Who was John Slidell?
After the tracks were laid, a train depot was built and the station was named Slidell following the request of Baron Emile Erlanger, one of the financial backers of the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad. Erlanger was John Slidell’s son-in-law through his marriage to Mathilde Slidell. By 1884, not only was the railroad completed, but the first telephone and telegraph line had been extended from Mandeville.