Named for pioneer settler Wiggins Hatten, Wiggins was proclaimed an incorporated municipality by Mississippi governor J. K. Vardaman on March 26, 1904. From 1902 to 1929, the main industry in Wiggins was a sawmill erected by the Finkbine family of Iowa. To make use of cut-over timber land, the Finkbines established the American Pickle and Canning Company, and as a result Wiggins was known as the "Pickle Capital of the World." Much of the town burned on January 21, 1910, and thereafter all downtown buildings and streets were built of brick.