The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 - April, 1901 Page: 53
366 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Reminiscences of Judge Edwin Waller. - ,53
Judge Waller filled for many years the office of chief justice of
Austin county, in which he lives, and presided in his chair with such
judgment and energy as to lend to the office some of the dignity
intended to attach to it, but which, sooth to say, has been seldom
,seen there. 'His judgment 'was not only appreciated by the people
of the county at large, but in the higher courts; his decisions in
important matters, reviewed -on appeal, were invariably affirmed.
IFrom this post Judge Waller was again summoned to the front
'when the second revolution vibrated its war-cry through Texas. He
was again sent to represent his people in convention, and with the
same love of his State which animated him as a young man, in the
convention 'which separated Texas from Mexico he, in his old age,
labored in the -convention which declared the ties between Texas and
the United States sundered 'forever. When the Ordinance of
Secession was passed by the convention, Judge Edwin Waller was
the first to sign it. ,On the same list is, the name of John A. Whar-
ton, a descendant of those Whartons with whom Judge Waller's
early history is so intimately interwoven.
This was his last political act, and is perhaps the only unsuccess-
ful public deed in his interesting record. Since then Judge Waller
,has lived .the life of a 'Southern gentleman, surrounded by those
,who delight to honor him. His residence is in Austin county,
eighteen miles from Bellville, the county seat, where he superintends
his plantation. Judge Waller was born in ,Spottsylvania county,
Virginia, in 1800, and is therefore now seventy-four years old,
though he appears younger, and is still active and strong in business
life. He is with us as a connecting link with the past; his history,
his name, is identified with the most interesting, the most chivalric
(period of Texan history, and with ,the lives of her best beloved sons;
Laumar, Travis, Hotuston, Wharton, Jack, Austin, "'have gone and
.left the world behind," and there are but a few of their fellow-
heroes of that day like Edwin Waller left with us to remind us that
"There were giants in those days
. . men who of old were
Men of Renown."
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 - April, 1901, periodical, 1901; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101018/m1/59/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.