographical term. Opinions were published on criminal appeals, but not on civil appeals unless required by law. These opinions were printed in 30 volumes of Texas Criminal Reports and 4 volumes of Texas Civil Reports, 1876-1892 ; in addition, several thousand cases, both criminal and civil, were disposed of in oral and unpublished written opinions.
By a constitutional amendment adopted in September 1891, followed by legislation approved April 1892, all civil jurisdiction was removed from the court, and its name was changed to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Or, to put it another way, the Court of Appeals was abolished and replaced by the Court of Criminal Appeals and three (eventually fourteen) Courts of Civil Appeals. The three judges on the Court of Appeals were to serve out their elected terms as judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals.
From the guide to the Records, 1876-1892, (Texas State Archives)
