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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
183
CHAPTER
IX.
THOMAS
ALVA
EDISON.
Thomas
Alva
Edison,
the
most
famous
inventor
of
his
time
and
country,
was
born
at
Milan,
Erie
County,
Ohio,
in
the
United
States,
on
February
11,
1847.
His
pedigree
has
been
traced
for
two
centuries
to
a
family
of
prosperous
millers
in
Holland,
some
of
whom
emigrated
to
America
in
1730.
Thomas,
his
great-grandfather,
was
an
officer
of
a
bank
in
Manhattan
Island
during
the
Revolution,
and
his
signature
is
extant
on
the
old
notes
of
the
American
currency.
Longevity
seems
a
characteristic
of
the
strain,
for
Thomas
lived
to
the
patriarchal
term
of
102,
his
son
to
103,
and
Samuel,
the
father
of
the
inventor,
is,
we
understand,
a
brisk
and
hale
old
man
of
eighty-six.
Born
at
Digby,
in
the
county
of
Annapolis,
Nova
Scotia,
on
August
16,
1804,
Samuel
was
apprenticed
to
a
tailor,
but
in
his
manhood
he
forsook
the
needle
to
engage
in
the
lumber
trade,
and
afterwards
in
grain.
He
resided
for
a
time
in
Canada,
where,
at
Vienna,
he
was
married
to
Miss
Nancy
Elliott,
a
popular
teacher
in
the
high
school.
She
was
of
Scotch
descent,
and
born
in
Chenango
County,
New
York,
on
January
10,
1810.
After
his
marriage
he
removed,
in
1837,
to
Detroit,
Michigan,
and
the
following
year
settled
in
Milan.
In
his
younger
days
Samuel
Edison
was
a
man
of
fine
appearance.
He
stood
6
feet
2
inches
in
his
stockings,
and
even
at
the
age
of
sixty-four
he
was
known
to
outjump
260
soldiers
of
a
regiment
quartered
at
Fort
Gratiot,
in
Michigan.
His
wife
was
a
fine-looking
woman,
intelligent,
well-educated,
and
a
social
favourite.
The
inventor
probably
draws
his
physical
endurance
from
his
father,
and
his
intellect
from
his
mother.
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