McCormick, Harry, relator. Harry McCormick, reporter for
the Houston Press in July 1935, and his managing editor E. M. Pooley,
were cited for contempt of court by District Judge M. S. Munson after
they defied an order to not publish testimony given in open court during
the Brazoria County murder trial of Clyde Thompson. Other journalists
cited for contempt were reporter Ed Rider of the Houston Chronicle with
his managing editor George Cottingham, and reporter Frank White of the
Houston Post with his managing editor Max Jacobs.
Scope and Content: Appellate briefs, statements of facts,
court orders, and other documents relating to the appeal of a contempt
of court conviction of several Houston newspaper reporters and editors.
On July 23, 1935, Judge M. S. Munson of the District Court of Brazoria
County ordered three Houston newspapers (the Post, the Chronicle, and
the Press) to not publish testimony in the trial of Clyde Thompson for
the murder of Everett Melvin, to avoid prejudicing the jury pool for two
co-defendants who would be tried later. The newspapers published the
testimony and Judge Munson fined them for contempt of court. On appeal,
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the contempt of court
citations as unconstitutional violations of freedom of speech and the
press. The decision is reported in 129 Tex. Crim. 457, 88 S.W.2d 104
(1935, rehearing denied). McCormick and Pooley, the lead plaintiffs,
were represented by John Crooker and Leon Jaworski of the Houston law
firm of Fulbright, Crooker & Freeman.
Graves, Ireland, 1885-1969. Ireland Graves, a long-time
Austin attorney and former University of Texas School of Law student and
lecturer, was born in 1885 in Seguin, Texas. He was the grandson of
former Texas governor (1883-1887) and associate justice for the Supreme
Court of Texas, John Ireland. In 1905, Graves enrolled at the University
of Texas School of Law. After graduating from UT in 1908, Graves was
admitted to the Texas bar and practiced law in Austin. In addition to
his legal work, he became director of the Austin Savings and Loan
Association and Austin National Bank. He served as district judge of
Travis and Williamson counties and was a lecturer in the Law School in
the late 1910s-20s. Soon he founded his own law firm, Graves, Dougherty,
Gee, Hearon, Moody & Garwood. Throughout his life Graves was
involved with local, state, and national professional and civic
organizations. He married into a legal family, as did his only child. He
married the former Mary Willis Steadman, granddaughter of a former Texas
Attorney General and daughter of Nathan A. Steadman, a prominent lawyer
who served as Railroad Commissioner of Texas. Gravesą daughter, Mary
Ireland, married J. Chrys Dougherty, another well-known Austin attorney.
Graves died in 1969 in Austin.
Scope and Content: Correspondence, printed material, legal
documents, business papers, and creative works, 1883-1927 (1.5 linear
ft.), arranged in 3 series, document the legal, business,
administrative, educational, and personal activities of Ireland Graves.
The bulk of the material dates from 1905-1917, covering his education at
the University of Texas School of Law, and his legal and business
activities in Austin from 1914-1917. The largest series, almost half the
collection, relates to Graves' experience as a law student at the
University of Texas, from 1905-1908. There are essays, exams, and
exercises for his law classes, and notes from 1908 chronicling his
editorship of the University of Texas yearbook, the Cactus. In addition
to these, the series contains class notes, bank and expense books, and a
petition written in 1907 to the governing council of Delta Chi Law
Fraternity to found a Texas Chapter (it was ultimately successful). Also
present are the brief books of N. A. Steadman, Graves' father in law,
which he wrote in as a student in the 1880s-1890s. Correspondence
relating to Graves' experiences as a lawyer and landowner, involved with
construction and the administration of McElwrath Land & Cattle Co.,
1913-1922, comprise roughly 1/3 of the material. These letters often
include copies of contracts for land and lumber, and deeds. Some of
Graves' main correspondents include: R. J. Newton, Fred K. Couch, T. F.
Pinckney, S. R. Drury, F. P. "Mac" McElwrath, S. S. Searcy, B. D.
Dashiell, W. M. Davis, J. R. Challacombe, J. A. Childress, Dr. Rodney W.
Bliss, The Hon. W. G. Davis, and W. H. Craven. A small series of
Business Papers includes a application for writ of error that Graves'
firm argued before the Texas Supreme Court in 1927, as well as various
tax receipts and cancelled notes.
Smith, J. Edwin, 1911-2001. A 1937 graduate of the
University of Texas School of Law, J. Edwin Smith began practicing law
in the Marshall-Longview area in 1937 in the law firm of Franklin
"Soupy" Jones, and in 1942 moved to Houston where he was a general
practitioner for close to 50 years. The most notable cases Smith handled
included civil rights, criminal defense, torts, and estates, several of
which went as far as the supreme courts of Texas and the United States.
