Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison is a Michigan historical marker in Mount Clemens, Macomb County, dedicated 1973.

198 Grand Street, Mount Clemens

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While working as a railway newsboy on the Detroit-Port Huron line, Tom Edison often stopped in Mount Clemens. He made friends with station agent J. U. Mackenzie and in 1862 saved Mackenzie’s young son from death by a train. In gratitude Mr. Mackenzie taught Tom Edison railroad telegraphy. From his training Tom became a qualified railroad telegrapher and worked during the 1860s at this occupation. Some of his earliest inventions were based on the telegraph.

TodayHistorical map

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University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Historical maps covering this location

1850 · Ohio (Cowperthwait, 1850) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1853 · Map of the surveyed part of Michigan (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1873 · (Map of St. Clair County, Michigan) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1874 · Colton's Michigan (1874) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Colton's Michigan (1874), 1874, covering the location of Thomas Edison, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Colton's Michigan (1874), 1874, covering this location. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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More markers nearby

On the National Register nearby

Grand Trunk Western Railroad, Mount Clemens Station190 ft

Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.