Dear Editor,
William Montgomery Girardeau, (born April 12, 1852) was born in and grew up in Monticello, FL. Son of William Oglethorpe Girardeau and Harriet Louise Wirt. He attended Jefferson Collegiate Academy where his father was headmaster and teacher. He read law in a local lawyer's office. We don't know if he completed his apprenticeship in law, because he was to make his main success in agriculture. He married in 1873 Mary Collins of Monticello, daughter of Joel C. Collins, Jefferson County Probate Judge. They had 9 children, five of them survived infancy, three sons and two daughters.William proved to be a most creative entrepreneur, creating one of the biggest truck farms in the county with vast holdings in the Monticello and also in Georgia.
In about 1880 he introduced commercial-scale watermelon farming in the area and and later specialized in the growing and wholesale selling of watermelon seeds through his Girardeau Seed Company. His farms grew to 4,000 acres, much of it leased in the Monticello area and Jefferson County. Two thousand acres of this was planted in rotating crops of corn, beans, and peas; and 1,000 reserved for watermelon seeds. For this latter endeavor, William invented a machine for extracting seeds from the melons. By 1892 he was the acknowledged melon king of Monticello and was selling 75,000 pounds of seeds a year, "coining money" according to the local newspaper. In its heyday his company was producing as much as 80% of watermelon seeds produced in the U.S. and shipped them to markets as far away as China.
William was known for his giant 'Triumph" melons, and he offered a $200 prize for the largest melon grown from his company's seeds. He once shipped a 132-pound melon (124 years ago) to Governor A.D. Chandler of Georgia. The governor expressed his appreciation as follows:
State of Georgia Executive Mansion
Atlanta, GA Aug. 18, 1899
My Dear Colonel:
I don't know if you were ever in the army or not, and I don't know if you are a lawyer or not, but I do know that any man who can grow such melons as the 132-pound monster you sent me is entitled to the highest military rank known in the state of Georgia, and I hereby address you as "Colonel."
This is indeed the finest melon on record. I sent it to the Commissioner of Agriculture, asking that he be on hand with a cross-cut saw. Being a good officer, he obeyed instruction as literally as he could, and came not with a cross-cut saw, but the hand saw, with which he cut it up.
Thirty-six gentlemen were present besides two ladies, a small boy, and four Negroes - 43 in all - and all of us had all we desired. It was fine, sweet, solid, and lucious. I thank you for your kind remembrance.
Yours very truly,
A.D. Chandler
Ronald G. Crowe
Monticello, FL.