Edison, His Life and Inventions | Page 8

bathe in the creek. Soon after they
entered the water the other boy disappeared. Young Edison waited
around the spot for half an hour or more, and then, as it was growing
dark, went home puzzled and lonely, but silent as to the occurrence.
About two hours afterward, when the missing boy was being searched
for, a man came to the Edison home to make anxious inquiry of the
companion with whom he had last been seen. Edison told all the
circumstances with a painful sense of being in some way implicated.
The creek was at once dragged, and then the body was recovered.
Edison had himself more than one narrow escape. Of course he fell in
the canal and was nearly drowned; few boys in Milan worth their salt
omitted that performance. On another occasion he encountered a more
novel peril by falling into the pile of wheat in a grain elevator and
being almost smothered. Holding the end of a skate-strap for another
lad to shorten with an axe, he lost the top of a finger. Fire also had its

perils. He built a fire in a barn, but the flames spread so rapidly that,
although he escaped himself, the barn was wholly destroyed, and he
was publicly whipped in the village square as a warning to other youths.
Equally well remembered is a dangerous encounter with a ram that
attacked him while he was busily engaged digging out a bumblebee's
nest near an orchard fence. The animal knocked him against the fence,
and was about to butt him again when he managed to drop over on the
safe side and escape. He was badly hurt and bruised, and no small
quantity of arnica was needed for his wounds.
Meantime little Milan had reached the zenith of its prosperity, and all
of a sudden had been deprived of its flourishing grain trade by the new
Columbus, Sandusky & Hocking Railroad; in fact, the short canal was
one of the last efforts of its kind in this country to compete with the
new means of transportation. The bell of the locomotive was
everywhere ringing the death-knell of effective water haulage, with
such dire results that, in 1880, of the 4468 miles of American freight
canal, that had cost $214,000,000, no fewer than 1893 miles had been
abandoned, and of the remaining 2575 miles quite a large proportion
was not paying expenses. The short Milan canal suffered with the rest,
and to-day lies well-nigh obliterated, hidden in part by vegetable
gardens, a mere grass-grown depression at the foot of the winding,
shallow valley. Other railroads also prevented any further competition
by the canal, for a branch of the Wheeling & Lake Erie now passes
through the village, while the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern runs a
few miles to the south.
The owners of the canal soon had occasion to regret that they had
disdained the overtures of enterprising railroad promoters desirous of
reaching the village, and the consequences of commercial isolation
rapidly made themselves felt. It soon became evident to Samuel Edison
and his wife that the cozy brick home on the bluff must be given up and
the struggle with fortune resumed elsewhere. They were well-to-do,
however, and removing, in 1854, to Port Huron, Michigan, occupied a
large colonial house standing in the middle of an old Government fort
reservation of ten acres overlooking the wide expanse of the St. Clair
River just after it leaves Lake Huron. It was in many ways an ideal

homestead, toward which the family has always felt the strongest
attachment, but the association with Milan has never wholly ceased.
The old house in which Edison was born is still occupied (in 1910) by
Mr. S. O. Edison, a half-brother of Edison's father, and a man of
marked inventive ability. He was once prominent in the iron-furnace
industry of Ohio, and was for a time associated in the iron trade with
the father of the late President McKinley. Among his inventions may
be mentioned a machine for making fuel from wheat straw, and a
smoke-consuming device.
This birthplace of Edison remains the plain, substantial little brick
house it was originally: one-storied, with rooms finished on the attic
floor. Being built on the hillside, its basement opens into the rear yard.
It was at first heated by means of open coal grates, which may not have
been altogether adequate in severe winters, owing to the altitude and
the north-eastern exposure, but a large furnace is one of the more
modern changes. Milan itself is not materially unlike the smaller Ohio
towns of its own time or those of later creation, but the venerable
appearance of the big elm-trees that fringe the trim lawns tells of its age.
It is, indeed, an extremely neat, snug little place,