Hawkins L. Vickers Papers

Hawkins L. Vickers was born on December 21, 1899, in Tifton, Georgia. Upon completing eight grades of public school in Georgia, he began working for his father, a large sawmill operator in south Georgia. Later, he joined a brother-in-law in the growing and shipping of vegetable plants. Mr. Vickers would later emulate this business for himself.

In 1923 Mr. Vickers moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to found his own plant growing business. He was both a pioneer in plant growing and one of the nations's largest growers.

The collection was originally located in the old Vickers warehouse, which burned to the ground in the spring of 1992. These records were salvaged from a concrete vault located in the warehouse. Records include several different iterations: Vickers Camp, Vickers and Vickers, Vickers and Todd, Johns Bayou Inc., H.L. Sr. and E.G. Vickers, Vickers Plant Farms, ect. Other parts of the collection consist of various types of ledgers, invoices, and catalogs.