Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1939-04-20

Extension of remarks of Hon. AL
bert L. Vreeland, of New Jersey, IN
the House of Representatives, Feb.
S, 1899:
Mr.. Speaker, as we go about our
daily tasks we sometimes are inclin.
ed to let the accomplishments of our
fellow man go by without thought,
and we soon forget that the very ar
ticles we are using in our daily life
and have grown accustomed to were
not in existence SO many years ago.
Were it not for inventive geniusos,
we would still be struggling along
through life with the candle, the
horse and buggy, with no radio, no
telephone, or many other conven-
iences. Yet they have become SO
much part of our daily life and be-
come a part of our very existence
that we forget their origin. 1t is
perhaps true that were it not that
we have national holidays in mem
ory of the great men of this country
we would forget even characters Of
the import of Washington and Lin
cCln. But again most of our ma
t:onal heroes and those we remem-
her by holidays were great in civic
or military affairs, and we pay little
heed or attention to the great works
Of men and pioneers in industry and
inventive geniuses who have given
us SO many of the convenienees of
life.
Go dow Will - III h q
Of man proclaimed universally as
this country's greatest inventor,
Thomas Alva Edison. He is respon-
sible for some of the basic process
that later developed into industries,
conveniences, and commodities that
we now accept in our daily life as a
necessity.
Mr.. Edison's life had not been one
OF ease and comfort, nor had it been
one of the result of higher educa-
ton. He was not afforded this priv
ilege. Mr.. Edison's parents, while
by no means paupers, were not
above the comfortably fixed middle
class, and being of wandering ma
ture and quick to move to new ter
ritory Mr.. Edison, sr., never remain
ed in one locality for any great
length of time which interrupted
the education and training of the
many children in the Edison family
Thomas Edison, as a child, was not
well, being of sickly physique. Be-
cause of this his mother, fine, we'll
educated lady, took it upon herself
to educate young Edison. While
still young boy he showed his
business ability in opening a news
paper route on the various trains in
and around the town wherein he
lived. Young Edison, even though
not too strong physically or too
well was still a typical boy and had
many an experience of the average
ntischievous child, which sometimes
caused his mother considerable anXi-
ETY..
He was born Feb. II, 1847, in
Milan, Ohio, and moved with his
family to many cities in the middle
west and Canada. At an early age
he became interested in telegraphy,
which was then in its infancy, and
it was not long before he became an
expert operator and, like all of those
engaged in that occupation at that
time, he became wanderer and
drifted from one section of the coun-
try to another, taking a job as tele-
graph dispatcher on the railroads.
While following this occupation
his inventive mind began to func-
tion and he saw many difficulties
arising with the crude telegraph
equipment in vogue in that day 1t
was not long before young Edison
began to experiment with improve
ments to the telegraph systems,
both receiving and sending. Even
then he was working under difficult
ties, bearing in mind that il had not
been many years after his birth that