History

Jasper County was formed in 1831 from Clay and Crawford counties and approved on December 19, 1834. It was named after American Revolutionary War hero Sergeant William Jasper from South Carolina. In 1776 (in the defense of Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina) when the staff of the American flag was shot away, Sgt. Jasper erected a temporary staff, and waved the flag at the British until a new staff could be erected. He later was killled at Savannah in 1779. He also saved American prisoners of war from certain death at the hands of British soldiers.

At the time Jasper County was formed, it was primarily an agricultural community, and it remains so today. As of January, 1996 there were 772 farms (average farm size is 334 acres). Crops are primarily corn, soybeans, and wheat. Other agricultural pursuits include beef cows, dairy cows and hogs/pigs. Jasper County has an area of approximately 508 square miles, and its shape is almost square.

The average yearly temperature is 53 degrees; the warmest month is July; the coldest month is January. Jasper County receives approximately 42" of rain per year and about 15" of snow each winter.

Newton is the largest and oldest town in Jasper County. Because it was located in the center of the county, it was named the county seat in 1835. It was named after Sergeant Newton, who was also a defender of Fort Moultrie, South Carolina

Courthouse history from Hometown Register newspaper website

According to the 2020 census, Jasper County has a population of 9,287

Newton is the only place designated a city. As of the 2020 census, the population of Newton was 2,757.

Villages:

• Hidalgo
• Rose Hill
• Ste. Marie
• Wheeler
• Willow Hill
• Yale

Unincorporate Communities:

• Advance
• Bogota
• Boos
• Hunt City
• Island Grove
• Latona
• West Liberty

Other Areas:

• Brookville
• Falmouth
• Gila
• Lis
• Plainfield
• Point Pleasant
• Rafetown**
• Shamrock

**Note: Rafetown was originally known as Embarrasville. It was then renamed for Dr. Jacob Raef. Somehow in the 1960's, the spelling became "Rafetown". On June 25, 2009, the US Board on Geographic Names officially approved the changing/spelling of the name to RAEFTOWN.

Town Names Changes

• Boos Station - Boos (info. from Jane Smithenry Klotz)
• Colonie de Freres - St. Mary's - Sainte Marie (info. from Jane Smithenry Klotz)
• Embarrassville - Raeftown (info. from Jane Smithenry Klotz) - now known as Rafetown
• Hanging Rock Hill - Newton (info. from A. Millard Rogers)
• Libertyville - New Liberty - Willow Hill
• Fort List Station - Lis
• Hunt Station - Falmouth
• Mason - Wheeler
• Tennery Town - Grandville - Yale

Ghost Towns

These towns are "gone"....

• Brockville
• Centerville
• Constantinople
• Franklin
• Harrisburg
• Island Creek
• Point Pleasant
• Zero

Medical Terms - Then and Now

• Ablepsy - blindness
• Abscess - boil
• Addison's Disease (aka bronzed skin disease) - a disease characterized by severe weakness, low blood pressure and a bronzed coloration of the skin.
• Ague - a fever, usually malarial, marked by regularly recurring chills.
• American Plague - Yellow fever.
• Anasarca - dropsy
• Anthrax - carbuncle or large painful boil.
• Aphonia - laryngitis.
• Aphtha - the infant disease "thrush".
• Apoplexy - paralysis due to stroke.
• Arachnitis - inflammation of membranes in the brain.
• Ascetis - probably liver disease from cirrhosis or cancer; perhaps kidney or heart disease.
• Atrophy - wasting away or diminishing in size.
• Bad Blood - syphilis.
• Barbers Itch - Ringworm of the beard.
• Bilious Colic - typhoid; hepatitis; typhus.
• Billary Calculis - stones in the gallbladder, probably with infection or rupture of the gallbladder.
• Billous Fever - a fever caused by a disorder of the liver.
• Black Plague - bubonic plague.
• Black Fever - acute infection with high temperature and dark red skin lesions and high mortality rate.
• Bladder in Throat - diptheria.
• Bone Shave - Sciatica
• Brain Fever - inflammation of brain and/or spinal tissue (today called encephalitis or meningitis)
  
• Breakbone - Dengue fever.
• Bright's Disease - kidney inflammation, nephritis or renal disease.
  
