William Edenborn, Winn Parish, LA. Contributed by Greggory E. Davies 120 Ted Price Lane Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** This was originally published in Legacies & Legends" Vol 1, # 2 July, 1997. Legacies & Legends is the quarterly publication of the Winn Parish Genealogical & Historical Association, Winnfield, LA. This was placed here with their knowledge and consent. If one would examine the towns listed on an early era map of Winn Parish, they would notice strange names such as Emden, Alonzo, and Lofton, just to name a few. In common with these names, current day maps list the Edenborn Farms Road. Those of us interested in history and genealogy are usually curious as to how these places got their name. Around 1866, a German immigrant named William Edenborn came to New York from Altena in the Westphalia Rurh Valley. Born in 1848, Edenborn was a wiremaker by trade, and soon found his way to near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a mechanic. He later moved to Cincinnatti, Ohio, then to St. Louis, Missouri, around 1869, where he married Sarah Drain. He also joined the Methodist Church. Edenborn worked at various jobs connected to the steel and wiremaking business, and his hard work, resolve, and intelligence caught the eye of some of the movers and shakers around St. Louis. A book entitled The Man Who Fenced the West, by Edenborn's great nephew, Glen Coleman, gives an interesting history of this frugal, intelligent immigrant, and can be found at the Winn Parish Library. Space constraints inhibit a detailed account of this man's life, but this article contains a few of the more interesting facts about the man that few in Winn Parish are familiar with. Edenborn is often referred to as the inventor of barbed wire, but this is not true. He did patent a machine which simplified the making of barbed wire, and this invention drove the price of barbed wire from 17 cents a pound to 3 cents a pound. His patent number 270,646 is referred to as "the machine that fenced the west". His patent number 271,693 was for his "barb shortened" wire, which was not harmful to cattle. Long, sharp barbs had resulted in range wars due to its injury to cattle. Edenborn's "humane" wire became popular and at one time his company was supplying 75% of the barbed wire in America. The "rod-pointing", or wire nail machine he patented, drove the price of wire nails from 8 cents per pound to 2 cents per pound. Edenborn formed Consolidated Steel and Wire Company, which was the father of U. S. Steel. He eventually sold his share of American Steel and Wire to J. P. Morgan for $ 50 million and sold his patent rights for $ 40 million. This German immigrant owned majority stock in over 25 major companies, and held several patents on many inventions, including a wire coiling machine. Regarded as a humanitarian by friends, employees, and competitors, alike, Edenborn was known for his frugality and being plain stingy. After selling his steel and wire business, Edenborn and his wife, Sarah, chose to live in Winn Parish, even though he owned over a million acres of land in Louisiana and could have resided anywhere he desired. His "experimental station" or farm, was located on the Harrisonburg Road, southwest of Atlanta. He named it Emden, after a place on the Ems River near the North Sea. He had earlier formed the Shreveport and Red River Navigation Railroad Company and named many of the small train stops along the line for friends, relatives, and places in his native Germany. While at Emden, he received patent number 1,351,629 for an apparatus that distilled pine oil for turpentine. It was at Emden that he experimented with ways to protect cotton from boll weevils, develop silkworm growth, and enhance peanut production, for which he was encouraged by George Washington Carver. It was also at Emden he experimented with the use of monkeys as cotton pickers. His efforts failed as he was unable to deter the monkeys from picking the seeds from the cotton. Edenborn experienced much success during his life, but he and his wife also experienced the worst of personal tragedy. One of his two daughters was killed by a St. Louis streetcar while horseback riding. His other daughter died of diphtheria. It is said that Edenborn spent less than $ 200 a year on he and his wife's personal needs, but the Edenborns were charitable to the many children of friends and to their many employees. Interestingly, Edenborn befriended "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, the famed black singer who wrote and sang Goodnight, Irene and John Henry. While "Leadbelly" was serving a stint at Angola, Edenborn was among the convict's visitors. Another interesting story tells of Edenborn having to repeatedly bail an employee out of jail for raising hell in Atlanta on Saturday nights. The judge banished the violator from Atlanta for continuously disturbing the peace on Saturday nights. Edenborn told the judge that there was "never any peace in Atlanta on a Saturday night". Few realize this man's greatness. Besides the many inventions, the vast timber and land acquisitions, and experimental research, this man was instrumental in starting one of the more important conservations techniques. Edenborn and Henry Hardtner, a state senator later defeated by Winn's O. K. Allen, purchased a sawmill about twenty miles east of Winnfield, naming the location Urania. The two, with Hardtner getting most of the credit, began a "reforestation" program of planting seedlings in cutover areas. It was Edenborn's friendship with President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, that led to an invitation for he and Hardtner to Roosevelt's conservation convention. Speaking of Roosevelt, it was Edenborn who was with the President on a bear hunting trip in Louisiana, when Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear with two cubs, leading to the nickname "Teddy Bear". The list of Mr. and Mrs. Edenborn's friends resembles a "Who's Who" of the rich and famous. Besides Roosevelt, they were friends with Edwin Mallinckrodt, the Ammonia King, Joseph Pulitzer, J. W. Gates, Texaco founder and parter of Edenborn, Alfred Clifford, Director of Kansas City Southern Railway, oil tycoon H. L. Hunt, John D. Rockefeller, and August Busch and the Anheuser family. And of course, Edenborn was acquainted with and had dealings with Huey P. Long. It is said that Edenborn, while entertaining guests, including many of those named above, would serve them homemade sandwiches. Known for being f rugal, Edenborn was often observed walking the tracks of his Shreveport and Red River Navigation Company, picking up spikes for reuse. This great tycoon lived his last years at Emden, Winn Parish, Louisiana. It was there he suffered a stroke/heart attack. He died a short while later in a Shreveport hospital at age 78. There have been over a hundred small villages and towns in our parish since its birth in 1852. Many were rail stops, such as the ones named by Edenborn. Others were named for some man or who happened to be the postmaster for a particular locale at the time. And others were named in honor of some famed passing person, such as Crockett, named for Davy, the Congressman, Indian f ighter, and martyr at the Alamo. But Emden, Alonzo, and Lofton were named by a unique German immigrant, who came to America in search of a better life and ended up being a $ 90 million dollar man. Sources: The Man Who Fenced the West (Glen Coleman) Winn Parish Enterprise-News American Harley B. Bozeman (late, great Winn Parish historian)