Macaroni Station was the forerunner of the town of Edna, serving as a camp and commissary during construction of the New York, Texas & Mexican railway from 1880 to 1882. Count Joseph Telfener, one of the railway's investors, brought laborers from his native Italy, and the station received its nickname from them. In 1882, Mrs. Lucy Flournoy had a townsite surveyed on her land here, and the name Edna honored a daughter of Count Telfener. The "Macaroni" line built only 92 miles before abandoning plans to extend into Mexico, but it still aided the growth of coastal Texas. Since 1885, it has been part of the Southern Pacific system.