- ELIAS CHARLES DISNEY was the husband of Flora Call Disney and the father of Walt Disney, (Walter Elias Disney). His other children are: Herbert Arthur Disney, Raymond Arnold Disney , Roy Oliver Disney and Ruth Flora Disney Beecher. Elias's son Raymond, named his own son Charles Elias Disney after Elias!
Elias Charles Disney is entombed next to his wife Flora Call Disney within the Great Mausoleum in the Sanctuary of Truth concourse in Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, California.
Walt Disney and his family are remembered in a beautiful private garden near the Freedom Mausoleum in Forest Lawn in Glendale. Other family is in Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in the Hollywood Hills and other cemeteries in California and Missouri and elsewhere.
Elias was born in the Village of Bluevale, Ontario, Province of Canada and the the son of Irish immigrants Kepple Elias Disney and Mary Richardson. The name "Elias" is a version of the name Elijah, the prophet. Both of Elias' parents had immigrated from Ireland as children with their parents. Elias lived in California and Ellis, Kansas, and in Colorado and in Florida before moving with his family to Chicago.
Elias held very strict Christian family values and he instilled these values in his children! He was known as a stern man and he was active in the Congregational Church where he often would preach strong sermons touting sobriety when the regular minister was not available! He never drank alcohol and seldom smoked. He felt that going to a movie house and most other forms of entertainment "to be a complete waste of time."
To be certain, Elias loved his family and he was likely under pressure due to financial problems. At the time Elias passed away, Walt Disney said: "I adored my dad because he always set very high standards for his children; he desired for each one of us to be successful!"
Disney married Flora Call on January 1, 1888, in Kismet, Florida, 50 miles from the land on which Walt Disney World would eventually be built and lived for a short time they in adjoining Acron, Florida. She was the daughter of his father's neighbors. Soon after marriage, the Disney's moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Elias met and befriended Walter Parr, St. Paul Congregational Church's preacher, for whom the Disney's fourth son, Walter, was named; his full name being Walter Elias Disney! By the turn of the century, Elias had become an active building contractor. He built houses which he owned and then resold at a fair profit. He also built the Saint Paul Congregational Church, a building dedicated on October 14, 1900. Elias was one of the church's trustees, while his wife Flora was its treasurer.
In 1906 Disney moved his family to a small farm in Marceline, Missouri because he feared the rising crime rate in Chicago and he wanted his children to live in a much safer environment. It was on this farm in Marceline where Walt Disney and his siblings Roy and Ruth often would sit under a huge tree close to the family home and dream and Walt later named this "The Dreaming Tree!" Also, in Marceline Walt drew some of his earliest drawings for a neighbor who was a prominent physician who asked and paid Walt to draw sketches of his beloved horse. Marceline was the place where Walt was first exposed to all sorts of animals that likely ingrained in his heart the love for all animals as he would later portray in so many of his beloved animated and even true life films!
The family sold the farm on November 28, 1910, as Elias fell ill. He was suffering from typhoid fever, followed by pneumonia. The Disney's lived in a rented house in Marceline, probably at 508 North Kansas Avenue until 1911, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri. They lived in a rented house at 2706 East Thirty-first Street. They stayed there until they bought their own modest home in September of 1914. It was situated at 3028 Bellefontaine Street and today is recognized as the home where the Disney Family permanently resided for a number of years. The Benton Elementary School was nearby where Walt and Ruth attended school.
On July 1, 1911, Elias purchased a newspaper delivery route for The Kansas City Star. It extended from Twenty-seventh Street to Thirty-first Street, and from Prospect Avenue to Indiana Avenue. Roy and Walt were put to work delivering the newspapers. The Disney's delivered the morning newspaper known as The Kansas City Times to about 700 customers and the evening and Sunday Kansas City Star to more than 600 customers. Both papers were published by William Rockhill Nelson (who also established the famous Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City!) Their customers increased with time. Elias also delivered butter and eggs to his newspaper customers. They were regularly imported from a dairy farm in Marceline.
Elias' sons Raymond Arnold Disney and Roy Oliver Disney were bank tellers at the First National Bank at 10th and Baltimore Avenue (now the Central Library) in downtown Kansas City, Missouri when Walt was establishing his first short-lived animation studio he named Laugh-O-gram Studio in the McConaughey Building located at 1127 E. 31st Street (31st Street and Forest Avenue) also in Kansas City, Missouri. This original building remains today, albeit in disrepair, and hopefully will be fully restored! A most concerted effort is in place to renew this building!
Raymond Arnold Disney's older son who is Charles Elias Disney was named after his grandfather Elias Charles Disney. Elias only saw Charles Elias Disney for a short time before he passed away on his grandsons first birthday on September 13, 1941. Raymond's second son is Daniel H. Disney.
Elias sold the paper route on March 17, 1917. He had been investing in the O-Zell Company of Chicago since 1912 and moved back to the city in 1917 to take an active role in its management. The Disney's rented a Chicago flat at 1523 Ogden Avenue.
He retired from management work in 1920 and moved back to Kansas City. He was again working as a carpenter. He moved to Portland, Oregon by September-October in the autumn of 1921. His son Herbert and family had earlier moved to this city.
He was a fiddler himself and would bring home anyone else who could play an instrument. Elias loved music and he also wanted his family to enjoy music!
Elias lived to see his two sons Walt Disney, (Walter Elias Disney) and Roy Oliver Disney establish the Disney Bros. Studio and later Walt Disney Productions, which today is known as The Walt Disney Company. He was very proud of his sons accomplishments and he really loved and was fascinated with Walt's early animated films!
Sadly, his wife Flora Disney passed away on November 26, 1938 as the result of gas asphyxiation in their home due to a lingering and hidden gas leak. Elias never fully recovered from this terrible emotional loss! Elias Charles Disney was a decent man and with all of the struggles life seemed to bring him, Elias never refrained from loving and providing for his beloved family!
Elias Charles Disney passed from this life on September 13, 1941.
"May Elias Charles Disney Rest in Peace." Amen.
(Biography by grandsons Roy Edward Disney, Daniel H. Disney and Charles Elias Disney) [3]
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The Duttons of New England
1859 - 1941 (82 years)
Has no ancestors but 8 descendants in this family tree.
[1] 
CALL, Flora
