When I was a kid, I used to think that Thomas Edison was born in Edison, Ohio.  Well, it kind of makes sense.  But, the American inventor was born in Milan, Ohio, near Lake Erie and Sandusky, in 1847.  The little village of Gilead Station, and later Levering, changed its name to honor Thomas Edison in 1881.   It didn't actually help the village grow all that much.  In 2023, the population of Edison was 441.

When Thomas was seven, too young to know any better, his family moved to Port Huron, "X"ichigan.  He started school there, a little late due to illness, and lasted for three months in the public school.  He was kicked out because he couldn't (or wouldn't) pay attention to the teacher.  The task fell upon his mother to nurture and teach the last of her seven children.  As she taught him to read and write, she must have done a good job to motivate him!  Tommy developed a love of reading.  He read books, fascinated by technology as well as new inventions, and taught himself.  He enjoyed experimenting and creating during this time.

When Edison was just twelve, he had scarlet fever.  The disease left him deaf in his left ear and with an 80% loss in the right ear.  Some people might have been tempted to give up, but not our hero from Ohio (and "X"ichigan).  He believed this helped him concentrate on his work.  The next year, he sold candy, newspapers and vegetables on a train in order to earn the needed cash to buy the equipment he wanted for his electrical and chemical experiments. 

His work along the railroad changed his life the day he saved a young boy from being hit by a runaway train.  The grateful father gave Edison a job as a telegraph operator on the Grand Trunk (not Funk, if you know your oldies music) Railway.  By 16, our hero created his first invention.  It was an automatic repeater, a device that helped to send messages more quickly over telegraph lines. 

Edison's first marriage, at 24 in 1871, was to Mary Stillwell who was 16-years old at the time.  They had three children during their 13-year marriage --  Marion Estelle (called Dot), Tommy Jr. (called Dash), and William Leslie (called anything but Leslie, I hope).  Mary Stillwell Edison died when she was just 29.

Two years later, when Edison was 39, he married for the second time.  The second bride, Mina Miller, was 19 on her wedding day.  They also had three children -- Madeleine, Charles, and Theodore.  (Charles eventually took over his father's company when Thomas died and then later was elected to be the governor of New Jersey.)  Edison built a home for his second wife in West Orange, New Jersey.  It was called "Glenmont".  The couple liked to spend winters in Fort Myers, Florida.  But, it didn't matter where Edison found himself.   He tinkered with his inventions whether he was up north or down south.  While in Florida, Edison became friends with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone.   It made since that his interests in Florida focused on rubber, so important in the automobile and tire industries. 

Edison moved around a bit before finally deciding where he really wanted to live.  In 1868, I lived in Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as a telegraph operator.  Later, in 1869, he moved to New York City for a job fixing machines at a company.  This gave him time in the evening to work on his own projects.  Finally, in 1876, Edison used the money from his inventions to create his own laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.  It was the first business with the sole purpose of inventing.  The inventors who worked with Edison took their research and science skills and applied them to practical uses that could be manufactured on a large scale.  Menlo Park was so successful that the laboratory expanded to cover two city blocks in ten years. 

Over the course of his life, Thomas Edison may have been the greatest inventor in history.  Over 1,000 patents are registered in his name.  They changed history for people back in the 1800s and continue on to today.  He used his inventions to form General Electric, which ranked as the 33rd largest firm in the United States in 2020.

Among his three most famous inventions were the phonograph (which made it possible to record and play back sound), the practical light bulb (not the original bulb, but he made one that lasted longer), and the motion picture (which was great for all of us who enjoy a good movie).  In addition to these, he invented the carbon microphone that helped Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.  Among his other inventions were an electric voting machine, the precursor to the copy machine, the automatic telegraph, and the alkaline storage battery.

Edison was an active businessman up until his last years.  His achievements led him to receiving the French Legion of Honor in 1881 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1928.  His curiosity, creativity, and hard work left an example for future inventors around the world. Thomas Alva Edison died from complications with diabetes on October 18, 1931.