After a fire destroyed the Southern Wire Company, Gates gambled on the idea that William C. Edenborn had not heard the news and approached him for a merger with the idea that Southern Wire would manufacture in Edenborn's now idle barbed wire plant. The new company was known as St. Louis Wire Mill Company. They continued to buy other wire companies and had strong sales. Washburn-Moen went back into court, this time in Des Moines, Iowa, where a federal judge ruled that the machinery created by Baker was an infringement of Washburn-Moen's patents. By this time, Gates had created a syndicate of barbed wire manufacturers who did not produce their wares using Washburn-Moen's methods; the ruling in favor of Washburn-Moen only applied to areas in the jurisdiction of the U. S. Federal Court in Des Moines. Washburn-Moen continued to falter; Isaac Ellwood sent word asking for a meeting with Gates. Ellwood and another key figure with Washburn-Moen, John Lambert, now accepted offers from Gates. The barbed wire legal issues ended with Washburn-Moen selling their patent rights to Gates and his syndicate of wire manufacturers.