Part Of: Miller Family Papers

[X481-F] Nichols, Marian and Marconnay, Albert de

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These documents, which cover the years 1922-1947, consist primarily of correspondence from Mina Miller Edison to Marian Nichols (1897-1988), stepdaughter of Mina's sister, Mary Miller Nichols. Mary and her husband, William W. Nichols, are frequently mentioned in the letters. Also included are two letters to Marian written by her stepfather, lover, and future husband Baron Albert (Bert) de Marconnay (ca. 1874-1949), as well as letters from Marian to her aunt Ida Nichols Holt, her step-cousins Theodore and Marion Edison, and Theodore's wife Ann. The last item is a typewritten biographical sketch, probably written shortly after Marian's death on September 12, 1988.

Among the topics discussed in the letters are the rapid downsizing of Edison Industries during the early 1920s, which led to the dismissal of thousands of workers. "Uncle Thomas has made most awful drastic moves," Mina writes Marian in March 1922, "so the organization is pretty well out of business in a way." In the same letter Mina shares her low opinion of Sherwood Troop (Sam) Moore, who had worked as Edison's personal machinist for more than a decade. "I have no faith in Moore but Uncle Thomas can't see his defects." A letter from Marian to Ida Holt, which was later published in the Manitou Springs [Col.] Journal, describes her visit to Dearborn, Michigan, in October 1929 to attend the Golden Jubilee (fiftieth anniversary) of the invention of the incandescent light. She mentions meeting President Herbert Hoover, aviator Orville Wright, and humorist Will Rogers whom she characterizes as "a perfect dear and more fun than a barrel of monkeys." A letter from October 6, 1931, contains extensive comments about Thomas Edison's final illness, noting that "he is a whole lot sicker than the newspapers say" and taking exception to the "inconsiderate" coverage of his sickness by the press. Marian praises Edison for his "most amazing vitality," remarking that despite his afflictions—diabetes, Bright's disease, and uremic poisoning—"he is up & dressed & sitting in his chair every day." Writing three days later, Marian observes that Edison is in a comatose state and that most of those attending to him hope that he will pass away soon "for though he isn't in pain he certainly has no pleasure, & it is hard on those who have to stand by & watch him gradually slip away."

Several of the letters written after 1931 contain references to Thomas Edison, whom Mina refers to as "Dearie." Commenting in 1937 on the recent death of Marian's Aunt Ida, Mina remarks that "she was one of those . . . Personalities you feel though far away." Mina compares Ida in that regard to her late husband who "seemed to live in peoples hearts altho they never knew him and is living now in everything we see or do. Oh, how I miss the touch of his hand and his smile of welcome whenever I came in. His happy smile no matter how busy he was. . . .There is comfort in sweet memories. If we had not those it would be still harder. We can always still live in happiness with those, while those who have nothing pleasant to remember have nothing left." An undated letter by Mina, written shortly after the Christmas holidays in January 1938, remembers the trip to Puerto Rico that she took with her brother John during the first holiday season after Edison's death, noting that "Dearie was too much a part of that blessed day" to spend it at Glenmont. A letter by Mina from early January 1938 comments that her second husband, Edward Everett Hughes, will be traveling to Florida in a few days, but that she plans to remain in New Jersey for another five weeks to celebrate Thomas Edison's ninety-second

Chautauqua Institution Archives, Chautauqua, N.Y. -- Oliver Archives Center

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