In 1874, an innovative farmer from DeKalb, Illinois received the original patent for barbed wire. Joseph Glidden established the Barb Wire Fence Company with Isaac Ellwood, also of DeKalb. It’s doubtful that either man foresaw this invention becoming one of what the BBC recently listed as “the 50 things that made the modern economy.”
Taming the plains
Up until the Civil War, public perception of the American Midwest was that of a vast empty space. An impediment to be overcome in order to reach the natural splendors (and gold) of the Far West. If it could be populated, horses and cattle might roam like the buffalo, freely grazing where the grass and climate dictated. In the interest of settling the Great Plains, President Lincoln established the Homestead Act of 1862.
It set aside 160 acres for any citizen willing to build a home and work the land for five years. This proved a pivotal step toward defining property rights in America. One of the first things people did was fence themselves off from the undefined frontier.
Back in DeKalb, Glidden and Ellwood produced 32 miles of barbed wire during the first year of their patent award. A mere six years later, the same factory turned out 263,000 miles of wire. Widespread fence raising and various wire cutting wars ensued on the prairie. With 15,000 homesteads created in 1865 alone, the trend was clear; the era of the open range was largely over.
Fortunes were made on this fencing, which was described by John Warne Gates as “lighter than air, stronger than whiskey, cheaper than dust.” The wire could be strung long distances with a minimum of wood (or even limestone, fashioned into posts in western Kansas where a tree was an oddity.) Barbed wire proved impervious to livestock, which quickly learned to avoid it. Its sharp points kept encroachment to a minimum. The steel even aged well, making it a value over time.
An inventive mind meets an opportune time
This is by way of introduction to William Edenborn (1848-1926.) A native of Westphalia in what is now Germany, he arrived “a penniless adventurer” in America at the age of 19. His first job was painting oil barrels for Standard Oil Company. A later apprenticeship in a wire works developed his interest in developing better means of production. He moved to St. Louis in 1870 and worked for a wire business with Frank Ludlow. They began production of barbed wire and nails from a factory at Main and Gratiot Streets.
In 1877, Edenborn and O.P. Saylor founded the St. Louis Wire Mill Company. A keen innovator, Edenborn saw the manufacturing end of barbed wire as an opportunity. He set about designing better machines for fabricating the wire. A series of patents followed, and Edenborn’s cost of production plummeted. He drove the cost of barbed wire from 17 cents to less than three cents per pound. This led to his controlling 75% of the U.S. wire market.
John Warne Gates, a man known as “Bet A Million” Gates, joined with Edenborn in St. Louis in 1881. Together, they began assimilating smaller players in the industry, and formed Consolidated Steel and Wire Company. Later, tycoon J.P. Morgan bought or starved everyone else out of business, creating a monopoly for his own US Steel. This ultimate big fish devoured Consolidated Steel as well.
Edenborn, Ludlow and Lafayette Square
An exception to this process, Frank Ludlow, moved the Ludlow Saylor Wire Company into production of steel cloth, elevator cages, and wrought iron. It exists to this day. Here is a link to their catalog from 1900. You’ll see several familiar Lafayette Square fence designs here:
https://archive.org/details/LudlowSaylorWireCo.Cat.No.33
Ludlow’s brother Richard established Ludlow Saylor Wire in 1856 and built his home at 40 Benton Place in 1873. A local geography footnote is that on December 5, 1894, the St. Louis City Council voted to award Richard $681.00 for property damage. This resulted from the regrading of Hickory Street behind his property. The new contouring led to the 20-30 foot limestone wall there today. It was originally intended to insulate wealthy Benton Place from the riff-raff at Schnaiders Beer Garden.
William Edenborn himself had long resided a block away, at 2019 Park Avenue in Lafayette Square. His St. Louis Wire Mill Company at Gratiot and 21st Street in 1892 employed 400 workers and turned out 100 tons of wire and 1000 kegs of nails daily. Edenborn’s wire nail machine invention drove the cost of nails from eight to two cents per pound. Again, business took off as competitors struggled to compete. As his holdings increased and became known as Consolidated Steel and Wire, and then American Steel Wire Company, he caught another tail wind with the country’s need for telegraph and telephone wire. He quickly became one of the wealthiest men in the U.S, and finally sold to Morgan for a cool $100 million in 1901.
Edenborn relocated to Louisiana, became the state’s largest landowner, and established railroads and barge and steamboat lines in the South. When he died, his funeral procession stretched for 15 blocks. Twelve truckloads of flowers accompanied the hearse.
