Wiggins, Mississippi

Wiggins is a city in Stone County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,390 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stone County.[3]

Wiggins, Mississippi
City
Wiggins City Hall
January 2013
Location of Wiggins, Mississippi
Wiggins, Mississippi
Location in the United States
Coordinates: 30°51′31″N 89°8′16″W
CountryUnited States
StateMississippi
CountyStone
Area
 • Total11.26 sq mi (29.17 km2)
 • Land10.75 sq mi (27.84 km2)
 • Water0.51 sq mi (1.33 km2)
Elevation
262 ft (80 m)
Population
 (2010)
 • Total4,390
 • Estimate 
(2019)[2]
4,541
 • Density422.42/sq mi (163.10/km2)
Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code
39577
Area code(s)601
FIPS code28-80160
GNIS feature ID0679669
Websitehttp://www.cityofwiggins.com/

History

Wiggins is named after Wiggins Hatten, the father of Madison Hatten, one of the area's original homesteaders.[4] It was incorporated in 1904, and the 1910 census reported 980 residents. In the early 1900s, Wiggins prospered along with the booming timber industry. Wiggins was once headquarters of the Finkbine Lumber Company.

On January 21, 1910, between the hours of 11 am and 1 pm, more than half of the Wiggins business district was destroyed by fire.[5] The fire started from unknown origin in the Hammock Building, a lodging house, and spread rapidly because of strong winds from the northwest. With no city fire department or waterworks, the residents of Wiggins resorted to bucket brigades and dynamite to stop the fire, which was confined to the east side of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad.

Wiggins, MS business district and railroad depot before the 1910 fire

The fire consumed 41 business establishments, including the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad depot. Only two or three residential dwellings were destroyed, because most homes were built away from the business district.

American Pickle and Canning Co., Wiggins, MS, circa 1910

Wiggins has long been known for its pickle production, and at one time boasted of being home to the world's largest pickle processing facility.[6] However, the pickle processing facility is now closed, and although the timber industry has declined since the boom years, it still sustains many businesses in Wiggins.

On June 22, 1935, a mob of 200 white people lynched a black man, R. D. McGee. A white girl had been attacked, and McGee was suspected as the culprit. He was roused from his bed, and taken before the girl. She identified him, a day later, based on the clothing her attacker had been wearing.[7] The same day it was reported that Dewitt Armstrong,another African-American was flogged for making insulting remarks to white women.[8][9] On November 21, 1938, another black man, Wilder McGowan, was lynched by a mob of 200 white men for allegedly assaulting a 74-year-old woman. An investigator found there was no merit to the charge against McGowan, but rather that he was lynched because he "Did not know his place,"[10] and in addition had rebuffed a group of white men who had invaded a negro dance hall "looking for some good-looking nigger women". His death certificate indicated strangulation by "rope party".[11] Although seventeen men were identified as participating in the lynching, the justice department decided no action was merited.[12] In 2016 a group of white students at Stone High School put a noose around the neck of a black student. Local law enforcement discouraged the student's family from filing a report.[13]

Historic Pine Hill
1934
2019
Street views of Pine Hill

After the 1910 fire and until the 1960s, the center of commerce for Wiggins developed on both sides of Pine Avenue, that sloped downhill and eastward, perpendicular to U.S. Route 49 and Railroad Street (First Street), over a distance of one city block. Small shops were built mainly of brick and were mostly contiguous to each other. Over the years, the shops were occupied by numerous businesses that included drug stores, law offices, a grocery store, a shoe store, a dry cleaners, 5 & dime stores, auto supply store, barber shops, cafes, a movie theater, dry goods outlet, feed & seed outlet, an army surplus store, beauty salons, clothing stores, gift shops, County Library, and U.S. Post Office. In more recent years, the shops have served as real estate offices, CPA & tax preparer outlets, an antique store, newspaper office, ice cream shop, art & frame shop, food outlets, and stationery shop.

In the late 1960s, U.S. Route 49 bypassed the downtown area, and many businesses moved from Pine Hill to other locations within Wiggins. The old Wiggins High School and Elementary School buildings occupied a city block, situated at the base of Pine Hill. When the school buildings were demolished in the 1970s, the school land was dedicated to City use as Blaylock Park. In the 1980s, city and county business leaders saw a need for developing a sense of community and tourism by initiating an annual Pine Hill Day, which later became Pine Hill Festival.[14] During Pine Hill Day, area residents offered items for sale as arts & crafts, in farmers' markets, and as local cuisine. To attract more visitors, other venues such as live music entertainment, competitive foot races, antique vehicle displays, commercial food vendors, and games for kids were added through the years, and the festival became a Spring event. In 2014, an estimated 15,000 people attended the 2-day festival.[15]

circa 1920
2010
View of Railroad Avenue, now First Street, Wiggins, Mississippi

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.3 square miles (29 km2), of which, 10.8 square miles (28 km2) of it is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km2) of it (4.53%) is water. The entrance to Flint Creek Water Park is located in the city, off Highway 29.

