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WALTHALL, JAMES DU BOSE (1876-1916). James Du Bose Walthall, attorney general, son of Thomas J. and Alice (Du Bose) Walthall, was born in Perry County, Alabama, on March 12, 1876. He attended Marion Academy at Marion, Alabama, and the University of Texas, from which he received his LL.D. degree in 1903. He practiced law in San Antonio until 1907, when he was appointed assistant attorney general by R. V. Davidson.qv In 1910 he became first assistant attorney general under Jewel P. Lightfoot.qv Walthall served as attorney general under Governor Oscar B. Colquittqv from March 3, 1912, to January 1, 1914. He represented the state in De Grazier v. Texas, involving the constitutionality of the Baskin-McGregor Liquor Bill, and in the Tex-line depot case, a suit of the Railroad Commissionqv against the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railroad, which upheld interstate rates in and out of Texas. He also defended and won before the United States Supreme Court the gross receipts tax case and the franchise tax system case as applied to foreign corporations. In addition he won fifteen cases that upheld the validity of the Texas intangible tax statute. In 1914 Walthall returned to San Antonio to practice law. On March 16, 1915, he married Mary Carson of Indianapolis, Indiana. He lost his life in the fire that destroyed the San Antonio Country Club on March 26, 1916.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas
and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler [Chicago
and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916]).
San Antonio Express, March 27, 1916. Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, April 1916.
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