Great Dressage Or Eventer Prospect

Named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper, an American Revolutionary War hero, Jasper was settled around 1815 and incorporated on August 18, 1886. During the Civil War, Union troops marching toward Selma burned the courthouse and several other buildings in town and raided neighboring farms for supplies. The first significant growth of the area was in 1886, when the Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham Railroad and the Sheffield & Birmingham Railroads were completed through Jasper. The population grew from 200 people in 1886 to more than 3,000 in 1890. In a special edition in 1891, the Mountain Eagle stated there were six coal mines, two sandstone quarries, 400 coke ovens, one foundry and machine shop, two saw mills, one brick works, four hotels, and two banks.