Editing Thomas Edison (section)

==Marriages and children==
On December 25, 1871, at the age of 24, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell (1855–1884), whom he had met two months earlier; she was an employee at one of his shops. They had three children:
* Marion Estelle Edison (1873–1965), nicknamed "Dot"<ref>Baldwin 1995, p.60</ref>
* Thomas Alva Edison Jr. (1876–1935), nicknamed "Dash"<ref>Baldwin 1995, p.67</ref>
* William Leslie Edison (1878–1937) Inventor, graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, 1900.<ref>{{cite news |title=Older Son To Sue To Void Edison Will; William, Second Child of the Counsel |quote=The will of Thomas A. Edison, filed in Newark last Thursday, which leaves the bulk of the inventor's $12&nbsp;million estate to the sons of his second wife, was attacked as unfair yesterday by William L. Edison, second son of the first wife, who announced at the same time that he would sue to break it. |work=The New York Times |date=October 31, 1931}}</ref>

Mary Edison died at age 29 on August 9, 1884, of unknown causes: possibly from a [[brain tumor]]<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edbio.html "The Life of Thomas Edison"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120001520/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edbio.html |date=January 20, 2011 }}, ''American Memory'', Library of Congress. Retrieved March 3, 2009.</ref> or a [[morphine overdose]]. Doctors frequently prescribed morphine to women in those years to treat a variety of causes, and researchers believe that her symptoms could have been from morphine poisoning.<ref name="Rutgers">[http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/research/rh-2011/thomas-edison2019s-f-20111115 "Thomas Edison's First Wife May Have Died of a Morphine Overdose"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111119015854/http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/research/rh-2011/thomas-edison2019s-f-20111115/ |date=November 19, 2011 }}, ''Rutgers Today''. Retrieved November 18, 2011</ref>

Edison generally preferred spending time in the laboratory to being with his family.<ref name=time1979/>

[[File:Mina Edison 1906.jpg|thumb|Mina Miller Edison in 1906]]
On February 24, 1886, at the age of 39, Edison married the 20-year-old Mina Miller (1865–1947) in [[Akron, Ohio]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Thomas_Edison%27s_Children |title=Thomas Edison's Children |date=December 16, 2010 |work=IEEE Global History Network |publisher=IEEE |access-date=June 30, 2011 |archive-date=October 16, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016113637/http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Thomas_Edison%27s_Children |url-status=live }}</ref> She was the daughter of the inventor [[Lewis Miller (philanthropist)|Lewis Miller]], co-founder of the [[Chautauqua Institution]], and a benefactor of [[Methodist]] charities. They also had three children together:
* Madeleine Edison (1888–1979), who married [[John Eyre Sloane]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Madeleine Edison a Bride. Inventor's Daughter Married to J. E. Sloan by Mgr. Brann
|work=The New York Times |date=June 18, 1914}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Mrs. John Eyre Sloane Has a Son at the Harbor Sanitarium Here |work=The New York Times |date=January 10, 1931}}</ref>
* [[Charles Edison]] (1890–1969), [[Governor of New Jersey]] (1941–1944), who took over his father's company and experimental laboratories upon his father's death.<ref>{{cite news |title=Charles Edison, 78, Ex-Governor of Jersey and U.S. Aide, Is Dead |date=August 1969 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>
* [[Theodore Miller Edison]] (1898–1992), (MIT Physics 1923), credited with more than 80 patents.

Mina outlived Thomas Edison, dying on August 24, 1947.<ref>{{cite news |title=Edison's Widow Very III
|work=The New York Times |date=August 21, 1947}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Rites for Mrs. Edison |work=The New York Times |date=August 26, 1947}}</ref>

Wanting to be an inventor, but not having much of an aptitude for it, Thomas Edison's son, Thomas Alva Edison Jr., became a problem for his father and his father's business. Starting in the 1890s, Thomas Jr. became involved in [[snake oil]] products and shady and fraudulent enterprises producing products being sold to the public as "The Latest Edison Discovery". The situation became so bad that Thomas Sr. had to take his son to court to stop the practices, finally agreeing to pay Thomas Jr. an allowance of $35 ({{Inflation|US|35.00|1885|fmt=eq|r=0}}){{Inflation-fn|US}} per week, in exchange for not using the Edison name; the son began using aliases, such as Burton Willard. Thomas Jr., experiencing alcoholism, depression and ill health, worked at several menial jobs, but by 1931 (towards the end of his life) he would obtain a role in the Edison company, thanks to the intervention of his half-brother Charles.<ref>{{cite web |title=LOST IN HISTORY: Thomas A. Edison, Junior |author=René Rondeau |year=1997 |url=http://edisontinfoil.com/taejr/edisonjr.htm |access-date=December 30, 2017 |archive-date=January 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104021506/http://www.edisontinfoil.com/taejr/edisonjr.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Thomas Alva Edison Jr |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |url=https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/historyculture/thomas-alva-edison-jr.htm |access-date=December 30, 2017 |archive-date=June 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624063218/https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/historyculture/thomas-alva-edison-jr.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>