Extracted from The Handbook of Texas Online:
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/fco25.html

JASPER COLLINS

COLLINS, JASPER (1870-1924). Jasper Collins, state legislator, was born on February 18, 1870, near Carthage, Texas, the son of John J. and Elizabeth (McDaniel) Collins. He attended private schools in Texas and Louisiana before receiving his bachelor of arts degree at the University of Texas in 1891. He then attended law classes and was licensed to practice law in 1892. Immediately afterward, he moved to Dallas, and in 1894 he returned to Carthage to practice law.

In 1895 he became the editor and proprietor of the Panola Watchman, a job he held until 1905. Collins was elected state legislator in 1899 and served one term as the Democratic representative for Panola County. In 1904 as a presidential elector he cast a vote for William Jennings Bryan.

He returned to Dallas in 1908 and worked there in real estate. He continued his political activity as a progressive by serving as chairman of the speakers' division of the statewide campaign for prohibition, qv a position in which he traveled around the state speaking on behalf of the cause.

He was a member of the University Club, the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, the Knights Templar, and Hella Temple.

He married Gertrude James of Memphis on February 16, 1907, and they had two sons. Collins was a Shriner, an Episcopalian, and a Democrat. He died in his Dallas home on January 2, 1924, of heart disease. He was buried in Grove Hill Cemetery with Masonic honors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ellis A. Davis and Edwin H. Grobe, comps., The Encyclopedia of Texas, 2-vol. ed. Dallas Morning News, January 2, 1924. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

Carolyn Hyman