top of page
Search

How did Edna get its Name?

  • Feb 17, 2025
  • 4 min read

Updated: Feb 17, 2025

While browsing the “Grand opening of Long’s New Edna Theatre Program”, my husband noticed an article titled, “Edna” Jackson County Seat.  He read the article and was confused by the following passage: 


“Edna was named after the wife of J.W. Mackay, a mining millionaire who finanaced the railroad.  Other towns along the railroad were named “Louise” for a daughter of D.E. Hungerford of New York. “Inez” was named for the Countess Telferner, wife of an Italian who was in charge of building the railroad.” This is from the Grand Opening of Long’s New Edna Theatre Program, 1950.


He and I had always heard a different version of the story.  We had always heard that Inez, Edna and Louise were named for Count Telfener daughters.  This is also the version printed in The Calvacade of Jackson County so it has to be Gospel? I promised my husband to get to the bottom of this! 


Edna was at first a telegraph station along the new New York, Texas and Mexican Railroad. The railroad was financied and built by Count Giuseppe Joseph Telfener, Dainel Elihue Hungerford, and John W. Mackay. Count Telfener married Hungerford’s daughter Ada and John Mackay married his other daughter Marie Louise. Telfener met and married Ada Hungerford in Italy. John Mackay and Louise were married in 1867 in California. The Telfener family (which included daughters Edna and Inez) lived in Victoria for a short time while Count Telfener was organizing the railroad. None of the other men lived in Texas.


My research uncovered:

+Telferner was of course named for Count Giuseppe Joseph Telfener

+Inez and Edna were named for Telfener’s daughters 

+Louise was named after Marie Louise Antoinette Hungerford Mackay (Telfener’s sister-in-law and Hungerford’s daughter).

+A small town just before ElCampo was named Mackay for J.W. Mackay.

+Hungerford between ElCampo and Wharton was named for D. E. Hungerford. 


So Edna and Inez were Count Telfener’s daughters but Louise was not!  It is well documented that Edna and Inez were daughters of Telfener and that they married well.


Below are some accounts that I found while researching.  You will find below the sources I found and the stories told about how Edna got its name.


  1. “Edna was laid out on land owned by Mrs. Lucy Flournoy, who conveyed right-of-way and a half interest in the townsite to the railroad, which was promoted and built by Italian Count Joseph Telfener. The town was named for a daughter of the count.” https://usgenwebsites.org/TXJackson/edna_info.htm  This is true.


  1. Towns along the route were named for the financiers Telfener (see TELFERNER, TEXAS), Hungerford, and John W. Mackay; for Telfener's daughters Inez and Edna; and for Mackay's wife, Louise, later known for her entertainments and as the grandmother of Mrs. Irving Berlin.https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/telfener-joseph  This is true.


  1. “The Countess Telfener was honored in naming the little town of Inez, 15 miles east of Victoria.  Edna and Louise derived their names from the daughters of D. E. Hungerford and not, as is the popular belief, from Count Telfener’s daughters.  Edna was Mrs. Mackay’s Name.  https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth762571/m1/2/?q=%22Count%20Telfener%22 This is untrue. D.E. Hungerford’s daughters were Ada and Marie Louise. Edna and Inez were named for Telfener’s daughters and Mrs. Mackay was Marie Louise Telfener not Edna.


  1. Colonel Daniel E. Hungerford, a colorful figure who migrated from New York to California, had two daughters: Marie Louise Antoinette and Ada. After suffering numerous hardships, Louise married John W. Mackay, the great financier from Nevada. Colonel and Mrs. Hungerford and their second daughter, Ada, frequently visited Mrs. Mackay, who spent much of her time in Paris. While visiting in Europe, Ada met Count Joseph Telfener, a dashing nobleman from Rome, Italy, and they were married in Rome at Palazzo Telfener, formerly a royal residence, on March 15, 1879. Page 29  “A present, the chief reminders of the part played by Telfener and his family…in Texas are to be found in various place names along the present Southern Pacific line from Victoria to Houston.  Traveling east from Victoria one comes first to Telfener, then to Inez, named for a Telfener daughter…Then to Edna, also named for a Telfener daughter…Next, on passes through Louise, so designated for Louise Hungerford Mackay, then to Mackay, commemorating (Joan W. Mackay)…and last to Hungerford, named for Colonel Hungerford, a partner in the whole project… Page 42 Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965, periodical, 1965; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101198/m1/61/?q=Telfener: accessed February 16, 2025), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101198/m1/49/?q=Telfener


Edna Telfener Marriage

MRS. MACKEY'S NIECE TO MARRY HANDSOME ITALIAN

(By News Leased Wire.) PARIS. May 9. 1903—Mrs. Mackey, the widow of the great American millionaire who played a prominent part in the development of the great West, has informed the public that her niece, Miss Edna Telfener, will be married at Rome June 12. The marriage will not be a noteworthy social event, but a notable ecclesiastical ceremony, for the parties interested are devoted Catholics, whose acquaintance reaches far into the college of cardinals. Miss Telfener is the daughter of the Countess de Telfener, Mrs. Mackey's sister, who is well and widely known in the most exclusive Roman and Neapolitan society. The bridegroom to be js M. De Martino, member of the noted Italian family. He is a handsome gentleman and scholar. Miss Telfener, having supervised the creation of the trousseau, has returned to Rome with her mother. Mrs. Mackey remains here, going to Rome in a few days to attend the ceremony. The numerous American friends of Mrs. Mackey will be glad to learn she is in splendid health. She has taken a house in the Bols de Boulogne. This apparently means she will resume her in Parisian so-

ciety as soon as her period of mourning has expired. She is the best known American woman in Europe. Her charities extend over many countries. https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19030510-01.1.3 



Life of Colonel Daniel E. Hungerford 



Article on the New York, Texas and Mexican Railroad


Comments

Comments
Share Your ThoughtsBe the first to write a comment.
bottom of page