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Thomas Alva Edison
In Menlo Park, NJ

Francis Jehl went to work for Thomas Edison at his Menlo Park laboratory in February, 1879. Beginning in 1937, he wrote a three volume book describing his work under Edison and life in Menlo Park during the Edison years. Menlo Park Reminiscences, by Francis Jehl, written in Edison's restored Menlo Park laboratory, was published by the Edison Institute, Dearborn, Michigan (Copyright 1937-1941).

Arrival at Menlo Park
Page 16-17

…Early one cold dreary November morning I left New York City by train and journeyed by ferry over the Hudson River and thence down to Menlo Park. I got off at a small way station, and stood there with my satchel in hand as the accommodation train chugged away. A flight of wooden steps led up from the tracks and I climbed to the top to look about.

It was, I discovered later, the highest point between New York City and Philadelphia, an eminence commanding a view of the surrounding country and not far distant from the buildings which Mr. Edison had erected. A footpath offered me a short cut across the field and soon I reached the picket fence surrounding the rectangle.

A new two-story red brick structure marked the corner of the dirt street but it seemed to be unoccupied, and so I directed my steps around in to the side gate admitting to the yard. Beyond was a long, grayish-white clapboard building which I knew must be the laboratory.

As I passed through the gate my thoughts were excited and confused and in somewhat of a turmoil. Chained to a hickory tree near the east side of the laboratory was what seemed to be an unusually large dog, apparently asleep. I stepped aside to bestow a friendly pat upon its head, but as I came nearer suddenly the head turned and you can imagine my astonishment to find the creature was not a dog but a shaggy bear.

Without stopping for a second look I made a bee line for the front veranda of the laboratory and dashed up the steps. Nor did I stop until I had rushed inside and closed the door behind me.

Later I learned that this 'pet' had been given to Mr. Edison by an admirer who had been in Canada, and was being kept in the yard for the entertainment of the workmen and discomfiture of the visitors. It did not take me long to become good friends with it. I bought sweets for it frequently-- sticks of peppermint candy and sometimes lumps of sugar surreptitiously removed from Mrs. Jordan's dining table.

One day the bear had vanished and we never saw it again. Some of the men thought it had escaped, but we could never trace a rumor as to whether it actually did or had been put out of the way because it was too rough and becoming vicious. At any rate, I never heard anyone admit having eaten bear steak for dinner; nor boast of a nice bear rug adorning the parlor floor.

The disappearance of Mister Bruin was one of Menlo Park's unsolved mysteries, and has remained so even to this day.

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Last updated by Jim Halpin on 6/23/99.