DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one ridin' shotgun on the story. Now, there are towns in Texas with sensible names, respectable names, names that tell you exactly what you're getting into. And then there's a story like this one — one that starts with Italians, a count, and a railroad that never quite made it to Mexico.
Pull up a chair. This is the tale of Macaroni Station. Before the town of Edna ever existed in Jackson County, there was a camp and a commissary — a working, hustling little outpost thrown up during the building of the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway, somewhere between 1880 and 1882.
Now that's a grand name for a railroad. New York. Texas.
Mexico. Ambition practically dripping off every syllable. One of the investors behind that grand ambition was Count Joseph Telfener — an actual count, mind you — and he brought laborers over from his native Italy to help lay those rails across the Texas coastal plain.
The workers camped out, they worked hard, and the locals took to calling the whole station after them. Macaroni Station. Just like that.
The name stuck the way good names do — somewhere between affection and ribbing. In 1882, a woman named Mrs. Lucy Flournoy saw something in this dusty railroad camp that others might've overlooked.
She had the townsite surveyed right there on her own land. A town was taking shape. And when it came time to give it a proper name — something a little more dignified than Macaroni — well, the honor went to a daughter of Count Telfener himself.
They called it Edna. Now, about that railroad and its magnificent ambitions. The New York, Texas and Mexican Railway — the Macaroni line, as folks came to call it — laid down 92 miles of track before the plan to push on into Mexico was dropped.
Just 92 miles. For a railroad with Mexico right there in its name, that's the kind of ending that earns a wry smile around a campfire. But here's the thing — those 92 miles weren't nothing.
The line aided growth all along the coastal Texas plain, and by 1885 it had been folded into the Southern Pacific system, where it kept right on doing what railroads do. So the count's line never reached Mexico. The camp got a serious name.
And Macaroni Station became Edna. Some stories end with a flourish. This one ends with 92 miles of track, a daughter's name on a town, and the Southern Pacific picking up where ambition left off.
What the marker says
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.