Jesse Stepp was born in Burke County, North Carolina, in 1810. Stepp was a farmer who worked as a mountain guide in and around Mount Mitchell prior to its establishment as a state park. He acquired 990 acres of land that included Mount Mitchell's peak in 1855. Following the death of his friend Elisha Mitchell, Stepp sold off most of that tract, exempting from the sale a five acre parcel that encompassed Mitchell's gravesite on the peak. In his later years, Stepp advocated for railroad improvements and served as a justice of the peace in Aquone (Macon County). He died in 1873.