Harrell, Jacob M. (1804–1853)

Jacob M. Harrell, early settler, was born in Tennessee in 1804. He married Mary McCutcheon, and they became the parents of four children. Harrell came to Texas in 1833. In 1836 he was one of five pioneers living at the settlement of Reuben Hornsby on the Colorado River. The Harrell family was one of the first to move to Waterloo (later Austin) in 1838. Harrell was reported to have been living near Capitol Hill when Mirabeau B. Lamar first visited the Austin area on a hunting trip. A historical marker near the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin indicates the site of his home. About 1839 Harrell established a butcher pen in Austin. In 1840 he was a member of an Austin vigilance committee, and in June 1843 he represented Austin in a convention at La Grange, Fayette County, called to express dissatisfaction with the republic's policy in the west. In March 1844 Harrell was a commissioner to sell shares in the Colorado Navigation Company. He was elected mayor of Austin in January 1847. In 1848 he moved to Round Rock, where he was listed as a blacksmith on the 1850 census. He died on August 23, 1853, at his home on Brushy Creek.