July 2018 - Stratford ON
In the heart of downtown Stratford is Edison's a coffee shop and inn. Check out these rooms, I would consider staying here next time!
We stopped in for coffee.
Thomas Edison – 46 Ontario Street
The prolific American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) is hardly remembered as a telegraph operator, but it was in that capacity that he worked in the Grand Trunk Railway station in Stratford.
His father had been born in Nova Scotia, but the Edison family was living in Port Huron, Michigan, when young Thomas saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie’s father, a railway station agent in Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he trained Thomas as a telegraph operator. Edison was 16 when he got his first job as a telegraph operator, but he was fired soon after for experimenting with chemicals and causing an explosion. His second chance came in Stratford, where he is said to have stayed in the Albion Hotel at 56 Ontario St., and where he was fired again, this time for failing to warn the engineers of two trains that nearly collided.
Just as well he went on to more memorable endeavours.
ReplyDelete...I didn't realize the Canadian connection with Edison. He sure was a busy man. Thanks Jackie for stopping by, I hope to see you again.
ReplyDeleteInteresting story---things we don't learn in school
ReplyDeleteMB
Edison was certainly well traveled throughout his life.
ReplyDelete