Although indigo disappeared after the Revolutionary War, rice remained the foundation of the area’s agricultural wealth through the nineteenth century.
Although Purrysburg was the only eighteenth-century town of note in the Jasper vicinity, future towns traced their origins to the colonial era as well, including Robertville, Coosawhatchie, and Grahamville.īy the 1750s, rice and indigo became the cash crop of choice among the residents of St. Descendants of earlier Scots settlers returned to the area in the mid-1700s, where they established the Euhaw Baptist Church, the first church in the county and one of the earliest Baptist churches in the South. The unhealthy and inconvenient location failed to divert trade away from Charleston or Savannah, however, and the population migrated to other parts of South Carolina and Georgia. In the 1730s, an expedition of Swiss Protestants, led by Jean Pierre Purry, settled on a land grant on the Savannah River (about two miles northwest of the modern town of Hardeeville), which was dubbed Purrysburg. Ridgeland is the county seat.Įnglish and Scots settlers arrived in the region in the late 1600s, where they withstood Spanish attacks and the Yamassee War of 1715 to prevail and lay the foundation for future settlement. But the effort failed, and the name Jasper was assigned, honoring Revolutionary War hero Sergeant William Jasper. Initially inhabitants wished to name the new county Heyward, in honor of Thomas Heyward, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence who resided in the area. The southernmost county in the state, Jasper is bound by the Savannah River on the southwest, Hampton County on the north, and Beaufort County on the east. Jasper County was formed by an act of the legislature on January 30, 1912, from parts of Beaufort and Hampton Counties, an area which contained much of the old lowcountry parishes of St. To learn more about Jasper County's history check out our Local Voices' writer Melvin Johnson's column "A View from the Pines: Jasper, TX" on our Local Voices page.(656 sq. Text: Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. History: Geologic maps Management Forest plans (Microfilm).East Texas Historical Association (Manuscript).Reported gross sales and taxable sales (Journal).The economy experienced a shock during the Great Depression and eventually recovered in the 1940s and 1950s using timber and logging, and oil.
From 1890 through the 1910s, the county incorporated cattle production and railroads, which stabilized the economy and allowed for more shipping. The county experienced relative calm after the war and in the 1870s and 1880s population increased moderately because of the increase of available land and the production of cotton. Jasper County voted for secession from the Union and contributed several brigades of soldiers for the Confederacy during the Civil War. In 1852, Jasper County began exporting lumber from Ford's Bluff via sawmills and the Angelina River. Indian Creek provided a means of river transport that helped establish river commerce, in addition to the production of corn, rice, and tobacco. Bevil who received a land grant and established Bevilport. In 1829, the first Anglo to live in the area was John R. The first occasion of European migration was in 1542, with Spanish and French explorations coming into the area in the mid-1700s. Atakapa and Caddo Indians inhabited the territory until 1836, when the county officially formed. The county formed through the Convention of 1836, which took land from neighboring counties and formed Jasper County the same year. The county's namesake is in honor of William Jasper, a soldier killed in Savannah, Georgia during the American Revolution in 1779. Jasper County, situated in the forests of southeast Texas.