Young Walt Disney: A Biography of Walt Disney's Younger Years
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About this ebook
Disney has become a household name, synonymous with fantastic movies, amusing characters, and the happiest place on earth. These all originated from the mind of Walter Elias Disney.
It’s been said that Disney never had time for a childhood, so he spent his life trying to invent one. What was his childhood like that would lead someone to this conclusion? What led him to starting his business that is now worth billions of dollars today? Delving into Walt Disney’s background and early career can answer some of these questions and help one understand what was meant by this assertion.
This short biography looks at the early life and times of Walt Disney—from his childhood to his first years in Hollywood.
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Young Walt Disney - Jennifer Warner
LifeCaps Presents:
Young Walt Disney
A Biography of Walt Disney’s Younger years
By Jennifer Warner
© 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc./LifeCaps
Published at SmashWords
www.bookcaps.com
About LifeCaps
LifeCaps is an imprint of BookCaps™ Study Guides. With each book, a lesser known or sometimes forgotten life is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to literature and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly (www.bookcaps.com) to see our newest books.
Chapter 1: Family History
The earliest records of the Disney family stem from an officer in the French army by the name of Robert d’Isigny-sur-Mer. This surname was shortened to d’Isigny and later anglicized to Disney. He was originally from the Burgundy region in France, but he traveled to the British Isles with William the Conqueror in 1066 when he became the first Norman King of England.
Robert was believed to have received a large estate, lived and reared children in a good environment and was classed among the intellectual and well to-do of his time and age
(Alexander 85-86). He settled in Lincolnshire in a village that became known as Norton Disney. Although they didn’t retain the land by the time Walt was born, the Disney family held many estates throughout the British Isles.
The family decided to come to the Americas in search of land to farm. Walt’s great-grandfather, Arundel Disney, moved his family from Gowan, Ireland to Ontario, Canada where they settled on a large plot of land. They lived in Canada when Walt’s father, Elias, was born in 1859 to Kepple Disney and Mary Richardson. Kepple and Elias headed out to California in 1878 in search of gold, but they came across a man who convinced them that a farm would be a more lucrative venture. After working on the railway for a little while, he decided to move his family down to Ellis, Kansas where he bought a 200-acre farm and worked as a cattle herder and wheat farmer.
Elias was the oldest of eleven children, so he grew up learning how to work hard and save money. As a young boy, he got a job on the railroad where he also learned carpentry skills that he would use in several jobs throughout his life. When his contract with them ended, he considered becoming a professional fiddle player in Colorado. This proved to be an unsuccessful venture, so he headed back to Kansas to work on his father’s farm. He stayed there until 1884.
At this time, Elias made the decision to relocate to Kissimmee, Florida where he found work as a mailman. He saved his money and eventually purchased land in hopes of growing an orchard of orange trees. This allowed him to earn a great living and name for himself in the process. The farm was located in Acron, Florida, just 40 miles south of where Disneyworld is located today. During this time, he courted Flora Call, a schoolteacher of German ancestry, who was vacationing in Florida at the time.
Flora was born on April 22, 1868 to Henriette Gross and Charles Call who were living in Steuben, Ohio near the Cedar Point Amusement Park at the time. They later moved to Kansas and purchased a farm next door to Kepple Disney.
Elias and Flora married on January 1, 1888 and eventually went on to have five children: Herbert, Raymond, Roy, Walt, and Ruth. After about six years of working in the orange industry, Elias lost his farm due to a heavy frost that killed all of his crops. This setback forced him to find another career path that could help support their growing family.
After several failed attempts to find work, he and Flora moved to Chicago in 1890 to live near his older brother, Robert, who helped him financially for much of Walt’s childhood. Elias found work as a contractor doing various jobs as a carpenter and handyman. He used these skills to also help build the St. Paul Congregationalist Church in Northwest Town that the family attended every Sunday. Elias served as a deacon, and Flora served as the organist. The Disney family became good friends with the preacher, Reverend Walter Parr. Reverend Parr’s wife and Flora became pregnant around the same time, and the men made a pact to name their children after each other if the babies were male. As it turned out, Walt was the next child and was thus named after their family friend (Mosley).
Elias went on to have many career changes throughout his life. Walt’s older brother, Roy, said that Pa always had ants in his pants. He could never stay in one place long enough to warm a seat
(Croce 91-92). Some of these positions included a building contractor, farmer, construction worker, partner in a jelly and apple juice factory, and a newspaper deliveryman.