Transportation

Demographics
Historical population
CensusPop.%±
1910980—
19201,0375.8%
19301,0743.6%
19401,1416.2%
19501,43625.9%
19601,59110.8%
19702,99588.2%
19803,2057.0%
19903,185−0.6%
20003,84920.8%
20104,39014.1%
Est. 20194,541[2]3.4%
U.S. Decennial Census[17]
2012 Estimate[18]

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,849 people, 1,380 households, and 1,000 families residing in the city. The population density was 357.8 people per square mile (138.1/km2). There were 1,546 housing units at an average density of 143.7 per square mile (55.5/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 67.60% White, 31.51% African American, 0.05% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.31% from other races, and 0.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.07% of the population.

There were 1,380 households, out of which 36.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.6% were married couples living together, 21.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.5% were non-families. 23.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.12.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 28.4% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $26,597, and the median income for a family was $31,591. Males had a median income of $27,262 versus $20,801 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,813. About 22.3% of families and 25.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 35.6% of those under age 18 and 18.8% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Business organizations
  • Stone County Economic Development Partnership[14]—Betsy Rowell, Executive Director[20]
  • Wiggins Rotary Club

Media
  • Stone County Enterprise,[21] "Your hometown newspaper since 1916"
  • The Sun Herald
  • Wiggins is part of Mississippi Gulf Coast Radio and Television Stations Market Area

Notable people
gollark: That is also bad.
gollark: Gas chambers BAD. This is not a hard concept.
gollark: Nobody, NO GAS CHAMBERING.
gollark: We should design saner CPU architectures so obfuscation is harder.
gollark: I'm using two keyboards at once because I haven't set up SSH on this potatobox™ yet and it is CONFUSING my BRAIN.

See also

References
  1. "2019 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  2. "Population and Housing Unit Estimates". United States Census Bureau. May 24, 2020. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  3. "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-07-17. Retrieved 2009-08-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Wiggins, MS fire, Jan 1910 | GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods". Gendisasters.com. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  6. Kat Bergeron. 2012. Green Gold: The story of the Wiggins pickle. Sun Herald (Biloxi, MS), Vol. 128, No. 230, Page 8F, May 20, 2012.
  7. "Mob Hangs Man for Attempted Attack on Girl". Stone County Enterprise. Wiggins, Mississippi. Jun 27, 1935. Retrieved 23 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Negro Flogged". Stone County Enterprise. Wiggins, Mississippi. Jun 27, 1935. Retrieved 23 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Negro is Lynched, Another Whipped". New York Times. 23 June 1935.
  10. "Mob Uses Attack Rumor as Excuse to Slay Man who Wouldn't 'Knuckle'". Chicago Defender. 17 December 1938.
  11. "Standard Certificate of Death" (PDF). Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  12. "Wilder McGowan". Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  13. Hawkins, Derek (25 October 2016). "White high schoolers in Miss. put noose around black student's neck and 'yanked,' NAACP says". Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2011-03-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. Patrick Ochs. 2014. Record crowds fill Wiggins for festival. Sun Herald (Biloxi, MS), Vol. 130, No. 171, Page 2A, March 23, 2014.
  16. "M24 - Dean Griffin Memorial Airport". AirNav. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  17. United States Census Bureau. "Census of Population and Housing". Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  18. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2012". Census.gov. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  19. "Gateway Christian Academy Profile (2020) | Wiggins, MS". Private School Review. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  20. Jody O'Hara. 2014. Rowell to lead Stone County EDP. Stone County Enterprise (Wiggins, MS), Vol. 98, No. 3, January 15, 2014.
  21. "Home". Stone County Enterprise. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  22. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-04-21. Retrieved 2014-05-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  23. "Big Black and Bam Bam | The Locker Room". Lockerroommag.com. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  24. "Dean, Dizzy - Dictionary definition of Dean, Dizzy | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  25. "Anthony Herrera". Stonecountyenterprise.com. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  26. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  27. "Attorney Boyce Holleman Remembered By Sons with $100,000 Gift to Law School". News.olemiss.edu. 2017-04-13. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  28. "Fred Lewis Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  29. "Stevon Moore Stats". Pro-Football-Reference.com. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  30. "Taylor Spreitler biography". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2014-04-20.
  31. "Exploring the life and the legacy of Emilie Blackmore Stapp (1876-1962) | National Endowment for the Humanities". Neh.gov. 2014-03-15. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
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