The third of 12 child­ren born to James Wal­lis and Jane Sar­ah Booth, James met Eliz­a­beth Todd, and the two of them em­i­grat­ed to Amer­i­ca, and were mar­ried in 1881. They set­tled in Utah and Ida­ho and had 13 children. As a jour­nal­ist. James worked with news­pa­pers in Bear Lake, Provo, Ver­nal and Ne­phi, Utah, and in Mont­pel­ier, Pres­ton, So­da Springs and Rex­burg, Idaho. He served two terms as pre­si­dent of the Utah Press As­so­ci­a­tion, and three terms as pre­si­dent of the Ida­ho Press Club. While he pub­lished the Ne­phi En­sign, Wal­lis was Ju­ab coun­ty at­torn­ey. He at­tend­ed the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Ne­bras­ka law school and earned his law de­gree from the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Ten­nes­see in l906. He al­so prac­ticed law in Ida­ho, where he was Unit­ed States com­miss­ion­er for ten years, and clerk of the Ida­ho le­gis­la­ture from 1907 to 1911.

As a mu­si­cian, he led bands and choirs in most of the com­mun­i­ties where he lived. He also wrote and published poetry.

Hymns

1. Come, Ye Child­ren of the Lord