Walker County AlArchives History .....Jasper 1888
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 13, 2011, 2:17 pm

JASPER.

    JASPKU, county-seat of Walker, is located at the junction of the Kansas
City, Memphis & Birmingham, and Sheffield & Birmingham Railroads, forty-four
miles west of Birmingham, 210 miles east from Sheffield, and fifty-six miles
northeast of Tuscaloosa. The country around Jasper is like most of Walker
County, broken and mountainous. The growth and prosperity of the town depends on
coal, timber, and agriculture in the valleys.

    Jasper is centrally located in the county, coalfields extending in every
direction for about fifty miles. It promises to be an important railroad center
in the future; that is to say in addition to the two roads now here, there will
be a connection with the Georgia Pacific, and Tuscaloosa Northern, and the
Sheffield & Birmingham Coal, Iron & Railway Company. There are now going on
negotiations for a furniture factory, as well as a large lumbering outfit: also
for a rolling mill, and a plant for pit cars, wheel-barrows, etc. Also, a coke
plant, at a cost of $500,000, is now breaking ground. This company owns, in
Walker County, 70,000 acres of mineral lands, and has a capital of $800,000. In
addition to the above named industries there are twenty other companies owning
valuable coal mines in Walker County.

    Jasper has two churches—Methodist and Baptist—a Masonic lodge, twenty-five
business houses, including a bank with a paid up capital of $200,000, and two
hotels. Its population is now about 1,500, and is daily increasing. It is an
active and busttling place, full of hope and enterprise. The value of town
property has advanced ten-fold in the last eighteen months.

    The city of Jasper was incorporated December 22, 1887, and George H. Guttery
was its first mayor; W. S. Foster its first secretary and tax assessor; B. M.
Bradford, marshal and collector; and J. B. Shields, W. C. Rosamond. D. L.
Stovall, and W. G. Gravlee its first Board of Councilmcn.

    The streets are all laid off, and some grading done, a corporation building,
including a courtroom and council chamber and prison, has been erected, and the
entire town has been platted, extending over one square mile. The Sheffield &
Birmingham Coal, Iron & Railway Company are now building at this place 250 coke
ovens and the largest coal bins in the State. The trestle over which the
railroad track runs will be about fifty feet high, and the coal will be placed
in the bins, taken thence and placed in the ovens without being handled from the
time it leaves the mine. The intention of the company is to increase the number
of ovens to 1,000, and when completed will have a capacity of 1,000 tons of coke
per diem.

    The city of Jasper is not yet old enough to have made much history, but for
the unparalleled advantages offered by it and Walker County, the reader is
referred to the history of the county, and the "Topography, Geology and Natural
Resources" of Northern Alabama, so elegantly and elaborately set forth in this
volume. Among the prominent members of the legal profession of Jasper may be
named: W. B. Appling. E. W. Coleman, C. J. L. Cunningham, S. M. Gunter, S. Lacy
and John McQueen, while the other professions are well represented.

    Among the oldest families in Jasper is the Musgrove family, in fact they
were the first setlers of the town. Dr. E. G. Musgrove moved to that section of
Alabama before the State was admitted into the Union, and, immediately after the
formation of the county of Meeker, he laid out the town of Jasper and gave the
entire town to the county, conditioned upon locating the county seat there,
which was accepted, and a court-house and jail was immediately built. This
family has been continuous residents of Jasper. First after the death of Dr.
Musgrove came his oldest son, Capt. F. A. Musgrove, who was born and reared in
the place and was amongst the first citizens of the town and county, having
filled various positions of trust and honor in the county and served one term in
the State Legislature. At the begining of the war he went into service as
captain of Company L, Twenty-eighth Alabama Regiment. He was wounded at the
battle of Murfreesboro, and after his recovery went into service as major of a
cavalry company which he raised at home during his illness. Following in the
direct line of the decendants comes L. B. and J. C. Musgrove, his only sons, who
are still living at the old homestead, and are both closely identified with the
building of the city, and also in the development of the coal and iron interests
of the county.

    The Jasper Land Company was organized on December 19, 1887, by the election
of the following Board of Directors:

    George H. Nettleler, President of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham
Railroad; James F. Johnston, President of the Alabama National Bank; J. G.
Chamberlain, General Manager of the Sheffield & Birmingham Coal, Iron, and
Railroad Company; A. G. Francis, of the Corona Coal & Coke Company; J. C.
Musgrove, W. L. Wallis, R. H. Elliot, Chief Engineer of Kansas City, Memphis &
Birmingham Railroad; F. A. Gamble and S. B. Musgrove.

    The following were elected the active officials of the Company:

    Joseph F. Johnston, President: L. B. Musgrove, Vice-President and General
Manager; J. M. Burrell, Secretary, and William S. Foster, Treasurer.

    This company owns about 4,000 acres of land in and around the city of
Jasper, and is closely identified with both the citizens and railroads running
into that place. It is quite liberal in its efforts to build up a flourishing
city in shape of donations, and also in loaning money to institutions to locate
here. The greater portions of the most valuable property of the city is in the
possession of the Land Company, and it is sparing neither means nor money to
develop this fast-growing city. The Company has succeeded in locating several of
the largest and best industries in the State at Jasper, and with their efforts
bent on this line, as it is at the present time, will in a very few years, put
Jasper among the flourishing cities in North Alabama.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART III.
HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE.
MINERAL BELT.


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