OREGON STATE LIBRARY
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APR f l 1929
CHEMAWA®AMERICAN
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COLLECTION
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P r i n t e d a t C h e m a w a , O re g o n , a n d D e v o te d to t h e In t e r e s t s o f I n d i a n E d u c a tio n
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koi. X X X
Wednesday, April 10, 1929
TH OM AS A . E D ISO N
Compiled by Catherine Andrews, Chemawa Student
On October 20, 1928, Secretary Mellon presented
Thomas A. Edison a medal, as an acknowledgement
of honor conferred upon him from our nation,
Edison was born at Milan, Ohio, February 11th,
1847. His endurance and strength were inherited
from his father, who walked one hundred and eighty-
two miles from Canada to the United States, without
a moment’s sleep.
His mother was Nancy Elliot, a
pretty Canadian schoolteacher who was also known
for her strength and endurance in walking through the
cold storms of Nova Scotia to the little country school
house in which she taught.
The following is an account of his boyhood days as
told by himself. It will be sure to encourage pupils
who try and yet have trouble with their studies.
This account of Thomas A. Edison will prove that
people who are not smart in school can be of great use
in the world if they try.
In infancy he was what mothers and nurses would
call a “ good” child, for he seldom cried, and his
temper—from the moment when he could distinguish
between pleasure and pain— was an angelic one. He
is said to have cracked jokes when a baby, and from
the time when he began to “ take notice” he was
quite conscious of the humorous side of a situation.
This characteristic he probably inherited from his
father, who, like Lincoln, enjoyed a good story. The
serious side of his nature.came from his mother, not
so much as an inheritance perhaps, but because during
his early years he was constantly with her. Yohim his
mother was something more than a fond parent, and
his love for her was of that quality which ever re
mained one of the strongest attributes of his nature.
Many years later— long after her death, when fame
and fortune had come to him— interviewers would
ask the inventor to tell them something about his
mother. But her loss had been so great a grief to him
that he never could speak of her to strangers.
“ I did not have my mother very long,” he said on
this occasion, “ but in that length of time she cast over
me an influence which has lasted all my life. The
good effects of her early training I can never Ipse. If
it had not been for her appreciation and her faith in
me at a critical time in my experience, I should very
likely never have become anmv«. tor.
No. 24
“ Her years of experience as a schoolteacher taught
her many things about human nature, and especially
about boys. After she married my father and became
a mother, she applied that same theory to me.
“ I was always a careless boy, and with a mother of
different mental caliber I should probably turned out
badly. But her firmness, her sweetness, her goodness,
were potent powers to keep me in the right path. I
remember I used never to be able to get along at
school. I don’t know now what it was, but I was al
ways at the foot of the class. I used to feel that the
teachers never sympathized with me and that my fath
er thought that I was stupid, and at last I almost de
cided that I must really be a dunce. My mother was
always kind, always sympathetic, and she never mis
understood or misjudged me. But I was afraid to tell
her all my difficulties at school, for fear she too might
lose her confidence in me.
“ One day I overheard the teacher tell the inspector
that I was ‘addled’ and it would not be worth while
keeping me in school any longer. I was so hurt by
this last straw that I burst out crying and went home
and told my mother about it. Then I found out what
a good thing a good mother was. She came out as
my strong defender. Mother love was aroused, mother
pride wounded to the quick. She brought me back to
the school and angrily told the teacher that he didn’t
know what he was talking about, that I had more
brains than he himself, and a lot more talk like that.
“ She ..was so true, so sure of me, that I felt that H
had some one to live for, some one I must not disap
point. The memory of her will always be a blessing
to me.”
Even when a baby he thought. When puzzled over
any matter he would scowl, press his lips tight togeth
er, walk fast with a step that showed all kinds of
determination.
At four years of age he was friendly with all the
neighboring children—-especially boys— and every one
liked him. He was ready to take part in any escapade
suggested, and when his mother’s back was turned
for a moment he would slip out of the house, take a
short-cut to the canal by scrambling down the bluff,
and a few minutes later his anxious parent would detect
him from one of the windows running along the tow-
path as fast as hi s sturdy legs would carry him. From
(Continued on page 4)