When thinking of agriculture in Florida, orange trees and citrus fruit come to mind. In Fort Myers, it’s two men who contributed to agriculture and the world in general: Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. It’s where Edison settled and carved out a winter estate, later joined by Ford.

The two became fast friends during their lifetime. Born in Milan, Ohio, on Feb. 11, 1847, Thomas Alva Edison was the seventh child of Samuel Edison Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliot. With only three formal months of education, it was his mother who taught him the basics.

Edison recalled later, “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”

He had not done well in school, and the teacher’s low opinion of Edison may have been in part because of his hearing deficiency. Edison developed hearing problems during childhood from a bout of scarlet fever, along with recurring untreated middle-ear infections.

(Later, he was also struck on the ears by a train conductor when his secret chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire. Edison and his chemicals were both thrown off the train.)

Edison worked selling candy and newspapers on trains, along with vegetables, to supplement his income. One of his earliest jobs came about after saving the life of a young boy struck by a runaway train. The boy’s father, a telegraph operator, was so grateful that he trained Edison to be an operator and set him up with a job in Ontario.

Edison’s first patent was a voting machine that he soon found was so ahead of its time, no one would buy it. He vowed that all future inventions would be marketable.

On Dec. 25, 1871, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell and they had three children. His career as an inventor began in Newark, N.J., with his invention of the automatic repeater and improved telegraphic devices. He set up at Menlo Park and is credited with forming the first scientific research laboratory, funded by income from his quadraplex telegraph.

Over his lifetime, he would amass 1,093 patents – the most ever awarded to one person.

Mary died at the early age of 29 in 1884. After her death, Edison wintered in Florida with his three children and childhood friend Ezra Gilliland. Not a very social man, Edison told Gilliland he wanted a quiet place to winter.

Hearing of land for sale on the eastern Florida coast, the two set out for Fort Myers and they found 134 acres of land that Edison purchased in 1885 from Samuel Summerlin, who was one of the largest cattle owners in Florida at that time.

Because of heavy taxation by the Spanish government, Jacob Summerlin sold his large land holdings to his son, Samuel, who stayed to run the family business. Samuel added to those original holdings, then sold the land to Edison for $2,750 after improvements were made to the property.

Located along the Caloosahatchee River, the Edison home is one of the greatest historic treasures within Lee County. According to estate tour guides, in 1886 he built this home, which served as a winter retreat and workplace for the prolific inventor until his death in 1931.

Gilliland purchased the second home and four acres. Both homes sport not only Edison’s design, but also contain individually styled brass electroliers (lights) patented and manufactured for the Edison Co.

It was Gilliland and his wife who fixed Edison up with the woman who would later become his second wife, Mina Miller. At 20, she was 15 years his junior and hailed from Akron, Ohio, the daughter of inventor Lewis Miller.

In 1886, Edison married Mina and the family would spend their winters at Seminole Lodge, as they named it. They went on to have three more children, making the Edison household a full one.
Later, Edison’s friendship with Gilliland would cool. Gilliland sold the home next door and over the years it would pass through a variety of people only to be sold back to Edison in 1906. At that time, he made it the guesthouse for company and to accommodate his expanded family. Changes were effected to diminish the boundaries between the two estates.

At Seminole Lodge, Edison created a beautiful tropical botanical garden with thousands of varieties of plants imported from all over the world, including African sausage trees and a Banyan tree, which was a gift from Harvey Firestone in 1925. Originally, this was an experimental garden and while Edison was interested in the various products and byproducts of the plants, Mina enhanced the garden for its beauty.

Along with the homes, gardens and an artifact museum dedicated by his son Charles, the estate also includes a tour of the chemical laboratory where Edison and his workers conducted research on goldenrod as a source of natural rubber.

During the tour, the guide shared that when Henry Ford was espousing his idea about the creation of the horseless carriage, unlike others who scoffed, Edison encouraged him to continue and thought it a good idea. Later, Ford would credit Edison’s encouragement as a great prompter for his invention.

Eventually a close friendship developed and Edison brought Mr. and Mrs. Ford to Fort Myers in 1915 as guests. At a cost of $20,000, Ford purchased the house next door and for the following 15 years, the Fords stayed at their home in Fort Myers every winter to spend time with the Edisons.

After Edison’s death, the Fords no longer had a reason to stay at their winter home – dubbed Mangoes – and on March 6, 1947, Mina donated the estate to the city of Fort Myers. In November of that year, public touring of the estate began. Mangoes was later purchased by the city of Fort Myers in 1988.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.