EARLY LIFE
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Thomas Edison was born February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio, but he grew up in Port Hurn, Michigan. He was the youngest child of seven. His parents were Samuel Ogden Edison Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliot. As a boy, Edison often never got along with many other kids at school so he was home schooled by his mother. Although Edison didn't learn how to talk until he was four years old, when he did he was very curious. Edison often asked many questions to adults and when they didn't know the answer he would ask, "Why?". At a young age, Edison began to develop hearing problems due to reoccuring ear infections that were always left untreated. This later led to his deafness. Edison had many ways of telling the story but the last version was, "the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, lifted him by the ears." (Wikepedia)
CHILDHOOD WORK
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Thomas Edison earned himself a job as a telgrapher when he saved a little girl, 3 year old Jimmie MacKenzie, from getting hit by a train. The girl's dad taught Edison how to become a telgraph operator. Edison's first telegraph operator job away from home was at Stratford Junction, Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1866, at the age of 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky and worked the night shift for the Associated Press bureau news wire. He often experimented or read while he was working. It was a good place for him to experiment but one day he accidentally ruined the floorboards by spilling sulfuric acid on it. The next morning, he was fired immediately.
MARRIAGE & FAMILY
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Thomas Edison married Mary Stilwell (1855-1884) on Dec 25, 1871. Stilwell was barely 16 years old and Edison was 54 years old. He met her in two months prior, working in one of his shops. Two years later, they had their first child, Marion Estelle Edison nicknamed "Dot" (1873-1965). She was followed by Thomas Alva Edison Jr. nicknamed "Dash" (1876-1935) and William Leslie Edison (1878-1937); William was an inventor like his father and he was a "graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, 1900." (Wikipedia) Sadly Mary Stilwell died on August 9, 1884 at barely age 29. The causes of death were unsure but it was assumed that she died of either a brain tumor or morphine overodose (researchers thought maybe it was morphine poisoning).
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Thomas Edison married again on February 24, 1886. Mina Miller (1865-1947) was also very young when Edison married her, she was 20 only one year older than Mary. They were married in Akron, Ohio. Lewis Miller, "co-founder of the Chautauqua Institution and a benefactor of Methodist charities." (Wikipedia) was the father of Mina Miller. Edison ended up also having three kids with Miller. Their first child was Madeleine Edison (1888–1979) followed by, Charles Edison (1890–1969) and Theodore Miller Edison (1898–1992).
CONCLUDING YEARS/DEATH
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In Edison's final years he spent a lot of his time with Henry Ford. Ford was a very good friend of Edisons' until the day Edison died. Thomas Edison was always shocking people until the day he died. Unfortunately, Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931. It was said that he died in his home due to complications of diabetes. Edison was buried behind the home he had bought for Mina as a wedding gift. It is also believed that a sealed test tube that lies in the Henry Ford Museum contains Thomas Edison's last breath.