DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker at Harrell Cemetery tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Jacob M. and Mary McCutcheon Harrell came to Texas from Tennessee with Robertson's Nashville colony in 1833. Now that's not a small thing — pulling up from Tennessee and planting yourself in a place that was still raw and unwritten.
But the Harrells weren't the kind of folks who waited for the world to settle down before they showed up. Jacob's brother James G. and his wife Catherine followed, along with other family members, and before long you had a whole Harrell contingent putting down roots in Texas soil. Both brothers served in the Texas Army — so when the fighting needed doing, they were there for that too.
Then comes 1838, and the Harrell families are among the first to settle in the area that would later be called Waterloo — the place the world now knows as Austin. Jacob Harrell sold his homestead to state agents for the site of the State Capitol. Let that land on you for a second.
The ground under that dome — that was Harrell land. The Harrells went on to own two Austin businesses, and they didn't stop there. They served the city in several civic and political capacities, and in 1847, Jacob was elected mayor of Austin.
The man had been a colonist, a soldier, a landowner, and now the mayor of a capital city. The following year, in 1848, he and his family moved out to his headright around this very site. And when Williamson County formed its new government, the Harrells were among the first to serve there too — still showing up, still planting flags.
The cemetery here holds, among others, two marked graves believed to be those of James G. and Catherine Harrell, along with several other family members. And buried here as well, the marker tells us, is one of Jacob and Mary's slaves — a life interred on this ground, a name the marker does not give us, a presence history does not let us forget. The Harrells rode the full arc of early Texas — colony, army, capital, courthouse — and this quiet piece of Williamson County is where some of them came to rest.
What the marker says
Jacob M. and Mary McCutcheon Harrell came to Texas from Tennessee with Robertson's Nashville colony in 1833. Jacob's brother and sister-in-law James G. and Catherine Harrell and other family members soon followed. Both brothers served in the Texas Army. In 1838 the Harrell families were among the first to settle in the area later called Waterloo (Austin); Jacob Harrell sold his homestead to state agents for the site of the State Capitol. The Harrells owned two Austin businesses and served the city in several civic and political capacities. Jacob was elected mayor of Austin in 1847. He and his family moved to his headright around this site in 1848. The Harrells were among the first to serve in the new Williamson County government after its formation. In addition to two marked graves believed to be those of James G. and Catherine Harrell, several other family members and one of Jacob and Mary's slaves are believed to have been interred on this site. (1999)