Sorry no blog last week—seriously malfunctioning internet service—GRRR

Today before is a special addition of the blog—–we  will return to our look around Mt. Dora on Friday 9/14 — I work in a museum in Mt. Dora and I have had some questions lately some on the city some not.

The first requesting some info on Lake County Occupants and the first couple to get a marriage license there I thought might be particularly interesting to some of my readers—so this session is dedicated to this question.

 

 

 

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

Walt Disney

 

 

 

So many of you out there are saying so who cares who got the first marriage license in Lake Co.  Well I’m gonna tell you anyway:

 

It was Flora Call and Elias Disney

Name sound familiar—it should  Elias and Flora were married in or around Paisley, Florida—while some say Kismet depending on your sources but all the sources agree that though their son Walt wasn’t born in Florida, he did make a huge impact on Central Florida

 

Walt’s great grandfather Arundel Elias Disney sold his family holdings in Ireland around July 1834 (well before the massive Irish migration later in the 19th c) and along with his wife and two children set sail for North America from Liverpool, England aboard the New Jersey along with his older brother Robert and his family.

 

Eventually they would settle in a small township called Godoich in a bit of wilderness in south west Ontario, Canada.  He reportedly built the areas first grist mill and farmed the land as his family grew from 2 to 16 children (8 of each sex).

 

 

 

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

Walt Disney

 

 

 

 

 

Arundel’s eldest son Kepple, who had made the trip from Ireland with him married another Irish immigrant Mary Richardson and they moved further north and bought a 100 acres and build a log cabin.  Elias central Florida’s first Disney was born here in 1859.  When oil was found in the area Keeple rented out his farm, left his family with his wife’s sister and went to find his fortune drilling for oil.  He returned occasionally only to see his family and finally after about 3 years he admitted he was not going to make his fortune in oil and returned to the farm.

 

 

 

The return was not permanent and in 1877 he was off to California following the gold strike there—this time with his 18 year-old son Elias.  This changed somewhere on his way south and he ended up in Kansas—not being a US citizen he couldn’t qualify for free land through the Homestead Act but here in Kansas the Union Pacific was offering deals to entice settlers to settle along the area where they were laying down their tracks.

 

 

 

 

According to the New York Times this was an area that still had Indian issue and the county seat of the area where they settled was referred to as the Sodom of the Plain.  Even more serious for the settlers the area proved to be poor farm lands with the men leaving the farms to work for the rail roads and the women force to scavenging for buffalo bones to sell to fertilizer manufacturers.

 

 

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

Walt Disney

 

 

 

 

 

They did meet a family that they became friend with the Calls.  The Calls had arrived in the British Colonies in 1636, settling first outside Boston and later to upstate New York.  Walt’s great grandfather Eber Call decided to leave the hostile Indians and terrible cold of the North New York winters and moved his family to Huron Co., Ohio, where two of his daughters became teachers and his son Charles graduated from college in 1847 with high honors.  But it seems Charles had a bit in common with Kepple, as he headed to California drifting about during the gold rush.  He eventually ended up in Des Moises, Iowa where he met Henrietta Gross, a German immigrant who he married 9/9/1855.   He took his new bride and returned to his father’s house in Ohio, where he settled down and became a teacher.

 

I found no explanation why Charles at age 56 (January 1879) decided to move himself, his wife and their 10 kids (8 of which were girls) to Ellis, Kansas and become a farmer.  Within a shot time the family began to scatter and Flora in her early teens was sent to normal school in Elsworth, to be trained as a tacher, rumor has it that he roomed with Albertha Disney.

 

Eventually give the circumstances of the land added to by the horrible cold winters on the flat plains  became too much and the Calls made arrangements to relocate to an area in Florida that their relatives had already settled.    The Calls had five children Charles Jr and his sisters: Flora (Walt’s future mom) , Jessie, Grace Leslie and Julia.  Around autumn 1886 the Call family and their friends and neighbors Kepple and Elias Disney left for Florida by train.

 

 

 

 

I have no use for people who throw their weight around as celebrities, or for those who fawn over you just because you are famous.

Walt Disney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They settled in the area of Kismet* and or Paisley* depending on the sources you read- in what was then Orange County–Elias settled (around 80 acres) his own land and cleared acreage and raised citrus.   Kepple returned to Kanas in 1887.  He was eventually injured in some type of accident and never completely recovered, dying in the early 1890’s–I did not learn where he died in Kansas or Florida.

 

Meanwhile Elias’ future spouse had finished school and taught her 2nd year in Paisley.  Elias in the mean time had added a mail delivery job to his resume.

 

 

The couple were married (again the fact differ from the Call’s family home in Kismet to a local church) on either 12/27/1887 or New Years Day 1888 in the newly formed (just a few month old) Lake county.  There is a rumor that the couple spent their honeymoon at the Kismet’s 50-room hotel (it was later moved to Eustis and became the Grand View after Kismet demise)—but given their economics I put this on the highly questionable column.  Elias was 29 at the time of their marriage and Flora almost 20.

 

 

 

 

 

I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.

Walt Disney

 

 

 

 

 

 

For some reason they decided to move–Some accounts state that they moved to Daytona Beach but give no reason why or what they did while they stayed there so this is another fact that remains in limbo.  It is however of note that their first son Herbert was born in Florida in 1888.  So Elias. Flora and his  eldest son moved to Chicago.

 

 

 

Perhaps the reason for Elias moving to Chicago was his younger brother Robert, described as a real dandy as well as a schemer.  Robert was married to a wealthy Boston girl, Margaret Rogers and had made a career in oil, gold mines and real estate.

 

 

 Elias and family arrived in Chicago in the spring of 1890 (before the Freeze).   It is noted that their 2nd son Raymond was born in 1890 after the relocation to Chicago.   Elias apparently worked as a carpenter at the Columbia Exposition (1893) site development where he reportedly made about $7 per week.   Roy was born in 1893 and Walter Ellias in 1901–the only daughter Ruth in 1902.

 

 

 

 Elias was reportedly a deeply religious man (as was his son Walt) whose life revolved around the nearby Congregational Church where he became a main stay of the church, even occasionally preaching when the minister was absent.

 

 

 

 

 

Mickey Mouse is, to me, a symbol of independence. He was a means to an end. Walt Disney

 

 

 

 

 

But alas Chicago did not hold them and in 1906 they moved again, this time to a 48 acr farm new Marceline, Mo.  Along the main lien of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe R/R.  Some say Maceline is the inspiration for the main street area of the Disney Park. Then they moved again a few years later to Kansas City.

 

 

Back in Florida Albert Perkins (who had married Walt’s aunt Jessie Call in 1887) became the post master of Paisley in 1902 and served until 1935.  While Aunt Jessie taught in several different Lake County Schools and eventually became principal of the Eustis High School.  When husband Jessie died she became the post master until 1946.

 

 

According to local info Walt and his brother Roy spent several summer vacations with Aunt Jessie and Uncle Albert.  Reportedly a welcome break from his father’s ridged ways.

 

Oh and by the way the cemetery in Paisley where his grand parent are buried as well as the old homesteads are all near Paisley, which is about 50 miles north of Walt’s homestead Disney World.

 

 

 

 

Walter Elias Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations

 

 

                              Sources:

Florida Backroads Travel/Paisley Fl.  Walt Disney’s Roots

 

New York Times

First Chapter/Walt Disney 12/03/06 by Neal Gabler

 

Orlando Sentinel

Walt Disney’s World as Child Not so Magical 12/02/01

Florida Flashback  10/28/11 by Jan Wallace Dickinson