LEWIS P. FEATHERSTONE, president of the Gulf & Interstate Railroad Company, has for a number of years been one of the foremost in the development of the commercial and industrial possibilities of the gulf coast in the vicinity of Galveston.

He was born in Oxford, Mississippi. July 28. 1851. being a son of Lewis H. Featherstone, a native of Alabama. a farmer, who died in 1894. After an education in the public schools of Lebanon, Tennessee, and in Cumberland University. he left college to take employment in a sawmill.

Moving to Arkansas. he began railroad contracting. This business brought him to Galveston in 1894 for the purpose of constructing the Gulf & Interstate Railroad. The road was completed the next year. but was demolished in the storm and flood of 1900. The line was rebuilt in 1903 and in 1906 was acquired by the Santa Fe System. which has consolidated it as an important link with its other Texas lines, and the Gulf & Interstate is now being reconstructed for the heavy traffic which it is designed to carry within a few years.

While a resident of Arkansas Mr. Featherstone served in the legislature and also represented a district of the state in Congress. He is a member of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce and the Galveston Business League, and one of the most public spirited of Galveston business men.

In 1874 Mr. Featherstone married Miss Alice White. of Memphis. Tennessee. They have four children1 Lewis L., John B., Paul P. and Albert D. Lewis L., who now has charge of the Port Bolivar City Company, was identified with important interests of town and vicinity for more than forty years. His business integrity has always been maintained at the highest standard, and he is one of the most esteemed citizens of Victoria and the county.