Fascinating stories await at the Old Firehouse Museum in Wiggins

Right next to Wiggins City Hall is an opportunity to go back in time and learn more about Stone County and Wiggins.

The Old Firehouse Museum, as the name suggests, is housed in the former firehouse — a service that, until recent years, was on a volunteer basis. It seems only fitting, then, that volunteers man the museum during the hours it’s open to the public.

“There are six of us, and most of us are retired teachers,” museum board president Mike Caine said. The museum opened in March 2013. “Since that time, the museum staff has collected, catalogued and displayed many artifacts unique and special to this wonderful area we all call home.”

“We wanted to protect what was here,” she added. “And people started bringing stuff.”

That includes memorabilia from schools, the lumber and turpentine industries, the pickle factory and other businesses, and once day-to-day items that now might draw puzzled expressions.

For example, there’s what is believed to be the first television set in Stone County.

“It was in the window of the Best Maid Ice Cream Shop on Pine Hill, and people would stop out on the sidewalk and watch it,” volunteer Alfred Byrd said. “It’s from the 1940s.”

School days

The Best Maid or the Frosty Mug, which is still in business, could have been favorite stops for the teens who once wore letter jackets or cheerleading uniforms that are on display in one corner of the room that houses the TV. One navy velvet and silver sequined outfit was worn by Lou Jean Smith Webb when she was a majorette with the Wiggins High School band during the 1958-59 school year. A black and gold letter jacket from 1950 was worn by a student at Home Vocational High School. There are also football cleat shoes and a classic helmet as well as school yearbooks and photos from decades past.

In another room, one display area is a tribute to “school teachers who made an impact on us,” Caine said.

For those interested in news of the day from back in the day, a wooden rack holds issues of the Stone County Enterprise from as far back as 1916.

On the railroad

The railroad has played an important role in Wiggins’ history.

“Wiggins wouldn’t be here without the railroad,” Byrd said. An unusual railroad-related item requires some explanation. Its card says it’s a railroad high-speed train order delivery fork or hoop. It’s a long-handled item with two thin sticks on each side and two strings in the middle as well as a clip where the two sticks meet at the handle. It was a way to send messages to those on the train when a stop in Wiggins wasn’t scheduled. The note was attached to the pole either at the clip or wrapped in the string. Someone on the train would reach out and grab the message through the V on the pole.

Known for pickles

Other things that put Wiggins on the map were the timber industry and pickles. The Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company operated from about 1901 to 1929, when it sold its Wiggins holdings to the Wilbe Lumber Company when the supply of virgin pine ran out. But Finkbine didn’t stop there. To put the cutover land to use, the lumber company, in partnership with its created Mississippi Farms Company, built a factory in Wiggins to process farm produce. This became the American Pickle and Canning Company, which eventually was known as the largest pickle processing plant in the world. The “pickle factory” closed in 1983.

Displays pay tribute to both timber and pickles as well as an offshoot of the timber industry, the turpentine industry. A cone-shaped clay turpentine pot which collected pine resin is nailed to a portion of a tree trunk to show how it was used.

One of the most moving parts of the museum is the area dedicated to military service. The World War II Memorial honors Stone Countians who served, and this area also includes some service uniforms.

Dizzy Dean

A Wiggins museum would be incomplete without recognition of probably its best-known resident, Baseball Hall of Famer and sports commentator Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean. He and his wife, Patricia, lived in the Bond community, where she grew up, for 16 years. They built a home they named Deanash, which later was donated to the Baptist Children’s Village. Dean, an Arkansas native, died on July 17, 1974, and is buried in the Bond Cemetery in the Nash family plot. The museum showcases photos, newspaper stories and compiled stories about Dean as told by locals.

The museum is supported by the city of Wiggins and benefactors, as well as donations and volunteer work. Special events also benefit the museum. Every other year, a model train show is held in the Historic Depot in Wiggins, and on the other years, a doll show and tea party is held. 2017 is the year for the Doll Show and Tea Party, which will be held March 11 at the Ferris O’Neal Senior Center, 1240 South Magnolia Drive in Wiggins. Admission is free. The doll show exhibit will be open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the tea party will be from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Those interested in showcasing their dolls may take them to the Ferris O’Neal Senior Center from 4 to 6 p.m. March 10 or 8 to 9 a.m. March 11. For more information, contact the Old Firehouse Museum at oldfirehousewiggins@gmail.com or call 601-928-8164.

“We’ve gotten so much support from the county and the city,” Caine said. “I think they’re proud of what we’re doing. And people just rise up and give us things to add to the collection.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Fascinating stories await at the Old Firehouse Museum in Wiggins."