Discover the dreamer and visionary, Arthur Stilwell, whose crowning achievement was the railroad that became the Kansas City Southern.

Arthur E. Stilwell, Promoter with a Hunch
By Keith L. Bryant, Jr.
This comprehensive biography covers Arthur Stilwell’s complete life. Bryant discusses Stilwell’s childhood, his career with the railroads, life in Kansas City, the creation of Port Arthur, Texas, projects that were never completed, and his final years as an author.

City of the Future: A Narrative History of Kansas City, 1850-1950
By Henry C. Haskell, Jr. and Richard B. Fowler
Written by two Kansas City Star newspapermen, City of the Future tells the story of Kansas City on its 100th anniversary and sets that story against the larger backdrop of U.S. history.

“Entrepreneur of the Gilded Age: Arthur Stilwell in Kansas City” (pdf)
By Landon H. Rowland
This speech by Landon Rowland was prepared for the Charles N. Kimball Lecture sponsored by the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City. It focuses on the entrepreneurial spirit and efforts of Stilwell.

By Arthur Stilwell

Confidence, or National Suicide?
By Arthur Edward Stilwell
Published in 1910, Stilwell defends the railroad industry against the public’s demand for more regulation in his first full-length book.

Cannibals of Finance: Fifteen Years' Contest with the Money Trust
By Arthur Edward Stilwell
Published in 1912, this personal statement by Stillwell discusses the Guardian Trust Company, the Kansas City Southern Railroad and the “injustice of the ‘money trust’.” Stillwell also analyzes the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway project.

“I Had a Hunch” (parts 1-5), Saturday Evening Post, 1927-28
By Arthur E. Stilwell with James R. Crowell
This series of five autobiographical articles was published in the Saturday Evening Post in December 1927 and January 1928. They tell a rags-to-riches story of his life from childhood to retirement.