page_title: William C. Edenborn
section_title: Railroads and land
hierarchical_section_title: William C. Edenborn / Career / Railroads and land
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: louisianaarkansa00ande (find matches) Title: Louisiana and Arkansas railway; its territory industries and financial condition .. Year: 1904 (1900s) Authors: (Anderson, Arthur Marvin), 1880- (from old catalog) Subjects: Publisher: New York and Boston Contributing Library: The Library of Congress Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: ' Text Appearing After Image: 26 LOUISIANA AND ARKANSAS RAILWAY Frisco systems, affording competing routes for traffic to theNorth, East and West. At Stamps it connects with theSt. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) and business canbe delivered to that line for transportation in the same threedirections. The Viclcsburg, Shreveport &amp; Pacific (Oueen&amp; Crescent) system, extending east and west, is crossed atSibley. From Chestnut, La., the Louisiana &amp; Northwestextends north and south. From Winnfield the ArkansasSouthern runs north to a connection with the Queen &amp;Crescent system and is building south to Alexandria. Atthe same point the Louisiana Railway &amp; Navigation Com-pany affords a southern outlet to New Orleans. At George-town the Iron Mountain is crossed, affording an additionalNew Orleans connection, while on the projected extensioneast to Natchez, the Texas &amp; Pacific will be met at Con-cordia and the Yazoo &amp; Mississippi Valley at Natchez,giving four competitive routes for south-bound tra Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: William C. Edenborn, was an inventor, steel industrialist, and railroad magnate. He patented the design for a machine for inexpensive manufacture of barbed wire. Edenborn founded the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company, which operated between Shreveport, Louisiana, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, this railroad formed the Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad and eventually part of the Kansas City Southern Railroad.
  By the time of his death in 1926, Edenborn was reputed to be the wealthiest resident of Louisiana. The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper stated that Edenborn was "one of the most colorful and picturesque, and at the same time one of the least known, of the Louisiana captains of industry."
context_section_description: Toward the end of the 19th century, as his business interests in wire and cable diminished, Edenborn pursued diverse business interests including cotton, forestry products, and railroads. He and his wife visited Shreveport, Louisiana, for which Edenborn perceived that the town's cotton and forestry products businesses were under-served by railroads. For this reason, Edenborn began investing in land and railroads in Louisiana. Within a short period of time, he acquired more than a million acres of land in Louisiana. He established the Shreveport and Red River Valley Navigation Railroad Company.
  In 1898 Edenborn created the Louisiana Central Construction Company for construction of his railroads, with a mix of freight and passenger service beginning in that year. One of his construction practices was to choose very low grades for the routes of the railroad so as to hold construction costs to a minimum. At times, Edenborn purchased used rolling stock and railroad locomotives to minimize costs. He also built branches of the railroad, such as the Colfax and Northern Railway in order to better serve the local timber industry.
  Initially Edenborn's railroad had no competition, although the Louisiana and North West Railroad, the Arkansas Southern Railroad, and the Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad soon appeared. The competition caused Edenborn to extend his service ultimately to New Orleans. Early on, Edenborn used a mix of rail and steamboat service for the extension to New Orleans, and, in this way, his railroad could serve the lucrative cotton trade of the region.
  Around the same time, Edenborn and John Warne Gates invested in another regional railroad, the Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Gulf Railroad, which served a corridor near Shreveport. Edenborn and Gates reorganized the railroad at which time it became known as the  Kansas City Southern Railway Company. Edenborn served on the railroad's board of directors from 1900 to 1902. He eventually became chairman of the board of the Kansas City Southern Railroad.
  In 1903, Edenborn created the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company. This new company pursued service of Edenborn's network of Louisiana railways all the way into New Orleans. The service into New Orleans commenced in 1906. His railroads started passenger service into New Orleans the following year.
caption: 1904 routes of the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway
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