• Bronze John - Yellow fever.
• Bronzed Skin Disease - See Addison's Disease.
• Cachexy - malnutrition.
• Caduceus - falling sickness or epilepsy.
• Camp Fever - typhus
• Cancer - malignant growth, carcinoma.
• Canine Madness - rabies, hydrophia.
• Canker - probably a mouth infection with gangrene. Perhaps a misspelling of cancer.
• Catalepsy - seizures; trances
• Cerebritis - inflammation of cerebrum or lead poisoning.
• Cerebrospinala Fever - See Meningitis
• Chilblains - Painful sore or swelling of the foot or hand caused by exposure to the cold.
• Child Bed Fever - infection following the birth of a child.
• Chin Cough - Whooping Cough.
• Cholelithiasis - Gall stones.
• Cholera - any of several intestinal diseases, but mainly an acute, severe, infectious disease characterized by profuse diarrhea, intestinal pain and dehydration.
• Chorea - Saint Vitus' Dance.
• Clap - Gonorrhea.
• Commotion - concussion
• Consumption -  see Tuberculosis. Also known as marasmus; phthisis.
• Corruption - infection.
• Costiveness - constipation.
• Cramp Colic - appendicitis.
• Crusted Tetter - Impetigo.
• Cystitis - inflammation of the bladder.
• Decrepitude - feebleness due to old age.
• Dementia Paralytica - term for the advanced stage of syphilis. (Thank you Patty Frazer!)
• Dengue - infectious fever from East Africa.
• Diptheria - an acute infectious disease caused by a bacterium and characterized by weakness, high fever and the formation in the air passages of a tough, membrane-like obstruction to breathing.
• Dock Fever - Yellow Fever.
• Dropsy - an accumulation of fluid in the body, edema (swelling of the legs, ankles and feet).
  
