EDGREN
EDISON
EDQREN, August Hjalmar, t.Hliuator, was
born in Wennlauil. Sweden. Oct. \b, l!S4U; sun of
Axel and Mathilda (Berger) Ed;,'ren. He was pre-
pared fur college at Carlstad, Sweden, was grad-
uated from the Lyceum of Stockholm to the Uni-
versity of Upsala, 1858; from the Royal military
school of Sweden in 1800; from Cornell univer-
sity. New York. Ph.D.. in 1871, and from Yale,
Ph.D., in 1874. He was -id lieutenant in the OOth
N.Y. volunteers, 18Gl-()-2; 1st lieutenant and stalf
ofticer, 18G'2-63; 2d lieutenant, Royal regiment of
Wermland, Sweden, 1868-70; adjutant. 1869-70;
teacher of modern languages. St. Quentin,
France. 1867-68; instructor in French and German
at Yale, 1873-80; acted as W. D. Whitney's sub-
stitute at Yale, 1878-79. in teaching Sanskrit and
linguistics; was docent in Sanskrit, University
of Lund, Sweden, 1880-85; professor of modern
languages, University of Nebraska, 188.5-91 ; pro-
fessor of Germanic languages and rector, Uni-
versity of Gothenburg, Sweden, 1891-93; and
professor of romance languages and dean of the
graduate school, University of Nebraska, from
1893. He was elected to membersliip in the
American oriental society in 1876 : in the Ameri-
can pliilological association in 1880 ; in the Amer-
ican modern language association in 1886 ; in the
Royal society of arts and sciences, Gothen-
burg, in 1890. and was chosen president of the
society in 1893. He was married in 1880 to
Marianne Steendorff of Copenhagen. His pub-
lished works consist of numerous contributions
to Sanskrit, Indo-European, and special Romance
and Germanic philology; various text-books on
Sjinskrit, German, English, French, Italian and
Spanish; works (in Swedish) on American litera-
tui'e, with translations, Longfellow, translated,
American Schools and Colh(/es ; Mexican Travels and
Antiquities; Poems (2 vols.); and many literary
essays and translations from Sanskrit.
EDHOLM, Mary Qow Charlton, reformer, ■was burn in Frecpurt, 111., Oct. 28, 1854; daughter of James Bovard and Lucy (Gow) Charlton, and granddaughter of Jolm Loudon and Mary (Mur- dock) Gow. She was gi-aduated at Monmouth (III. ) college in 1874, and at once began to con- tribute articles on woman .suffrage and temper- ance to periodicals. In 1878 she was married to Osbom L. Edholm, a journalist. She continued her work, writing for the Phrenoloyical Journal, the Chrixllnn Instrnrior and other papers, and editing a daily temperance column in the Omnha Xews. In 1886 she removed to Oakland, Cal., and shortly afterward was elected official reporter and suy>erintfndont of the California "Woman's Chri.stiiin Temperance Union. At the Boston con- vention of the World's W.C.T.U., in 1891, she was appointed sujierintendent of pre.ss, and in less than two years published several hun-
dred columns of original matter in over 1000
uewsi)apers. In 1891 she was appointed reporter
of the Florence Crittenden inLssions. At the in-
ternational federation of women's press clubs at
Boston, Mass.. in 1891, Mrs. Edholm was made
secretary. At the World's W.C.T.U. convention
in London in 1895 she was appointed by Frances
W ilhird and Lady Henry Somerset as the super-
intendent of the newly created department Flor-
ence Crittenden mi.ssions. After that time she
prosecuted rescue mission work, mostly by pub-
lic addresses, throughout the United States and
in parts of England, France. Switzerland, Ger-
many, Holland and Canada. She was for some
time editor of The Christian Home, Oakland, Cal.,
and is the author of: Traffic in Girls, and Florence
Crittenden Missions, wliich had a large sale. In
1894 Mrs. Edholm began to speak on The Traffic
in Girls and in three j-ears her meetings resulted
in raising 825.000 for rescue mission work.
EDISON, Thomas Alva, inventor, was born in Milan, Erie county, Ohio, Feb. 11, 1847; son of Samuel and Nancy (Elliott) Edison. On the paternal side he descended from Dutch ancestors, wiio came from Amsterdam to the new world in 1737, and settled in New York where John Edi- son, the great- grandfather of Thomas was a banker. His ma- ternal ancestry WHS Scotch. He attended school for a few months only, being edu- cated at home by his mother, a women of superior ability and attain- ments. The boy was
an apt scholar, showing preference for historical and scientific subjects. In 1854 his father re- moved to Port Huron, Mich., where at the age of twelve the son engaged in various commercial enterprises in which he employed other boys, working himself as newsbo}' on a train running to Detroit. He occupied his leisure hours while in Detroit in reading and in studjing qualitative analysis, making his experiments in a baggage car of the Grand Trunk railway, in which he also established a miniature i)rinting-ofhce, where he set up and j)rinted 77i( Wcekhj Iftrald, the fjaper being written and i.s.sued by him without assist- ance. The Herald had been i)ublished for forty weeks, and had a subscription list of nearly five hundred, when the young experimenter upset a bottle of phosphorus and set the car on fire. He
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