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The Louisiana Southern Railway Company (LS) was a railroad in southern Louisiana, chartered in 1897 as successor to several short lines which had operated along the Mississippi River, 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.[1]
The Railway was originally owned jointly by Franklin (Frank) Emery Prewett (1872-1936) and his half-brother, Granville Prewett (1896-1973).[2] both of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Frank was the son of Vernal Franklin Prewett (1841-1911), of West Virginia, then Tennessee, and his first wife, Susan C. Ross (c. 1850–1878). [3] 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). [4]
The main line was New Orleans to Bohemia, Louisiana, about 50 miles.[5] However, the line had total trackage of 65.1 miles by the early 1920s.[6] The line was leased to the New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway, operated by the Gulf Coast Lines, on February 1, 1911;[5] but, the National Railway Labor Board ruled in the 1920s that the line was still independent of Gulf Coast Lines.[6] By that time, sugar cane and sugar products, which had previously been a major commodity for the railroad, had ceased to be, due to closure of the sugar mills in the area.[6] That left truck farms, or large-scale market gardens, as about the line's only traffic.[6]
In 1952, Southern bought what was then a 15-mile line, running along the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Braithwaite, Louisiana.[7]
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