Haden Harrison Edwards worked as a livestock trader, soldier, politician and railroad executive.
Further military service in Indian campaigns after the Revolution led to the Republic of Texas government's appointing him as a brigadier general.
Construction began and some rails were in place when the outbreak of the American Civil War halted all activity.
As soon as the war ended, Edwards began working to revive the railroad, and was in Cincinnati, Ohio in August, 1865 trying to arrange financing for it when he died.
The eldest, Peyton Foster Edwards (1844–1918), served as a Confederate soldier and then followed his father into the political arena, becoming known as "the red rooster of Nacogdoches", representing the area for two terms in the Texas Senate prior to moving to El Paso.