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.
Milan is situated on the Huron River, about ten miles from the lake, and
was then a rising town of 3,000 inhabitants, mostly occupied with the
grain and timber trade. Mr. Edison dwelt in a plain cottage with a low
fence in front, which stood beside the roadway under the shade of one or
two trees.
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