WATERLOO, TEXAS (Travis County). Waterloo, on the north bank of the Colorado River approximately at the site of the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, was settled by Joseph Harrell, a hunter who erected a tent on the river bank in 1835. He was visited in 1837 or 1838 by Mirabeau B. Lamar,^qv who decided that the spot was an appropriate site for the capital city of the Republic of Texas.^qv The five-man commission appointed in January 1839 to select the capital location was instructed by President Lamar to visit Harrell's split-log stockade. The commission found four families living near the stockade and named the site Waterloo, the name under which it was incorporated when it was chosen to be the capital site. Congress had designated the name of Austin for the new city, and the name of Waterloo was dropped. The land adjacent was relinquished by Logan Vandeveer,^qv James Rogers, J. D. Hancock, J. W. Harrell, and Aaron B. Burleson.^qv The most desirable spot in the 7,735-acre site was chosen for the capitol building. The new town was surveyed, and the first lots were sold in August 1839.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mary Starr Barkley, History of Travis County and Austin, 1839-1899 (Waco: Texian Press, 1963).

Claudia Hazlewood