City History-There is a road that ran through Jasper known as the Cherokee Trading Path. On October 25, 1805 the federal government negotiated the right to build a highway from "...some convenient place near the head of Stone's river, and fall into the Georgia road at a suitable place towards the southern frontier of the Cherokees." This road, known as the Federal Road, first brought travellers past the site of Jasper. Travelling from Harnage's (a tavern on the site of the Tate House) to the mission at Talking Rock it wasn't until 1830 that an inn was built along the road just north of present-day Jasper. Today the Nelson-Simmons-Tripp House sits on the site of the Pickens County Jail. One of the infamous Cherokee Forts would be built adjacent to the original site of the home. In between that time two major events occurred: North Georgia was given to settlers during two lotteries, the Sixth Land Lottery and the Gold Lottery in 1832 and Henry Fitzsimmons noticed a marble outcropping near the Federal Highway in 1835. The city of Jasper became county seat for Pickens County in 1857. It is named for a hero of the American Revolution, William Jasper, who was killed during the battle of Savannah. Jasper avoided the destruction associated with the Civil War. In 1883 the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad push through Jasper and on to Ellijay, giving the area significant economic stimulus. Small marble producers dotted the landscape around Jasper, using the railroad to ship their products to the market. In 1884 the Georgia Marble Company was formed. Sam Tate became president in 1905 and began to organize the independent producers in the county. One problem that beset this small mountain community was moonshine. In 1910 Jefferson Davis Cowart, a local who had become a revenue agent was found dead in a local mill from a bullet wound.