• Dysentery - any of various intestinal inflammations characterized by abdominal pain and intense diarrhea with bloody, mucous feces.
• Dyspepsia - any disorder of the stomach of intestine, usually over a long time. May have been a ruptured ulcer, colitis, cancer, etc.
• Elephantiasis - form of leprosy.
• Encephalitis - swelling of the brain; aka sleeping sickness.
• Enteric Fever - Typhoid fever.
• Epilepsy - a disorder of the nervous system characterized by convulsions.
• Epitaxis - nose bleed.
• Erisipelas/Erysipelas (aka Rose, Saint Anthony's Fire) - an acute infectious disease of the skin or mucous membranes caused by a streptococcus and characterized by local inflammation and fever.
• Falling Sickness - Epilepsy.
• Flu - See Influenza
• Flux, Interries, Summer Complaint - These all represent diarrhea, perhaps dysentery, typhoid, cholera or food poisoning. Summer complaint was usually used for children, especially their second summer. Interries is probably enteritis.
• French Pox - Syphilis.
• Furuncle - boil.
• Gangrene - death and decay of tissue in a part of the body.
• Gastro Enteritis - an intestinal upset. Perhaps typhoid, dysentery, or cholera. Possibly a ruptured stomach ulcer, colitis, cancer.
• Glanders - a contagious disease of horses, mules, etc. characterized by fever, swelling of glands beneath the lower jaw, inflammation of the nasal mucous membranes, etc.  It can be transmitted to man and certain other animals.
• Glandular Fever - mononucleosis.
• Gleet - Urinary tract disease.
• Gravel - Kidney or bladder stones.
• Great Pox - Syphilis.
• Green  Sickness - anemia.
• Grippe - Influenza
• Grocer's Itch - skin disease caused by mites in sugar or flour.
• Hemiplegy - paralysis of one side of the body.
• Hip Gout - Osteomylitis.
• Hives - skin eruption with severe itching.
• Hospital Fever - Typhus.
• Hunt Fever - strep throat
• Hydrophobia - rabies.
• Icterus - jaundice.
• Impetigo - contagious skin disease characteized by pustules.
• Infantile Paralysis - polio.
• Influenza - an acute, contagious, infectious disease caused by any of a specific group of viruses and characterized by inflammation of the respiratory tract, fever and muscular pain. (Also called "flu".)
• Intermittent Fever - a fever characterized by periodic intervals when the body temperature returns to normal.
• Jail Fever - typhus
• Jaundice - Yellow discoloratin of the skin, whites of the eyes, and mucous membranes.
• Kings Evil - Scrofula.
• Kruchhusten - whooping cough.
• Lagrippe - influenza.
• Lockjaw - tetanus.
• Lues Disease - Syphilis.
• Lues venera - venereal disease.
• Lumbago - back pain.
• Lung Fever - pneumonia
• Lung Sickness - Tuberculosis.
• Malaria - this was once thought to be from exposure to bad air in swamps. It is an infectious disease, generally intermittent and recurrent, caused by any of various protozoans that are parasitic in the red blood corpuscles and are transmitted to man by the bite of an infected mosquito. It is characterized by severe chills and fever.
• Mania - Insanity.
• Marasma, Marrasmus, Inanetion - an extreme malnutrition or severe wasting, especially of children. Often due to diarrhea, vomiting and chronic disease or starvation.
• Marasmus - consumption; tuberculosis.
• Measles - A highly infectious, communicable virus disease, characterized by small red spots on the skin, high fever, nasal discharge, etc. and occurring most frequently in childhood.
• Membranous Croup - Diptheria.
• Meningitis - An inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal column and is the result of infection from bacteria or viruses.
• Metritis - a severe infection of the woman's uterus with purulent vaginal discharge.
• Miasma - Poisonous vapors thought to infect air.
• Milk Fever - Disease from drinking contaminated milk.
• Milk Sickness - a rare disease, caused by consuming dairy products or flesh from cattle that have eaten any of various poisonous weeds. For some reason, this seems to have been linked to nursing mothers that died.
• Mormal - gangrene.
• Morphew - scurvy
• Myelitis - inflammation of the spine.
• Necrosis - motificatin of bones or tissue.
• Nephrosis - kidney degeneration.
• Nepritis - inflammation of the kidneys.
• Neuralgia - a disease of the nerves. May have been a meningitis, brain tumor, polio, epilepsy.
• Nostalgia - homesickness.
• Opthalmia - a severe inflammation of the eyeball or conjunctiva.
• Palsy - Uncontrolled movement of muscles, loss of muscle control, paralysis..
• Paristhmitis - quinsey.
• Paroxysm - convulsions.
• Pellagra - disease caused by eating spoiled corn.
• Pertussis - whooping cough
• Phthisis - Tuberculosis; marasmus.
• Phthisis Pulmoniasis - lung consumption (a big thank-you to Larry Wernle for this one)
• Phthiriasis - lice infestation.
• Plague/Black Death - Bubonic plague.
• Pleurisy - inflammation of the lining of the chest cavity.
• Pneumonia - inflammation of the lungs.
• Podagra - gout.
• Poliomyelitis - polio.
• Potts Disease - Tuberculosis of the spinal vertebrae.
• Pox - syphilis.
• Puerpural Convulsions - Toxemia of pregnancy with hypertension, edema, etc. Convulsions are frequent.
• Puerperal Exhaustion - death due to childbirth.
• Puerpural Fever - infection associated with childbirth; sepsis sometimes occurring during childbirth.
• Puking Fever - milk sickness.
• Putrid Fever - typhus.
• Pyemia - Blood poisoning.
• Pyrexia - dysentery.
• Quinsing - almost certainly QUINSEY, an abscess of the throat; tonsillitis.
• Remitting Fever - Malaria.
• Rheumatism - pain in joints.
• Rickets - disease of skeletal system.
• Rose Cold - Hay fever; allergies.
• Roseola - false measles.
• Rubeola - German measles.
• Scallue, Scroffula - a tuberculosis, especially of the glands, but often spreading to the rest of the body.
• Scarlet Fever - a highly contagious disease, especially of children. Characterized by sore throat, fever and a scarlet rash.
• Sciatica - rheumatism in the hips.
• Scirrhus - cancerous tumors.
• Scrivener's palsy - writer's cramp.
• Screws - Rheumatism.
• Scrofula - tuberculosis of the lymphastic glands especially in the neck.
• Scrumpox - impetigo
• Scurvy - lack of vitamin C.
• Septicemia - blood poisoning
• Shakes - delirium tremens.
• Shingles - viral disease with skin blisters.
• Ship Fever - typhus.
• Sloes - milk sickness.
• St. Anthony's Fire - also known as Erisipelas/Erysipelas - an acute infectious disease of the skin or mucous membranes caused by a streptococcus and characterized by local inflammation and fever.
• Smallpox - a highly contagious viral disease characterized by prolonged fever, vomiting, and eruptions on the skin that often left pitted scars (or pockmarks) when healed.
• Spanish Influenza - epidemic influenza.
• Spasms - sudden involuntary contraction of muscles; convulsion.
• Spina Bifida - deformity of spine.
• Spotted Fever - Typhus or meningitis.
• St. Vitas' Dance - ceaseless occurrence of involuntary rapid jerking movements.
• Strangers' Fever - yellow fever.
• Strangery - rupture.
• Swamp Fever - malaria
• Tertian Fever - occurring every other day, usually every third day, applied to fever or a disease causing it, especially certain forms of malaria.
• Tetanus - lockjaw.
• Thrombosis - blood clot inside blood vessel.
• Tick Fever - Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
• Trench Mouth - painful ulcers on gums.
• Tuberculosis - an infectious disease characterized by the formation of tubercles in various tissues of the body, especially the lungs.  Also called consumption.
• Tussis Convulsive - Whooping Cough.
• Typhoid - a highly infectious disease acquired by ingesting food or water contaminated by excreta.  It was formerly considered a form of typhus and is characterized by fever, intestinal disorders, etc.
• Typhus - acute infection disease transmitted by lice and fleas.
• Variola - smallpox
• Winter Fever - probably influenza, pneumonia.
• Womb Fever - infection of the uterus.
• Yellow Fever - a highly infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted by the bite of the yellow-fever mosquito. It is characterized by fever, jaundice, vomiting, etc.
• Yellow Jacket - Yellow fever, yellow jack (also called The American Plague)
  

Historical Events