The history of the Watermelon Festival

Hailey Heseltine ECB Publishing, Inc. Jefferson County has been an agricultural community since its beginning. In true southern fashion, its primary crop for decades was cotton. But with the introduction of the exotic watermelon seed, a change began taking root. William M. Giradeau, a local resident, took great interest in watermelon. In the latter ninteenth century, he founded the Giradeau Seed Company, and his vision for the crop's future proved true—by 1884, Jefferson County was alread