Everything about Edwin Waller totally explained
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Edwin Waller (
November 4,
1800 –
January 3,
1881) was an entrepreneur, signer of the
Texas Declaration of Independence, the first
mayor of Austin, Texas, and the designer of its downtown
grid plan.
He was born in
Spotsylvania County, Virginia,
United States, in
1800 to a family settled in the state since colonial times when they emigrated from Buckinghamshire, England. His family later settled in
Missouri.
In April
1831, he immigrated to the
Mexican state of
Coahuila y Tejas. On
July 20, he received a land grant from the government in present-day
Brazoria County. He began a shipping business, transporting cotton from
Velasco, Texas, to
New Orleans, Louisiana, using his ship, the
Sabine, and was once briefly arrested in Velasco for refusing to pay Mexican customs duty.
He very quickly became active in the movement for Texas independence from Mexico. On
June 26,
1832, he fought and was wounded at the
Battle of Velasco, an early skirmish in the
Texas Revolution. In
1833, he became the
alcade of Brazoria Municipality. In
1835, he represented the Columbia Municipality at the Consultation in San Felipe de Austin, where he was chosen by the members to serve in the General Council of the Provisional Government of Texas.
On
February 1,
1836, he was elected as the Brazoria delegate to the
Convention of 1836 in
Washington-on-the-Brazos, where he signed the newly adopted
Texas Declaration of Independence on
March 2. At the convention, he served on the committee that helped draft the Constitution of the
Republic of Texas.
In
1839, he was chosen by Texas President
Mirabeau Lamar to survey the site, sell lots, and erect public buildings for the new state capital in
Austin. The original landsite for the capital was narrowed to 640 acres (2.6 km²) that fronted the
Colorado River between two creeks,
Shoal Creek and
Waller Creek, which was later named in honor. The fourteen-block
grid plan was bisected by a broad north-south thoroughfare,
Congress Avenue, running up from the river to Capital Square, where the new
Texas State Capitol was to be constructed. A temporary one-story capitol was erected on the corner of Colorado and 8th streets. On
August 1, the first auction of 306 lots was held. The grid plan that Waller designed and surveyed now forms the basis of the streets of downtown Austin.
On
October 13,
1839, he offered his house for the meeting place to establish the first
Masonic Lodge in Austin
(External Link
).
On
January 13,
1840, he was elected the first mayor of Austin. He resigned before the end of his term, however, and moved to Austin County. A new county formed from parts of Austin County and neighboring Grimes County was renamed
Waller County in his honor in
1873.
In 1861 Waller represented Austin County at the Texas
secession convention. As one of the last living signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, he was given the honor of signing the secession ordinance first after the convention president
Oran Milo Roberts.
In 1873 Waller served as the first president of the
Texas Veterans Association.
He died on
January 3,
1881 in Austin, where he moved shortly before his death to live with one of his daughters. He was buried in Waller County, but his remains were later moved to the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
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