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Arthur
Edward
Stilwell,
railroad
builder and
urban
promoter, son
of Charles
Herbert and
Mary Augusta
(Pierson)
Stilwell, was
born in
Rochester, New
York, on
October 21,
1859. At the
age of
fourteen or
fifteen,
following the
collapse of
his father's
jewelry
business in
Rochester, he
ran away from
home and
became a
clerk,
traveling
salesman, and
insurance
policy
developer. In
1886 he moved
to Kansas
City, where he
founded trust
companies and
built
belt-line
railways.
Stilwell's
first major
project was a
railway south
from Kansas
City to the
Gulf of Mexico
for the
purpose of
exporting
midwestern
agricultural
products. The
original
terminal point
was Sabine
Pass, Texas,
but Stilwell
formed a
syndicate that
founded the
town of Port
Arthur on
Sabine Lake.
Despite the
depression of
1893, the
flamboyant
Stilwell drove
the Kansas
City,
Pittsburg and
Gulf Railroad
(later Kansas
City Southern)
south from
Kansas City to
Port Arthur in
1897. The
railway, built
with capital
from eastern
and Dutch
investors,
failed in
1899, and
Stillwell lost
control. In
order for Port
Arthur to
become a
viable
seaport, a
canal had to
be cut around
the lake to
Sabine Pass, a
costly and
much-delayed
project that
was completed
in 1899. In
1900 Stilwell
announced a
project to
connect Kansas
City with the
closest port
on the Pacific
Ocean. His
goal was to
secure trade
with east Asia
for the
Midwest,
bypassing
California
ports. Near
the town of
Topolobampo,
Sinaloa,
Mexico, on the
Gulf of
California, he
founded Port
Stilwell. From
1900 until
1912 he
constructed
the Kansas
City, Mexico
and Orient
Railway from
Wichita,
Kansas, south
through
Oklahoma to
San Angelo and
eventually to
Alpine, Texas.
The Mexican
Revolutionqv
and a lack of
traffic led to
bankruptcy for
the railway,
and Stilwell
was forced out
of his firm.
Stilwell
blamed the
"Cannibals of
Wall Street,"
and John W.
Gatesqv
in particular,
for his
losses, and
wrote several
books on
finance and
world affairs.
He then
published
novels, poems,
and stories
alleging that
the ideas for
his railways
and Port
Arthur came to
him from
"brownies."
Stilwell was a
Christian
Scientist. He
married Jennie
A. Wood on
June 10, 1879,
and they had
no children.
He died in New
York on
September 26,
1928. Among
the other
Texas
communities
founded by his
firms were
Nederland,
Diaz,
Rochester,
Hamlin, Odell,
Sylvester, and
Rule.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Keith L.
Bryant, Jr.,
"Arthur E.
Stilwell and
the Founding
of Port
Arthur: A Case
of
Entrepreneurial
Error,"
Southwestern
Historical
Quarterly
75 (July
1971). Keith
L. Bryant,
Jr.,
Arthur
E. Stilwell:
Promoter with
a Hunch
(Nashville:
Vanderbilt
University
Press, 1971).
David M.
Pletcher, Rails,
Mines, and
Progress:
Seven American
Promoters in
Mexico,
1867-1911
(Ithaca:
Cornell
University
Press, 1958).
Arthur E.
Stilwell and
James R.
Crowell, I
Had a Hunch
(Port Arthur
Historical
Society,
1972).
Keith
L. Bryant, Jr.
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