Edison Park, Chicago Edison Park, Chicago Edison Park (formerly Canfield) is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, in North Side, Chicago, Illinois. It consists entirely of the Edison Park neighborhood, and is named after Thomas Alva Edison, who gave his blessing to this community namesake in 1890. According to the 2000 Census, its population is 11,259. Edison Park has one of the highest concentrations of Irish ancestry in Chicago, where they make up over three-fourths of the neighborhood's population. Located between the Des Plaines River and the Chicago River this area served as a local watershed divide. The Chicago River flowed
Thomas Leavitt (inventor) volumes of United States mail. Thomas Leavitt, who set off the stampede with his first design, was married to Martha Elizabeth Whittier of Cornville, Maine, in 1851. The inventor died in 1899 and his wife Martha died in 1910. The couple had four children. Thomas Leavitt (inventor) Thomas Leavitt (1827–1899) patented, along with his brother Martin Leavitt, the first machine in the U.S. that made machine-cancelled postal letters practicable, enabling the United States Post Office to increase the volume of mail it handled, quickening the pace of delivery and allowing customers to more easily send letters of various sizes. Leavitt,