William Edenborn was a businessman, inventor, and industrialist who founded the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company and American Steel and Wire, served on the board of directors of U.S. Steel and as chairman of the board of the Kansas City Southern Railroad, and was a confidante of Teddy Roosevelt. He patented the first machine that made barbed wire, held dozens of other patents, and eventually controlled 75% of the steel monopoly in the United States. At his Emden farm 4.5 miles east of Atlanta, he taught monkeys to pick cotton. Wall Street named him one of America's richest people, and he was worth $75 million at the time of his death.