The Louisiana Southern Railway Company (LS) was a
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
in southern
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, chartered in 1897 as successor to several
short lines which had operated along the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
, including Mississippi, Terre aux Boeuf, and Lake; New Orleans and Gulf; and New Orleans and Southern, that eventually became part of the
Southern Railway system.
The Railway was originally owned jointly by Franklin (Frank) Emery Prewett (1872-1936) and his half-brother, Granville Prewett (1896-1973). both of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Frank was the son of Vernal Franklin Prewett (1841-1911), of
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
, then
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, and his first wife, Susan C. Ross (c. 1850–1878). Granville was the son of Vernal Franklin Prewett and, apparently, his second spouse, Emma Lucy Ross. In 1907, the elder Prewett then married Ardelia (Della) Bowers, later Gooch (1868-1916).
The main line was New Orleans to
Bohemia, Louisiana
Bohemia is a small Unincorporated area, unincorporated community located in the Mississippi River Delta, delta of the Mississippi River in the Parish (Louisiana), parish of Plaquemines, Louisiana, Plaquemines, Louisiana, United States. The uninc ...
, about 50 miles.
However, the line had total trackage of 65.1 miles by the early 1920s.
[ The line was leased to the New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway, operated by the ]Gulf Coast Lines
The Gulf Coast Lines was the name of a railroad system comprising three principal railroads, as well as some smaller ones, that stretched from New Orleans, Louisiana, via Baton Rouge and Houston to Brownsville, Texas. Originally chartered as sub ...
, on February 1, 1911;[ but, the National Railway Labor Board ruled in the 1920s that the line was still independent of Gulf Coast Lines.][ That left ''truck farms'', or large-scale ]market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or s ...
s, as about the line's only traffic.[
In 1952, ]Southern
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, M ...
bought what was then a 15-mile line, running along the Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
from to Braithwaite, Louisiana
Braithwaite is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States. Braithwaite is located on the Mississippi River and Louisiana Highway 39 in northern Plaquemines Parish, ...
.[Tom Murray. Southern Railway. Voyageur Press. pp. 105–. .]
References
Defunct Louisiana railroads
Predecessors of the Southern Railway (U.S.)
History of Louisiana
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