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Before the Civil War, the Stone County area was a virtual wilderness covered in virgin pine timber. Two early roads ran through the area, the Old Wire Road running east-west through the southern part of the county, and the Old City Road cutting across the county diagonally from northeast to southwest. There were few inhabitants and no significant settlements. The oldest settlement in Stone County is Perkinston, located in the central part of the county on land homesteaded around 1880 by a Mr. Perkins. McHenry, located near the county’s southern border, was settled by Dr. George McHenry in 1883. Bond, another of the county’s early settlements, is located near its northern border. Settlement of the area around Wiggins, Stone County’s seat of government, began in 1886. The area benefited from its plentiful timber. A bustling timber industry brought population growth and an economic boom to the Stone County area in the early twentieth century. McHenry grew into a thriving sawmill town with more than 1,200 residents. Bond and Perkinston also were becoming mill towns, and one of the largest sawmills in south Mississippi was built in Wiggins in 1902. As the area grew, so did its resources. Harrison County Agricultural High School was established in 1911 at Perkinston. After Stone County was formed in 1916, both Harrison and Stone Counties continued to operate the school as a joint venture. In 1925, the school became Perkinston Junior College and then the Perkinston Campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. The Mississippi Legislature passed an act in January 1916 allowing Stone County to be formed from lands in northern Harrison County, subject to approval of the voters living in the affected area. The election was held May 6, and the new county won approval by a vote of 428-330. The new county was named in honor of John M. Stone, governor of Mississippi from 1890 1896 and later resident of Mississippi A & M College. The county’s first Board of Supervisors met at the Wiggins City Hall. One of the Board’s first acts was to award a contract for a county courthouse. The building was completed in March 1918 at a cost of $29,515.18 and is still in use today. The 1920 census listed 6,528 Stone County residents. By that time, the county’s timber resources had been severely depleted, and the once-booming sawmill towns such as McHenry and Bond were failing rapidly. By 1930, the timber industry was almost completely gone, and many people were forced to move to other areas to find work. The county’s population in 1930 was 5,704. Stone County’s population decline proved to be short-lived. By 1940, the county had 6,155 residents, and the population continued to grow during the following four decades. Today the population is estimated at 18,000. After World War II, the timber industry began to make a comeback, and today the majority of the county’s industries are wood products manufacturers. The Wiggins Board of Aldermen, the Stone County Board of Supervisors, and the Stone County Economic Development Partnership have combined their efforts to attract new businesses and industry to the growing area.
The City of Wiggins,County Seat In 1886 Madison
Hatten homesteaded 160 acres in the area around Wiggins, and
soon a village, called Niles City, was established on Hatten’s
land. When the village residents petitioned for a post office,
they found that the name Niles City was already in use, and they
renamed their village Wiggins in honor of Madison Hatten’s
father, Wiggins The young town of Wiggins received a great boost in 1896 when the Gulf and Ship Island railroad line was completed through the town. The new line, which ran from Hattiesburg to Gulfport, cut across the length of Stone County from north to south. In 1904, Wiggins incorporated, and in 1910, the first town census counted 980 residents. Wiggins thrived with a booming timber industry. In 1902, Finkbine Lumber Company built one of the largest sawmills in south Mississippi in Wiggins. As vast tracts of timber were being cut down across south Mississippi, community leaders searched for new sources of revenue from the land. In 1912, Finkbine Lumber Company and Mississippi Farms Company started a pickle factory in Wiggins. The American Pickle and Canning Company was formed to operate the pickle factory. The pickle plant burned in 1913, and a larger plant soon took its place. At first, the
plant processed pickles, tomatoes, beans, and sweet potatoes,
but within a few years, pickles became its sole product. The
pickle plant, which became the Brown-Miller Company and then
became a part of Beatrice Foods, continued to thrive throughout
the Depression and the ensuing decades. At one time, it was the
largest pickle The pickle plant has since closed, but the timber industry, after declining in the 1930s, has made a comeback, and Wiggins boasts a promising future, with many diverse businesses choosing to locate there.
Stone County Schools
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