<P> Waterloo was the original name for the city of Austin, Texas, located in Travis County in the central part of the state . </P> <P> After Republic of Texas Vice President Mirabeau B. Lamar visited the area during a buffalo - hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838, he proposed that the republic's capital, then located in Houston, be relocated to an area situated on the north bank of the Colorado River near the present - day Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in what is now central Austin . In 1839, the site was officially chosen as the seventh and final location for the capital of the Republic of Texas . It was incorporated under the name "Waterloo". Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas" and the republic's first secretary of state . </P>

Who suggested waterloo as the place for a permanent capital of texas