Epilogue
Despite his enormous wealth, William Edenborn and his wife (the former Sarah Drain of St. Louis) lived very simply, drawing a salary of $200.00 a year. This would be equivalent to about $5,000.00 today. At the time of his death, he was worth an estimated $75 million, and his will was predictably contested for years.
It’s interesting to see what some of these hard-driving figures who lived in the Square were capable of accomplishing. The years following the Civil War saw a remarkable reshaping of the technologies that defined America, in communication, transportation, and economics. Some of it was driven by greed and corruption, but at the heart of most stories of overarching achievement lies a great idea by a simple person. We’ve had a fair share of Citizen Kane type stories in Lafayette Square, some of whom created a national impact.
From its agricultural origins, barbed wire has adapted over time to keeping people out, as well as keeping people in. Menacing steel fence and barbed wire form the front lines in dozens of conflicts. It’s seldom the thing as much as the application of that thing determining whether it’s perceived as good or bad. From an Edenborn perspective, this must seem like unintended consequences. Barbed wire has become a thorny subject indeed.
Resources
William Edenborn: The Man Who Fenced The West; Glen Coleman; Glen Coleman Publishing; 1980. This was also the source of the terrific artwork by Siegfried Reinhardt, an artist worthy of note; responsible for murals, mosaics and stained glass around the area.
For more about Schnaider’s Garden, and brewing empire, read my earlier three part essay. Part one here: lafayettesquarearchives.com/1881-schnaiders-beer-empire-part-1/ Part two here: http://lafayettesquarearchives.com/1887-schnaiders-beer-empire-part-2/ Part three here: http://lafayettesquarearchives.com/1910-schnaiders-beer-empire-part-3/
Iron Age Vol 67; David Williams Company; 1901
The Industries Of St Louis; John Leonard; J.M. Elstner & Company; St Louis; 1887
St Louis Wire Pen And Sunlight Sketches Of St Louis; St Louis Wire Company;1892
The Devil’s Rope: How Barbed Wire Changed America; Tim Harford; BBC World Service; 2017
Our Times: William Edenborn, One Of The Country’s Richest Men; New Orleans Times- Picayune Staff on nola.com; 2012
Ludlow Saylor Company catalogue No. 33 courtesy of the Internet Library
Dictionary Of Louisiana Biography – Louisiana Historical Society
A very interesting story indeed of another early STL titan of industry. As much as I think I know a lot of the late 1800’s era history, this was a new one other than the name of the company. Well written and researched. Thank you!
Thanks for the comment,Randy, and thanks for taking the time to read long-form essays. It’s great to see in this era of quick contextless hits and short attention spans. More to come, so stay tuned.
re 2019 Park Avenue. I remember the building being torn down some 30 years ago. It was a 4 family and I if memory serves, I believe it was one of Larry Rice’s outposts. The west side of the building was sinking and it was considered beyond saving. I had a brief conversation with Gus Buder around that time and he had lived there as a child. He told me how if the neighborhood boys were caught scaling the park fence, the park police would collar them and drag them home to their mothers for a good scolding! Times have changed.
Thanks, Mike; Yes, I’ve heard from the people who built 2015-2017 Park Ave that they had to sink something like 30 piers 20 feet deep to stabilize the duplex that stands there now. If you look from the park, 2011 seems to lean a bit to the left as well.
This is a wonderful story about William Edenborn as he is a relative of mine. Before he married Sarah Drain he fathered a daughter Sophia Meier nee Edenborn out of wedlock and he saw she was raised by him thus the will was fought and not undated. It was before he met Sarah Drain. There are many St. Louis newspapers about contesting of the will and there was a trail. He even would buy a home (Farm) in Gumbo, Mo. Chesterfield, Mo. for her and would see her and her children. He and Sarah would lose their two daughters and buried at the farm. So, in end she stopped trying to fight for her right from her father Wm. Edenborn. She was given a child share and Sarah saw her family got the money. Sophia’s real mother was Frida Detty and would die. I did a DNA test, and I am a cousin of Sophia Edenborn nee Meier. I have the books that were wrote about him and he did love his daughter. I am happy to be related to the man that fenced the west and owned a railway. Marlene Mangold nee Hellman
Thanks for sharing your insight into the Edenborns, Marlene. I’m glad the essay meets with your approval, as you no doubt know more about William Edenborn than I do. It’s sad how many of the old business success stories end up with the family fighting over a will. It happened in just my most recent tale of Christopher and Simpson.