In 1883, Vaughan be­came a mu­sic stu­dent at the Rue­bush Kief­fer Nor­mal School. He lat­er formed a sing­ing quar­tet with his bro­thers Charles, John and Will. He then worked as a teach­er, but event­u­al­ly moved to Law­rence­burg, Ten­nes­see, where he found­ed the James D. Vaugh­an Mu­sic Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny. In 1910, he hit the road with the South­ern Gos­pel Quar­tet to pro­mote his song­books. The move was huge­ly suc­cess­ful—the com­pa­ny’s sales dou­bled the next year, to 60,000 vol­umes. In 1911, Vaugh­an formed the Vaugh­an School of Mu­sic. In 1921, he ex­pand­ed his com­pa­ny by open­ing Vaugh­an Pho­no­graph Re­cords. He lat­er opened branch of­fic­es in Ar­kan­sas, Mis­sis­sip­pi, South Car­o­li­na, and Tex­as. The man­a­ger of the Jack­son­ville, Tex­as, of­fice, Vir­gil O. Stamps, would go on to form the Stamps/Bax­ter Mu­sic Com­p­any. Vaugh­an was in­duct­ed in­to the South­ern Gos­pel Mu­sic As­so­ci­a­tion Hall of Fame in 1997. His works in­clude:

• Gospel Ho­san­nas (Law­rence­burg, Ten­nes­see: James D. Vaugh­an, Mu­sic Pub­lish­er, 1913) (ed­it­or)
• Home-Com­ing Wel­come (Law­rence­burg, Ten­nes­see: James D. Vaugh­an, Mu­sic Pub­lish­er, 1931)
• Harmony Hea­ven (Law­rence­burg, Ten­nes­see: James D. Vaugh­an, Mu­sic Pub­lish­er, 1934)

• Anderson, p. 204
• Baxter, pp. 13-16

1. All Glo­ry to Je­sus
2. Good-By
3. I Need the Pray­ers
4. Just One Way to the Gate
5. My Loved Ones Are Wait­ing for Me
6. Sweet Hea­ven

1. Barking
2. He’s My King
3. I Feel Like Tra­vel­ing On