MILAN, Ohio—Robert Wheeler is the great-great grandnephew of Thomas Edison, one of the most prolific American inventors who ever lived.

• The Thomas A. Edison Birthplace Museum in Milan, Ohio is a treasure trove of artifacts from a man considered one of the world's greatest inventors
• While Edison is most known for his electric light, he's also the driving force behind the phonograph and motion picture camera
• The Thomas A. Edison Birthplace Museum is located at 9 North Edison Drive in Milan

Wheeler has run The Thomas A. Edison Birthplace Museum in Milan for decades— a place where the inventor spent his early years as the youngest of seven children in the 1840s and 1850s.

Edison had an immense backyard with, at the time, the second largest wheat shipping port in the country, helping to inspire his imagination.

However, Wheeler says Edison was a curious and precocious child, who at an early age had trouble in school, and also developed hearing loss in both ears. 

“He had gone to school for three months, and his teacher, Reverend Engle, out of Michigan said, you are stupid and cannot learn. And we went home and told his mom. She was furious. She went up and told Reverend Engle off and said my boy is smart and I will teach him. He later said, she was the making of me,” said Wheeler. 

Despite moving away from home at age 16, Edison was a relentless learner, and began making things himself.

By the 1870s, he was living in New Jersey, where he developed the telegraph and founded the first industrial research lab.

And in 1879, Edison found a way to use Direct Current to produce a long-lasting light bulb.

At first, people were afraid of this suspicious and magic-like technology.

“People that can remember, the first incandescent bulb that was in their home and on the end of an extension cord. And how father would only use it for a short time at night and then put it back in the drawer,” said educator and historian Don Gfell.

Milan native and physics teacher Don Gfell says Edison has always been his hero.

And to the thousands of students he's taught over the years, the retired teacher and superintendent says these are the top five Edison inventions that paved the way for modern technology of the 20^th and 21st centuries: 

“The stock ticker, the mimeograph, the phonograph, the electric light, the motion picture projector,” said Gfell.

Edison is also credited for inventing the carbon transmitter, a device that makes it possible to transmit voices at a higher volume. That technology is used in phones, radio and modern-day cell phones. 

“He named it Etheric force. And what this is, this is electric waves in free space. This is how all this modern gadgetry works,” says Gfell. 

At the time of Edison's death in 1931, he had complied a record 1,093 patents.

Many of his inventions and contributions to American society are on display at his birthplace Museum in Milan—which has been open to the public since 1947.

In 2010, Edison was even awarded a technical Grammy, and the Wheeler family had the chance to be there in person for the honor. 

The memory of Milan's native son is kept alive, whether it's businesses that bear his name, or a statue in front of the town hall.

The town recently celebrated the 35th anniversary of the dedication of the Young Edison statue. Fittingly, he is shown with his mom, who taught him to follow his dreams.

Wheeler says there's a lot that can be learned from his ancestor's life and he hopes Thomas Edison's birthplace continues to inspire almost 90 years after his death. 

“Be relentless, this is key to being successful in what you want to do,” said Wheeler. “And for the adults, we want them to learn how much impact you can have on somebody's life. Your belief in them will continue for their whole lifetime.”