JASPER, SELDEN L. B. (ca. 1812-1853). Selden L. B. Jasper, lawyer and politician, was born in North Carolina around 1812 and arrived in Texas probably after the Texas Revolution. He received a conditional land certificate in Harris County on January 29, 1839. In March of that year he asked President Mirabeau B. Lamar for appointment as district attorney for the second judicial district, but despite his claim of fame as a lawyer and of extreme poverty, the appointment was not made. From 1843 to 1844 he represented Houston County in the House of the Eighth Congress of the Republic of Texas. Jasper, a Mason, founded Trinity Lodge, later Lathrop Lodge, at Crockett. He also served with Company H of the Second Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers, during the Mexican War. He briefly was the first sergeant of the company but resigned his position and rejoined the ranks. He died in 1853.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Louis Wiltz Kemp Papers, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Adele B. Looscan, "Harris County, 1822-1845," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 18-19 (October 1914-July 1915). Charles D. Spurlin, comp., Texas Veterans in the Mexican War: Muster Rolls of Texas Military Units (Victoria, Texas, 1984). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).