These cases included Terry v. Adams (1953), where the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled in favor of Smith's Afro-American clients and ordered a stop to
the whites-only "Jaybird Primary" in Fort Bend County, Texas; and
McClelland v. Texas (1966), where the Supreme Court outlawed a court of
inquiry procedure in Texas as a violation of due process. Smith was also
active in the liberal wing of the Texas Democratic Party, and was an
unsuccessful candidate for the Texas Supreme Court in the 1956
Democratic primary. He has frequently contributed articles to the
Houston Post and the legal press on the legal profession, civil
liberties, and personal reminiscences.
Scope and Content: Terry v. Adams Files, 1950-1954,
1977-1981 (5 in.), contain briefs, petitions, affidavits, transcripts,
slip opinions and other legal records created and gathered by J. Edwin
Smith in his capacity as attorney for plaintiffs in Terry v. Adams (345
U.S. 461); news clippings on the case; and speeches by Smith, ephemera,
correspondence, and a master's thesis relating to commemorations and
historical studies of the Terry v. Adams case. Legal Briefs, 1937-1990
(2.25 linear ft.) make up the bulk of the collection, and are mainly
appellate briefs filed by Smith in Texas and federal appellate courts
for a wide variety of cases, including McClelland v. Texas. The General
series (1976-1994) includes articles by Smith on a variety of legal,
political, and personal topics; legal memoranda Smith wrote for other
attorneys; and correspondence containing reminiscences.
Arrangement: Organized in three series: Terry v. Adams
Files, 1950-1954, 1977-1981 (5 in.), arranged chronologically; Legal
Briefs, 1937-1990 (2.25 linear ft.), arranged alphabetically by case
name; General, 1976-1994 (1 in.).
Dougherty, J. Chrys, collector. J. Chrys Dougherty, of the
law firm of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody, served as an
assistant attorney general of Texas during the Tidelands litigation and
delivered oral arguments in U.S. v. Texas before the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Scope and Content: Briefs, motions, orders, transcripts of
oral arguments, and decisions in the group of cases known collectively
as the "Submerged Lands" or "Tidelands" cases, regarding the respective
rights of states and the U.S. government over mineral and other rights
in submerged offshore lands. These cases included U.S. v. Texas, U.S. v.
California, and U.S. v. Louisiana. Also included are law review
articles, political propaganda, legal memoranda, transcripts of
congressional hearings, and briefs of other cases relating to the
Tidelands cases and the legal issues it raised. Several of the items
include folding maps. Among the unique materials in the set are the
handwritten notes used by J. Chrys Dougherty for his oral arguments
before the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Texas. The materials were
collected by J. Chrys Dougherty.
Texas. Texas Civil Judicial Council. The Texas Civil
Judicial Council, created in 1929, studies and makes recommendations
concerning the organization of courts, and the rules and methods of
procedure and practice of the judicial system of the state.
Scope and Content: This collection contains correspondence,
printed material, galley proofs, and other documents relating to the
activities of the Texas Civil Judicial Council and its
sub-committees.
Related records: Other files relating to the Texas Civil
Judicial Council are in the James W. McClendon Papers and Robert W.
Stayton Papers, Tarlton Law Library.
Texas v. Hidalgo County Water Control & Improvement District
No. 18. State of Texas v. Hidalgo County Water Control &
Improvement District No. 18 et al. (443 S.W.2d 728, Court of Civil
Appeals--Corpus Christi 1969) was originally filed in the 93rd District
Court, Hidalgo County (Case no. B-20,576) in 1956 by the Texas Attorney
General on behalf of the state's Board of Water Engineers and several
cities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley to stop 40 water districts and 650
private corporations and individuals from diverting water from the lower
Rio Grande River to ensure sufficient water supply for domestic use.
Lengthy and complex litigation ensued. In a split-off case, Valmont
Plantations v. State (355 S.W. 2d 502 (1962)), the Texas Supreme Court
upheld an appeals court ruling that landowners along the Rio Grande did
not have riparian water rights under the applicable Spanish and Mexican
laws. As a result, the main case finally came to trial before Judge J.
H. Starley in 1963, who ruled in 1966 that the river waters would be
divided according to a set of weighted priorities. The Texas Supreme
Court substantially upheld Starley's rulings in 1970, and shortly
thereafter the Water Rights Adjudication Act gave a state watermaster
the power to supervise water distribution.
Scope and Content: Volumes I-IV are indexes to 54 volumes
of "Statement of Facts" which include oral testimony and exhibits for
the district court phase of the litigation. Volumes 1-2, 4-5, and 50-51
of the "Statement of Facts" are lacking.
Finding aid: A detailed finding aid to the collection is
available in the Tarlton Library's Rare Book Reading Room.
