The Wiggins Enterprise Archive

As state senator (1912-16) representing the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Andrew Wiggins Bond actively campaigned for the creation of a new county in northern Harrison. The only known extant issue of the Wiggins Enterprise (1906-16), of which Bond was owner and editor, enumerated reasons to separate from Harrison County, including the high level of debt in the parent district. On May 8, 1916, voters elected to become a separate entity naming the sparsely-populated, mostly white county after former governor John Stone (1876-82, 1890-96). A month later, Bond renamed the four-page weekly the Stone County Enterprise. Early issues chronicled the establishment of the new county, including the legal controversies caused by the refusal of Harrison County authorities to turn over Stone's share of existing funds. After Bond passed away February 29, 1920, various members of the family, including his wife Leona and brothers Oscar and Tillman, took over production and remained associated with the newspaper until the mid-1940s. In 2020, the newspaper is still published as a weekly.

The Stone County Enterprise, which focused on county news, followed the development of the local lumber and canning industries. Improved saws and lumber drying methods helped spur a timber boom in the virgin long-leaf yellow pine forest of southern Mississippi in the late 19^th/early 20^th centuries. In addition, railroads that were built in Harrison/Stone County in the 1890s allowed access to timber not located near navigable streams. Sawmills sprang up by the railroads, and towns, including Wiggins, the Stone County seat, sprang up around sawmills. The Finkbine Lumber Company purchased two existing mills in Wiggins in 1902 and became a major employer in the region. Finkbine general manager, Willis E. Guild, saw that the timber supply was being depleted, and as an alternative industry, established the American Pickle and Canning Company in 1912 with the lumber company funds. The new company encouraged local farmers to grow cucumbers in the cut-over timber lands. The company primarily produced pickles, but they also canned sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and berries.

In addition to news about the local economy, the Enterprise carried other information important to Wiggins and Stone County. Proceedings of the county's Board of Supervisors routinely appeared as well as summaries of the Board of Alderman meetings. A weekly letter from the Superintendent of Education appeared in the early 1920s. Other regular features included a variety of legal notices, social announcements, high school sport reports, advertisements, and a column devoted to news from nearby McHenry. Early issues reported on local soldiers deployed to the Mexican border where American troops were stationed to prevent warfare from the Mexican Revolution (1910-19) from crossing over into the United States. Shortly thereafter, the "European" War, later known as World War I (1914-19) stole the headlines, and weekly editorials commented on it.