He was born on August 30, 1822 at Mayville in Mason County Kentucky to Andrew Finely Thompson and Leah (nee Markle). This birthplace was near the present town of Washington. His mother, Leah Markle, was a daughter of Casper Merkel/Markle of Sewickley Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Casper Merkel was, in turn, a son of the immigrant Christian Merkel of Berks County, Pennsylvania, a prominent business man and early settler of Westmoreland County. He was also the brother of Franzina Merkel/Markle who married Michael Rugh, an immigrant from Alsace and a another prominent settler of the same Westmoreland County.

Jasper M. Thompson's parents died when he was less than three years of age and he came to live with his grandmother, Mary Markle, in Westmoreland County Pennsylvania until 1832. Jasper worked at farming, clerking, and bookkeeping and in 1950 moved to Redstone Township where he purchased farmland near New Salem. In that same year he bought and moved onto farmland in Menallen Township near Uniontown in Fayette County Pennsylvania. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln "Collector of Internal Revenue" for the 21st district of Pennsylvania. Her served in that capacity for 4 years. He was one of the original (1863) stockholders of The First National Bank of Uniontown. He was President of the Uniontown Building and Loan Association, a director of Fayette County Agricultural Association, Trustee of Washington & Jefferson College, and director of the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny City. He was a Republican presidential elector in 1868, voting for Ulysses Grant. In 1873 he ran as a Republican and was elected (by Fayette County) to the state legislature. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Uniontown for many years.

On February 15, 1846 he married Eliza Carothers of Maysville Kentucky.

They are known to have had at least four children: Ruth, Lenora, William, and Josiah. <Click here to see Josiah>

Jasper died on March 15, 1889 in Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Eliza passed away on October 31, 1897 in Manellen Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.