Judge Edwin Waller

(March 16, 1800 -- January 3, 1881)

Virginia native Edwin Waller migrated to Texas from Missouri in 1831 as part of Stephen F. Austin's third colony. An active participant in the earliest stages of Texas' struggle for independence, Waller participated in the 1832 Battle of Velasco, served as Alcalde of Brazoria, and represented the town of Columbia in the consultation of 1835 at San Felipe. A framer of Texas' Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Waller also served in the army during the 1836 Texas revolution. After the war he became postmaster general and later a land commissioner for the new Republic. In 1839, as a government agent, he platted the townsite of Austin, the new capital of Texas. The next year he became the first mayor of the city. Resigning during his first term, he moved to his plantation home, just north of this site. The Waller plantation was the center of a large rural area. Here Waller opened a post office and store and provided for a school and church. For many years he also served as Austin County judge. In 1873 a new county, which included this area, was formed form Austin and Grimes Counties and named in his honor. Buried on his plantation, his body was later reinterred in the state cemetery at Austin.