Jasper Leon Harrell, Sr.

Jasper Leon Harrell, Sr.

Jasper was the youngest child born to Alexander Harrell and Emma Mead Harrell in January, 1911. Jasper made Tangipahoa Parish his home. He was married to Josephine Richardson Harrell. To their union ten children was born, Catherine Harrell,  Jasper Harrell, Jr,  Roosevelt Harrell, Sr., Frank Harrell, Sr., Isabel Harrell-Cook, Henry Harrell, Leon Charles Harrell, Herbert Harrell, Raymond Harrell, Sr., Deloris Harrell Washington, and one adopted son Oliver Jackson.  He died in 1961 in Amite, Louisiana. He was a farmer snd carpenter.

He built Jim Walters's home in Tangipahoa Parish, according to my mother. He would also take his truck to pick up people to drive them to the voting polls. He also made headstones for each of his siblings buried in Big Zion AME Zion Cemetery in Roseland, Louisiana. The land was farmed by him and his mother who worked it planting and harvesting crops. Throughout his life, he has never left the land on which he was born. There were some of his siblings who left and went up north, and there were others who went to New Orleans. He told his wife Josephine that he wasn't raising his children in the city. 

Mother often talked about a time when a man was hung in Tangipahoa Parish and he wanted my grandfather Jasper to be there to get his shoes to give to his family. He was known to be a man of standard and value.