Soon after the Treaty of Moultrie in 1823 was delivered, Hamilton County was established as part of the original 15 counties in Florida. White settlers mostly from Georgia and South Carolina moved into the area in earnest between 1827 through the 1840s. In 1840 the inhabitants were calling the settlement "Pulaski"; others called it "Wall". Daniel Bell, living just outside the settlement in 1824, was county judge in 1828, appointed under the authority of the Acting Territorial Governor McCarty in Tallahassee. In 1839 he was a member of the Territorial Legislative Council. Legend has it that Mr. Bell, also considered to be the first settler of the county, disagreed with the names that were coming into use for places in the area. He met with locals (one of them named Simon Whitehurst, one of the few Revolutionary War veterans in Florida, buried in Jasper) and other friends, and decided to submit the name of "Jasper", in honor of Revolutionary War veteran William Jasper, to the territorial capitol in Tallahassee. There the name was registered and incorporated as documented in the Territorial Legislative Journal. In 1841 the Jasper Post Office was established, ending any discussion on names for the town. Florida became a state in 1845, and thirteen years later on March 2, 1858, the town's leaders incorporated the town of Jasper.