FRIENDS OF THE PORT ARTHUR PUBLIC LIBRARY

DISCOVER A TREASURE!

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Note: as a gift for a history buff - particularly one interested in late 19th and early 20th century railway development or business conditions - this would be something different.  Anyone interested in Port Arthur history will find the account memorable. 

Forty Years of Business Life written by Arthur Stilwell in 1925 has been resurrected by The Friends. This never before published manuscript was discovered in the Library’s historical files. The detailed journal is a cultural revelation of financial wheeling and dealing before the Great Depression.

Stilwell tells how stockholders made millions, trusting his business acumen and honesty. His associates included Mexican President Porfirio Diaz, George Pullman, Charles M. Schwab, J. P. Morgan, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and George Westinghouse. The theft of the Kansas City Southern Railway Company by "Bet-a-Million" Gates and subsequent lawsuits resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, totally vindicating Stilwell, are explicated.

This book is a testament to how Stilwell chose Port Arthur for his port on the Texas coast, and details the construction of the Kansas City - Southern (KCS) Railway from the Midwest to Port Arthur. Described as the "last of the Great Empire Builders," Stilwell is barely remembered in the forty towns he founded along 2000 miles of his mainline railroads, spanning six states of the U.S. and extending across Mexico to the Pacific.

Dow Wynn, founding Port Director of the Port of Port Arthur Navigation District, wrote the forward. Yvonne Sutherlin, Friend - Volunteer - local historian and researcher, edited the manuscript. Copies are on sale at the Port Arthur Public Library and the Museum of the Gulf Coast for $14 each.  Copies may be ordered by directing the request to Friends of the Library, 4615 9th Avenue, Port Arthur, TX  77642.  Please make checks to Friends  and include $3.00 per book for shipping and handling.