Marion Estelle Edison-Oeser

Marion Estelle Edison-Oeser (born February 18, 1873 in Newark , New Jersey , † April 16, 1965 in Norwalk , Connecticut ) was the daughter of the American inventor and industrialist Thomas Alva Edison .

Life and family

Marion Estelle Edison came from a wealthy family in the USA. She was the firstborn child of Thomas Alva Edison and his first wife Mary Jane Stilwell (1855-1884), whom the inventor and entrepreneur married in 1872. Her two brothers Thomas Alva Edison jr also came from this marriage . and William Leslie Edison (1873-1937). The parents moved with the children to Menlo Park in 1876 . In 1884 the mother died of typhus. In her childhood, Marion Estelle was nicknamed "Dot", based on the Morse code in telegraphy .

After the death of her mother, Marion developed a close relationship with her father. Two years later (1886) Edison married eighteen-year-old Mina Miller (1865-1947), who gave birth to three children: Madeleine Edison (1888-1979), Charles Edison (1890-1969) and Theodore Miller-Edison (1898-1992). Marion Estelle's half-brother Charles was the 42nd governor of the US state of New Jersey from 1941 to 1944 . Family differences arose between the daughter from her first marriage, Marion, and her stepmother Mina, who was only eight years her senior, which the father tried again and again to settle. Marion Estelle, the oldest of the siblings, graduated from Summerville Seminary (New Jersey) and then the Bradford Academy ( Massachusetts ). Since the differences between the two young women could not be eliminated, Marion Estelle went to Europe in the spring of 1894, first to Vienna , then to Wilhelmine-Imperial Germany and was in Dresden , Ebersbach / Sa. and the small town of Neusalza (since 1920 Neusalza-Spremberg ).

On the way from Vienna to Dresden, the metropolis of the Kingdom of Saxony, she fell ill with pox (smallpox) and was admitted to a Dresden hospital, where she was cared for by the Albertine nun Luise Jüchzer. After Marion Estelle's recovery, the Albertine woman took the young American with her to her sister in Ebersbach so that she could continue to recover there. Since Sister Luise had also looked after the wife Bertha of the Upper Lusatian print shop owner and publisher Hermann Oeser from Neusalza for a long time, Marion Edison found acceptance in this family through the mediation of the nun. In the process she met the eldest son of the family, the thirty-year-old officer Oscar Oeser, who was then on vacation for a long time in his parents' house. Oeser was a lieutenant and adjutant in the infantry regiment "Crown Prince" (5th Royal Saxon) No. 104 , Chemnitz location . In September 1894, the betrothal took place in Neusalza in the presence of Edison's relatives from America, who brought their father's consent.

However, since Thomas Alva Edison was a strict atheist and consequently had refused to baptize his children, the 21-year-old Marion Estelle Edison underwent adult baptism on September 9, 1894 in the Trinity Church in Neusalza . Her godparents were Edison's in-laws Hermann and Bertha Oeser, her groom Oscar Oeser and his brother Friedrich Oeser, and Marion's carer, Luise Jüchzer from Albertine. The wedding took place on October 1st, 1895 in the Kreuzkirche in Dresden . Oscar Oeser, who as a career officer had to change residence several times with his wife - they lived in Chemnitz , Dresden, Mulhouse in Alsace, among others - only met his father-in-law Thomas Alva Edison 16 years later during his trip to Europe in 1911. During his trip to Europe, Edison showed great interest in Germany and its products. Among other things, he visited the hygiene exhibition in Dresden . Lieutenant Oeser had meanwhile risen to the rank of colonel .

At the beginning of the First World War (1914-1918), Colonel Oeser was transferred to the Army High Command. The war years and their consequences as well as the different political views of Oscar Oeser and his wife Marion Estelle finally broke up the marriage. After 24 years, both were divorced in Baden-Baden in 1919 . In 1925, Marion Estelle Edison-Oeser returned to her American homeland. There she died in 1965 at the age of 93. The traces of her German husband, Colonel a. D. Oscar Oeser from Neusalza, lost himself after 1942 in Leipzig , where he last lived and lived.

Literature and Notes

• Gunther Leupolt : Edison's daughter Marion Estelle - at times a citizen of Neusalza . In: History and stories from Neusalza-Spremberg, Volume 1, Neusalza-Spremberg: Kultur- und Heimatfreunde e. V. 1999, pp. 75-77.
• Lutz Mohr : personalities of local history: Marion Estelle Edison-Oeser (1873-1965) . In: Official journal of the administrative association for the city of Neusalza-Spremberg with the district Friedersdorf and the communities Dürrhennersdorf and Schönbach. 17/2012/12, pp. 7-8
• B (ernhard) Schuster: Edison's former son-in-law lives in Leipzig. Colonel Oeser tells - the first phonograph and the first car . In: Leipziger Latest News . Edition of November 11, 1931, 1st supplement. Revised and re-published under the title “My father-in-law Thomas Alva Edison” by Gunther Leupolt. In: History and stories from Neusalza-Spremberg, Volume 2, Neusalza-Spremberg: Kultur- und Heimatfreunde e. V. 2004, pp. 128-130.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baptismal register of the Neusalza parish, year 1894, page 792/793.
2. ↑ Wedding register of the Dresden Kreuzkirche from 1895, No. 239.
3. ^ Telephone book Leipzig 1942. Retrieved June 29, 2018 (American English). 

Web links

• Entry Marion Estelle Edison on the website of the National Park Service (English)
• Chronology of Edison's Family (English)