Macaroni Station
Edna, Jackson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Forerunner of town of Edna; a camp and commissary during the building of the New York, Texas & Mexican railway, 1880-1882. Count Joseph Telfener, one of the railway investors, brought laborers from his native Italy; station was nicknamed for them. Mrs. Lucy Flournoy in 1882 had townsite surveyed on her land here. The name "Edna" honors a daughter of Count Telfener. The "Macaroni" line built only 92 miles before it dropped plan to extend into Mexico; even so, it aided growth in coastal Texas. Since 1885 it has been in the Southern Pacific system.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Macaroni Station began as a camp and commissary during the building of the New York, Texas & Mexican Railway in the early 1880s. Investor Count Joseph Telfener brought laborers from his native Italy, and the station earned its nickname from them; the railway itself was long called the "Macaroni" line. When landowner Lucy Flournoy had a townsite surveyed here in 1882, it was named Edna for the Count's daughter, and the settlement outlived the railroad's abandoned dream of reaching Mexico.
Why it matters
It preserves a small, vivid chapter of immigrant labor and railroad speculation that seeded permanent towns along the Texas coast.
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Related people
- · Count Joseph Telfener
- · Lucy Flournoy
Themes & tags
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