Fonds - Edison family fonds

The Edisons were a prominent family in the village of Vienna in Elgin County. They were United Empire Loyalists who left the thirteen colonies for Nova Scotia. John Edison and his sons Samuel Sr., Thomas, and Marshalis eventually settled in Upper Canada. They were later joined by his other sons Moses and Adonijah. John died in 1814. His son Samuel Sr. distinguished himself in the war of 1812, serving as a captain in the Middlesex Militia. Samuel Sr.’s first wife, Nancy Simpson, passed away in 1824. He later remarried Elizabeth Yokum Cook. In 1834 Samuel Edison Sr. and Jessie Smith helped found the town of Vienna. The name of the town was chosen due to Samuel Sr.’s Austrian ancestry. It was during this period that the Edison family switched from being staunch supporters of the conservative party to reformers. Samuel Jr, Samuel Sr.’s son from his first marriage, openly joined William Lyon Mackenzie during the 1837 Upper Canada rebellion. Samuel Jr. was subsequently forced to leave Upper Canada for the United States after the rebellion was put down. It was Samuel Jr.’s son, Thomas Alva Edison, who would bring worldwide fame to the Edison name as a great inventor. It is suspected that Thomas Alva visited his grandfather and other relatives in Vienna during his childhood, and he certainly remained in contact with them during his later years. Samuel Sr. died in 1865, and much of his land was given to his son from his second marriage, Charles Oscar. Charles was a farmer in Vienna who married Mary Ann Finch. Together the two had six daughters and two sons. Charles died in 1922 leaving his land to his wife and daughters. Mary Ann Edison passed away five years later in 1927.