Wisner, Edward

Submitted by Mike Miller

Wisner, Edward, of New Orleans, was born Feb. 27, 1860, in Athens, Mich., of German and Holland Dutch ancestry. His early life was spent on his father's farm near Athens, Mich., where he attended a district school and later went to the high school at Union City, Mich., from which institution he graduated. He was engaged in banking and farming in Michigan until Feb., 1888, when he came to Louisiana and located in Franklin parish, whence in 1900 he moved to New Orleans.

He immediately began to reclaim land in the vicinity of Lockport, La., which he and associates had purchased. Nearly 1,000,000 acres of this land had been bought before coming to the city and about 400,000 acres have been purchased since. The price Mr. Wisner paid for this land ranged from 12-1/2 cents to $7.50 per acre. In a small and incidental way, in connection with plantation work, Louisiana meadow land had been reclaimed by pumping, but Mr. Wisner was the first to reclaim what is known as meadow land, on a scale in accordance with modern engineering principles. Very many persons thought Mr. Wisner was unwise to buy such vast amounts of this land and try to reclaim it. Indeed, many times it looked to Mr. Wisner himself as though he would never get anything out of the enterprise. But he had taken up the work so extensively and carried it so far that, like ''the man who had the bear by the tail, he could not let go.''

By determination and perseverence he has proven beyond doubt the absolute feasibility of reclaiming this marvelously fertile land, and the time is not far distant when millions of acres, formerly worthless, will be growing bumper crops and yearly adding to the wealth of Mr. Wisner's adopted state. He has sold about 400,000 acres unimproved land at prices ranging from $1.00 to $15.00 an acre, and about 5,000 acres of reclaimed land, ready for the plow, at from $50.00 to $100.00 an acre. About 20 different companies are now at work in Louisiana reclaiming this land, which is found to be not only very rich, but very well balanced to a depth sufficient to make it practically inexhaustible. It is now the plan to reclaim all this land before offering it for sale. In 1907, Mr. Wisner organized the Louisiana Meadows Co., with a capital of $5,000,000.00, and this in 1913 reduced to $4,000,000, with offices in the Maison Blanche building.

Mr. Wisner was married, in 1885, to Mary J., daughter of H. J. and Harriet Rowe, of Athens, Mich., who were farmers. Two children, Harriet Rowena, now Mrs. H. J. Paneguy, and Clarissa Elizabeth, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wisner.

Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 469-470. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.