In 1898, he married Elodie Graugnard. She was the sister of Gaston’s widow, and they settled in Biloxi. Edward purchased the Biloxi Artesian Bottling Works. Though he operated the soda works during the summer, he continued to work as a chemist at sugar firms in Louisiana during the winter months. He continued bottling spring water and added flavored sodas. The flavors did not stop at root beer, fruit flavors were soon included: strawberry, orange, peach, ginger ale, and others were cycled depending on their popularity. The early years of the company was spent hand bottling, corking, and delivering by horse and cart.

Barq has started planning for production expansion. In July 1936, Barq purchased the property at the corner of Lameuse St. and the railroad. The new factory was completed in 1937. There was an open house held for the new facility, and around 2,000 people attended and consumed close to 3,000 bottles of root beer. Modernization was the name of the game. By 1937, there were sixty-two franchise bottling plants and warehouses throughout twenty-two states. Though they produced the soda, the Biloxi plant was the only producer of the root beer syrup. Barq’s became nationally popular and by 1950 the franchises had grown to two hundred. Business like the moon, waxes and wanes, over the next thirty years the franchise bottling operations had dwindled to nineteen. In 1976, William Barq sold the business to John Koerner and John Oudt and they moved the administrative side of the company to New Orleans. Their partnership breathed new life into the company. They developed sugar free Barq’s root beer and launched it in 1977. The following decade was full of growth with their products distributed in 337 markets nationally. The Coca-Cola company made overtures to Barq’s and officially purchased the brand in 1995.

Noreta Lopez Yerger inherited the building at the corner of Reynoir St. and Howard Ave. The building was originally the Lopez Company store. She spent $100,000 dollars to alter the old building and creating more commercial business spaces. The Great Depression struck, and she had to declare bankruptcy, the building was sold to Avenue Realty Co., and in 1938 sold the building to Ed Barq. This building was not involved in the production of Barq’s Rootbeer, however the building was a cornerstone of the downtown shopping district.