Name: Jasper, Texas
Address: Jasper, TX

Jasper Isn't Named for the Stone RoadyGoat

1835

Say "Jasper" and most folks picture the reddish-brown gemstone, the polished kind you see in rock shops. Sounds like a mineral town, right? It isn't. Jasper, Texas, and the county around it were named in eighteen thirty-five for Sergeant William Jasper, a hero of the American Revolution. He made his name at the defense of Fort Moultrie in South Carolina, when a British cannon shot away the fort's flagstaff. Jasper climbed out under fire, recovered the fallen flag, and held it up on a makeshift pole until a new staff could be set. He was later killed storming Savannah in seventeen seventy-nine. So the name honors a soldier's nerve, not a pretty rock. Dozens of American Jaspers carry his name the very same way.

The Murder That Shook the Nation RoadyGoat

In June 1998, Jasper became the center of a horrific crime that drew international attention. James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old African American man, was brutally murdered by three men, two of whom were avowed white supremacists. They offered him a ride, then beat him and chained him by his ankles to the back of a pickup truck, dragging him for three miles down an asphalt road. The crime shocked the nation with its sheer barbarity. But what happened next was also remarkable. As media and protesters from all sides descended on the town, Jasper's first Black mayor, R.C. Horn, and the county's white sheriff, Billy Rowles, worked together across racial lines, urging peace and unity to prevent further violence. The murder led Texas to pass the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act in 2001, which strengthened the state's earlier hate crime law by adding specific protected categories and tougher sentences, and it later helped inspire the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. It's a dark, painful chapter in Jasper's history, but one that forced a national conversation about modern racism.

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Jasper, TX RoadyGoat

In June 1998, the murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper catapulted the city into national news and led to the creation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Three men were tried and convicted of capital murder, with two receiving the death penalty and one sentenced to life in prison.

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Jasper County, C. S. A.

1861

Communication, transportation, supply and military center in Civil War Texas. Voted 315 to 25 in favor of secession. Crossed by Texas troops in the 1862-64 Louisiana campaigns to prevent split of the South and invasion of Texas. Confederate Army ran Houston-to-Alexandria, La., military horseback courier route through here. In last years of the war, Abel Adams, a local 14-year-old, rode this in a high lope, for Gen. John B. Magruder, commander of the Department of Texas. Beef was driven to troops in the Old South by way of 1823 trail across the county. Had a Confederate Quartermaster Depot and 9-county headquarters, 2nd Brigade, Texas State Troops, under Gen. W. M. Neyland, local citizen. County men in service on various war fronts of the South included Co. G, 13th Texas Cavalry; Co. C, 25th Texas Cavalry, Dismounted; Co. E, 27th Texas Cavalry, in Whitfield's Legion. In 1865, as survivors were returning home, Union occupation troops bivouacked in the Jasper Town Square. Commander was Gen. George Custer, later to go down in history for his "last stand" at the Little Big Horn, 1876. Driving her beautiful horse and carriage, his young bride called on the Jasper ladies.

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Jasper Steers

1940

In a time of segregated activities including sports, logging contractor Elmer Simmons organized the Jasper Steers, an African American baseball team. Simmons bought all bleachers, lighting, dressing rooms and concession stands from a defunct Louisiana baseball team in the 1940s. The facilities were shipped and reassembled as Steer Stadium east of Jasper, and Simmons hired African American players for his barnstorming team. The Steers traveled around the country, showing off the talent of the players, who claimed they were capable of playing any professional team. They were one of many independent black semi-professional baseball teams in the United States at the time. Local white baseball teams sometimes played practice games against the Steers. In 1954-55, Steer Stadium also hosted home games for the Jasper High School Bulldogs, the town’s baseball team for white students, who had no home field of their own. Simmons offered a spot on the Steers roster to one of the high school pitchers, who spent a year traveling around the United States and Canada with the now-integrated team. The Steers played their last game as a team in 1961. By this time the color barrier had been broken in professional baseball and there were more opportunities for African American players to enter professional leagues. Many of those who made the roster served their communities as teachers, authors, ministers, school administrators, coaches, businessmen and leaders, and even as baseball players in the major leagues. The team enabled players to showcase their talents, and the games provided community entertainment and created role models for African American youth.

