Jasper, the county seat of Pickens County, was incorporated as a town December 22, 1857. The city was named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper of South Carolina, who died during the siege of Savannah during the Revolutionary War.

In 1890, the marble courthouse in Jasper was where citizens of Pickens County raised a Union Flag to protest Georgia’s secession from the Union. The 1906 jail in Jasper has been restored and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The jail and other public buildings are faced with marble, Pickens’ major resource.