![]() The railroad ran through downtown Jasper. During the last year of the Civil War (1865), Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, ordered a railroad constructed between Live Oak, Florida and Lawton, Georgia to deliver Florida beef and vegetables to Lee’s besieged Confederate Army of Northern Virginia defending Richmond. The town was located on the old Georgia-Florida military/wagon road that later (1930’s) became US 41. Many of the first wave of pioneers who emigrated to Florida in the 1820’s and 1830’s were from South Carolina. Jasper was later killed in the attack on British held Savannah, Georgia in 1779. Sergeant Jasper had recovered the patriot flag in the face of British cannon fire during the battle of Fort Moultrie, Jjust days before the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776). By the end of the war, they were referring to their little clearing in the wilderness as ‘Jasper’ in honor of the Sergeant William Jasper, one of the best known ‘Southern’ heroes of the Revolutionary War. Six miles north of Jasper along the Alapaha River an established Indian village called Halato Micco once stood, suggesting the type of Indian inhabiting the area where artifacts of pottery, spear points, and arrowheads are often found.ĭuring the Second Seminole War (1835-42) pioneers throughout Hamilton County began assembling into a frontier village for mutual protection against Indian raids. ![]() A suspected Indian burial mound is located at Baisden Swamp just on the outskirts of Jasper. This allowed settlers to move into the area. The 1823 Treaty of Moultrie bought the Indian lands and the population was required to move east of the Suwannee River. Jasper is believed to rest on land originally thought to be the site of Miccosukee Indians, a sub tribe of the Seminole nation. Set in the North Florida lowlands 83 miles west of Jacksonville, 90 miles east of Tallahassee, 35 miles south of Valdosta Georgia, 32 miles north of Lake City, the town was founded close to supplies but far enough away to retain some independence and solitude.
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