Edison's Pedigree - 2

Edison's Pedigree - 2

After some desultory wanderings for a year or two along the shores of Lake Erie, among

the prosperous towns then springing up, the family, with its Canadian home forfeited, and

in quest of another resting-place, came to Milan, Ohio, in 1842. That pretty little village

offered at the moment many attractions as a possible Chicago. The railroad system of

Ohio was still in the future, but the Western Reserve had already become a vast wheatfield,

and huge quantities of grain from the central and northern counties sought shipment

to Eastern ports. The Huron River, emptying into Lake Erie, was navigable within a few

miles of the village, and provided an admirable outlet. Large granaries were established,

and proved so successful that local capital was tempted into the project of making a towpath

canal from Lockwood Landing all the way to Milan itself. The quaint old Moravian

mission and quondam Indian settlement of one hundred inhabitants found itself of a

sudden one of the great grain ports of the world, and bidding fair to rival Russian Odessa.

A number of grain warehouses, or primitive elevators, were built along the bank of the

canal, and the produce of the region poured in immediately, arriving in wagons drawn by

four or six horses with loads of a hundred bushels. No fewer than six hundred wagons

came clattering in, and as many as twenty sail vessels were loaded with thirty-five

thousand bushels of grain, during a single day. The canal was capable of being navigated

by craft of from two hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burden, and the demand for

such vessels soon led to the development of a brisk ship-building industry, for which the

abundant forests of the region supplied the necessary lumber. An evidence of the activity

in this direction is furnished by the fact that six revenue cutters were launched at this port

in these brisk days of its prime.

Samuel Edison, versatile, buoyant of temper, and ever optimistic, would thus appear to

have pitched his tent with shrewd judgment. There was plenty of occupation ready to his

hand, and more than one enterprise received his attention; but he devoted his energies

chiefly to the making of shingles, for which there was a large demand locally and along

the lake. Canadian lumber was used principally in this industry. The wood was imported

in "bolts" or pieces three feet long. A bolt made two shingles; it was sawn asunder by

hand, then split and shaved. None but first-class timber was used, and such shingles

outlasted far those made by machinery with their cross-grain cut. A house in Milan, on

which some of those shingles were put in 1844, was still in excellent condition forty-two

years later. Samuel Edison did well at this occupation, and employed several men, but

there were other outlets from time to time for his business activity and speculative

disposition.

Edison's mother was an attractive and highly educated woman, whose influence upon his

disposition and intellect has been profound and lasting. She was born in Chenango

County, New York, in 1810, and was the daughter of the Rev. John Elliott, a Baptist

minister and descendant of an old Revolutionary soldier, Capt. Ebenezer Elliott, of

Scotch descent. The old captain was a fine and picturesque type. He fought all through

the long War of Independence --seven years--and then appears to have settled down at

Stonington, Connecticut. There, at any rate, he found his wife, "grandmother Elliott,"

who was Mercy Peckham, daughter of a Scotch Quaker. Then came the residence in New

York State, with final removal to Vienna, for the old soldier, while drawing his pension at

Buffalo, lived in the little Canadian town, and there died, over 100 years old. The family

was evidently one of considerable culture and deep religious feeling, for two of Mrs.

Edison's uncles and two brothers were also in the same Baptist ministry. As a young

woman she became a teacher in the public high school at Vienna, and thus met her

husband, who was residing there. The family never consisted of more than three children,

two boys and a girl. A trace of the Canadian environment is seen in the fact that Edison's

elder brother was named William Pitt, after the great English statesman. Both his brother

and the sister exhibited considerable ability. William Pitt Edison as a youth was so clever

with his pencil that it was proposed to send him to Paris as an art student. In later life he

was manager of the local street railway lines at Port Huron, Michigan, in which he was

heavily interested. He also owned a good farm near that town, and during the ill-health at

the close of his life, when compelled to spend much of the time indoors, he devoted

himself almost entirely to sketching. It has been noted by intimate observers of Thomas

A. Edison that in discussing any project or new idea his first impulse is to take up any

piece of paper available and make drawings of it. His voluminous note-books are a mass

of sketches. Mrs-Tannie Edison Bailey, the sister, had, on the other hand, a great deal of

literary ability, and spent much of her time in writing.