![Thomas Edison’s Twelve Years in Michigan](http://townsquare.media/site/691/files/2019/08/THOMAS-EDISON-our3doxies-ebay.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Thomas Edison’s Twelve Years in Michigan
Thomas Edison lived in a few places throughout his lifetime.
In 1847 he was born in Milan, Ohio, and died in West Orange, New Jersey in 1931. In between he lived in Louisville, Kentucky and Port Huron, Michigan.
His family moved to Port Huron in 1854 when he was seven years old. Tom began working on a train selling candy, tobacco, and newspapers and later became a telegraph operator. Eventually, he started his own newspaper, The Grand Trunk Herald, and his career in business - which led to 1,093 patents in his name - was off to a start.
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Edison's time in Michigan helped form what he was to become. One of the most well-known Edison stories is about the time he was thrown off a train after his chemicals caught fire. The conductor picked him up (Edison said it was by the ears) and pitched him and his chemicals off in Smith's Creek in St. Clair County, about 14 miles from the Port Huron train depot.
If you would like to see where he was thrown off the train, see photos here and where you can visit this Michigan small town for yourself!
Another incident was when he saved the life of the station agent's son, who was almost killed by a runaway train. Both incidents are depicted in the 1940 Mickey Rooney movie, "Young Tom Edison".
Tom Edison moved away from Michigan when he was 19 and went to Kentucky, but his twelve years in Michigan are among his most memorable, even though his greatest inventions occurred outside our state.
The photos below show you the depot and a few other Edison items in Port Huron. The Edison Park has many odd memorials to him, one being nothing but a large rock. Take a roadtrip, pay a visit, get some pics of your own, and learn a little history!
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