In a few years after the family had made their home at Milan, Thomas Alva Edison was born there, on February 11, 1847.
His mother was an attractive and highly educated woman, and her influence upon his disposition 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 Elliott family was evidently one of considerable culture and deep religious feeling, for two of Mrs. Elliott's uncles and two brothers were also in the Baptist ministry. As a young woman she became a teacher in the public high school at Vienna, Ontario, and thus met her husband, who was residing there.
The Edison family consisted of three children, two boys and a girl. Besides Thomas Alva, there was an elder brother, William Pitt, and a sister named Tannie. Both brother and sister had considerable ability, although in different lines. William Pitt Edison was clever with his pencil, and there was at one time an idea of having him become an art student; but evidently the notion was not carried out, for later in life he was manager of the local street-railway lines at Port Huron, Michigan, in which he was heavily interested.
This talent for sketching seems to run in the family, for Thomas A. Edison's first impulse in discussing any mechanical question is to take up the nearest piece of paper and make drawings. Scarcely a day passes that this does not happen. His immense number of note-books contain thousands of such sketches.
His sister, who in later life became Mrs. Tannie Edison Bailey, had, on the other hand, a great deal of literary ability, and spent much of her time in writing.
As a child the great inventor was not at all strong, and was of fragile appearance. His head was well shaped but very large, and it is said that local doctors feared he might have brain trouble.
On account of his supposed delicacy, he was not allowed to go to school at as early an age as is usual. And when he did go, it was not for a long time. He was usually at the foot of his class, and the teacher had spoken of the boy to a school inspector as being "addled."
Perhaps the reader can imagine the indignation of his mother on hearing of this teacher's report. She had watched and studied her boy closely, and knew that he had a mind unusually receptive and mental powers far beyond those of other children. So she resolved to take him out of school and educate him herself.
It was fortunate that Mr. Edison had a mother who was not only loving, observing, and wise, but at the same time well informed and ambitious. From her experience as a teacher, she was able to give him an education better than could be had in the local schools of that day.