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Stephen Williams, Sr.

1775

Born in North Carolina 1764. Fought at Camden, Brier Creek and Eutaw Springs in the Revolutionary War and the capture of San Antonio, 1835 in the Texas Revolution. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

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Land, Jimmy Lee [Buddy Ace]

1954

Blues singer Buddy Ace, also known as "The Silver Fox of the Blues," was born Jimmy Lee Land in Jasper, Texas, on November 11, 1936. Ace grew up in Baytown, Texas, and moved to Houston when he was a teenager. He showed musical talent and played with his family at an early age and performed as Jimmy Lee Land in a gospel quartet in high school with Texas soul singer Joe Tex . His early influences included Ivory Joe Hunter and Big Joe Turner. Ace's career took an important turn in 1955 when he signed with Houston-based Duke Records under the name "Buddy Ace." It was a year earlier, on Christmas Day 1954, that singer, pianist, and Duke recording star Johnny Ace killed himself while playing Russian roulette backstage between performances at Houston's City Auditorium. In an effort to capitalize on the late singer's popularity, the Duke label first recruited Johnny Ace's brother, St. Clair Alexander, to perform as "Buddy Ace." When that failed, Duke Records owner, Don Robey , turned to Johnny Lee Land, who agreed to perform under the name Buddy Ace. Buddy Ace recorded several songs during the 1950s, including the popular "Angelboy," but his biggest hits came in the 1960s. "Nothing in the World Can Hurt Me (Except You)" and "Hold On (To This Fool)" proved the most successful of his R&B hits. In the 1970s Ace moved to California where he lived in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento. It was during the 1970s as Ace entered his forties that his hair and beard turned white, earning him the nickname "The Silver Fox of the Blues." He was also referred to as "The Root Doctor," the title of one of his songs. Ace performed regularly throughout California, and his releases included Don't Hurt No More (1994) and Silver Fox (1994), but he never again had the level of success he had enjoyed during the 1960s. He died of a heart attack on December 26, 1994, while performing onstage at a club in Waco, Texas, and is buried at Magnolia Springs Cemetery in Magnolia Springs, Texas. EveJim Records released Ace's most recent work as From Me to You in 1995.

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Seale, Elias Thompson

1861

Elias Thompson Seale, businessman, planter, and Confederate officer, was born in Mississippi on September 11, 1829, to Lewis Perry Seale and Susannah (Phillips) Seale. In 1849 Seale traveled to California to mine for gold and achieved great success. In the early 1850s Seale left California and rejoined his family, who had relocated to Bevilport in Jasper County, Texas. There, the Seales became one of the leading families of the community. On August 30, 1859, Seale married Emily Amanda Blount, a member of a prominent family in Georgia. The couple had eleven children. In the 1860 census Elias Seale owned $3,400 in personal property, including one slave, and a large general merchandise store. His father Lewis owned twenty-seven slaves in the same city. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Seale organized a company of cavalry and with this unit joined the Thirteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment as a captain. In March 1863 Seale resigned his commission due to health reasons but was reinstated in July 1864 and continued with the Thirteenth Cavalry until its surrender on June 2, 1865. He was promoted to major and served during the Red River campaign , which included the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Yellow Bayou. After the war, Seale returned to Texas and faced mixed fortunes. He moved to Beaumont, where he speculated in railroads and timber. Initially, Seale was successful. In 1872 he was instrumental in the founding of Texas College in Jasper. Later in the decade, Seale, in partnership with George Washington Smyth , established Eagle Mill, the first lumber mill in Beaumont. After a series of financial setbacks, however, Seale committed suicide on November 2, 1880, in Jasper and was buried there in Seale-Blount Cemetery.

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Jasper, Texas

Music in Jasper

Songs About Jasper

Artists From Jasper

Rivers & Roads in Song near Jasper

History of Jasper