Walt Disney's Canadian Father

The story of Elias Disney of Bluevale

Mar 20, 2025

Morris-Turnberry is a municipality in Huron County, Ontario that was formed by the amalgamation of the former Morris and Turnberry townships in 2001.

The only significant settlement in the municipality is Bluevale, which has one major claim to fame. It was the birthplace of Elias Disney.

Elias was born there on Feb. 6, 1859 to Irish Protestant immigrants Kepple and Mary Disney.

He was one of nine children born to the couple over the course of 18 years.

In the community Elias’s father owned a farm and operated several businesses to bring in money for the family.

Throughout his youth, Elias’ father had trouble making ends meet. This eventually led to the family moving to the United States in 1877 when Elias was 18 to find better work. The family was going to go to California to prospect for gold but only made it to Kansas where Kepple bought land.

Elias worked on his father’s farm until 1884 when he left to find work. He briefly worked for the railroad, and as a professional fiddle player in Denver. With no success on his own, he moved back to his father’s farm.

It was there that he met a teacher named Flora Call. The two fell in love and after Flora’s family moved to Florida, Elias followed. The couple were married on Jan. 1, 1888. Their first son, Herbert, was born later that year.

Elias and Flora had five children. Their most famous child, Walt Disney, was born in 1901 in Chicago where Elias worked in construction.

Worried that the city would be a bad influence on his children, Elias and his family moved to Missouri and bought a farm. While still close to Chicago, it provided the family with a rural setting.

Throughout his working life, Elias was a supporter of unions and even organized his fellow farmers to join the American Society of Equity.

The family sold the farm in 1910 after Elias became ill from typhoid fever and pneumonia. The family lived in a rented house in Kansas City.

Later in life, Elias and Flora moved to Portland, Oregon.

While Elias never smoked or drank, he was a stern father with his children and had a temper at times. He often took money from his children for what he called “safekeeping” as he believed they did not know the value of money. If his children did not behave, they were punished with a switch. He also did not consider Walt’s job as an artist to be a real profession.

Elias died on Sept. 13, 1941 in Los Angeles.

After his father passed away, Disney and his wife Lillian visited the area where his father grew up. He said to CBC TV’s Telescope in 1963:

“We got up there and she [Lillian Disney] really fell in love with the Town of Goderich. It was a beautiful town and she was quite happy about it. But I wanted to find my homestead where my grandfather went out and cut the trees down and pulled the rocks apart… where my father was born.”