The Great Toronto Stork Derby
The Great Toronto Stork Derby
Plus new details about The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History and more...
The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History is just a few weeks away! I have some more new details about the event to announce below, and I thought I’d kick off the newsletter this week by sharing a chapter from The Toronto Book of Love all about another one of the strangest stories from our city’s past…
It all started on Halloween in 1926. That’s the day Charles Vance Millar died. He was a rich Toronto lawyer and financier — best known for modernizing a stagecoach company out West, replacing horses with automobiles. He amassed quite an impressive fortune during his life, but he never got married or had any kids. So, when he rushed up some stairs that Halloween and it proved to be too much for his seventy-three-year-old heart, there was no one to inherit his fortune. He left no close relatives behind.
What he did leave behind was a bizarre Last Will and Testament. Millar had always loved practical jokes and he found a way to turn his death into the biggest prank of all.
To seven Protestant ministers who supported Prohibition, Millar left shares to the O’Keefe brewery. He also gave some of those stocks to every Orange Lodge in Toronto — leaving the Catholic-hating Orangemen with an investment in the Catholic O’Keefe’s. To a couple of Ontario’s most ardent opponents of horse racing, he left memberships in the Ontario Jockey Club. And to three local lawyers who absolutely despised each other, Millar left joint ownership of a vacation home in Jamaica.
But those bequests were nothing compared to the strangest and most controversial clause: Millar declared that the rest of his fortune would be left to the woman in Toronto who gave birth to the most children over the course of the next ten years.
And so began the Great Stork Derby.
No one seems to be entirely sure what Millar was thinking. Some say his final prank was meant as a satirical comment on the provincial law banning birth control. Or on the absurdity of a judicial system that would uphold such a ridiculous will. Others wondered if he just wanted to show how far people were willing to go for money. One newspaper pointed out that he was “a bachelor almost to the point of being a misogynist”; the result, it seems, of a bitter, broken heart. As a young, struggling lawyer, he’d been rejected by the woman he loved when his modest salary proved too little to impress her rich family.
His will gave little explanation and, at first, people had trouble believing it was even real. When Millar’s old law partner found it, he assumed it was a joke, not a legal document. When it became clear Millar was serious, many people were outraged. Millar’s distant relatives launched legal challenges. TIME Magazine worried the prize might be won by “mental defectives” or by immigrants. The Ontario government called the Stork Derby “a fiasco,” “a racket,” and “the most revolting and disgusting exhibition ever put on in a civilized country.” (This is the same Ontario government that had recently taken the Dionne quintuplets away from their family to be raised as a tourist attraction.) They tried to pass legislation against the contest and failed. Millar had been a good lawyer; the will he wrote was airtight. One legal challenge after another was defeated. Even the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the Stork Derby was valid. As one judge put it, “I cannot find that reproduction of the human race is contrary to morals.”
In fact, the contest was picking up steam. Millar died in the middle of the Roaring Twenties, the prosperous days of flappers and jazz. But just a few years later, the stock market crashed. By the time the contest was finally drawing to a close, Toronto was in the grips of the Great Depression. The unemployment rate hit 30 percent. Even those who were lucky enough to still have a job found average wages cut by more than half. A quarter of the city was on government relief. And with poverty everywhere, the prize money meant more than ever.
Meanwhile, the Millar fortune kept growing. While most people’s investments were going up in smoke, his were still paying off long after he died. A two-dollar stake in a proposed tunnel between Detroit and Windsor turned into hundreds of thousands of dollars when the tunnel opened in 1930. By the time the Derby deadline arrived, Millar’s estate was worth nearly a million dollars — more than ten million in today’s money.
Most Torontonians decided the Great Depression wasn’t the right time to build a family. The number of people getting married in the city was cut nearly in half, and the birth rate plummeted, too. All over the world, the fertility rate was dropping faster than at any other time in recorded history. It’s been called “The Baby Bust.”
But now, some Toronto families were racing to have as many babies as they could, making a desperate bid for Millar’s fortune. As the contest drew to a close, the city’s most fertile women came forward to make their claims. That sparked even more controversy and intolerance. Many of the mothers were from poverty-stricken families. Some had risked their lives giving birth to their children. Others had seen them die as infants — and were disqualified because of it. TIME even reported that a Stork Derby baby had been killed by rats. One woman, Grace Bagnato, was disqualified because her husband was an undocumented Italian immigrant. (She was also an important pioneer of Torontonian multiculturalism who could speak seven languages; she has her own historical plaque in Little Italy.) Another mother was dis- qualified because five of her ten children were conceived out of wedlock — the law discriminated against “illegitimate” children.
In the end, after more than a year spent sorting it all out, the prize money was split evenly between four mothers. Their children were all “legitimate,” properly registered, and still alive. Annie Smith, Alice Timleck, Kathleen Nagle, and Isobel MacLean had all given birth to nine babies in ten years. Each mother was awarded $125,000. Two more settled out of court for smaller amounts. The money was, according to later accounts, invested wisely in businesses, securities, and homes. The mothers and their families retreated from public view. The controversy and excitement faded. Procreation went back to being the dreary, ho-hum task it has always been.
That is, at least, until 1945. Thomas Foster had been mayor of Toronto when the Stork Derby began — and he thought the contest was a wonderful idea. So, when he died at the age of ninety-three, the whole thing started all over again.
Now, the new details about the festival I promised above! Last week, I revealed that our opening night will feature two wonderful authors investigating the mysterious disappearance of Ambrose Small, and that it will conclude with a weird tour of Queen West. I’m still in the process of finalizing the rest of the schedule, but I can tell you that it looks like we’ll also have a bizarre cemetery tour, two very special guests discussing the 1980s Patty Wars, a night dedicated to debunking a strange myth about Toronto and slavery, and that I’ll be delivering my own lecture about the Circus Riot — the violent clash sparked by a brawl between clowns and firefighters at a brothel on King Street.
Tickets for the festival are already on sale here. And you can find more information about it here: bizarretoronto.com. I’ll be revealing more line-up and schedule details soon!
Just a quick reminder before we continue: even if you aren’t able to end the festival, you can support my work by switching to a paid subscription for The Toronto History Weekly. Fewer than 5% of readers have made the switch so far, which basically means that by offering a few dollars a month you’ll be giving the gift of Toronto history to 20 other people. You can make the switch by clicking here:
QUICK LINKS
The best of everything else that’s new in Toronto’s past…
COURT NEWS — Toronto’s new downtown courthouse is about to open, meaning a bunch of old courthouses are about to close. Betsy Powell takes a look at their history in The Toronto Star, which includes everything from serial killers to Jimi Hendrix and Keith Richards being tried for heroin possession to Rob Ford’s infamous crack tape. Read more.
FOUNDRY SITE NEWS — Doug Ford’s government rushed to demolish the Dominion Foundry back in 2021, but was kind of forced into a compromise by local protests and a court injunction. So, some of the heritage buildings will live on as part of the site’s future. But after all that hurry, the site seems to have been siting idle for the last couple of years. And now, as Kimia Afshar Mehrabi points out, it looks like it’ll just be used as a parking lot for the foreseeable future. Read more.
LACROSSE NEWS — The Toronto Rock lacrosse team honour the sport’s Indigenous history at their game this weekend. Steve Milton wrote about it for The Hamilton Spectator. Read more.
MULTICULTURAL METROPOLIS NEWS — This upcoming week, I’ll be teaching my students at George Brown College all about post-war Toronto and how a city that had been staunchly British for 150 years finally started becoming something more like the multicultural metropolis we know today. Which makes it an especially helpful time for Hogtown 101 to share an eye-opening fact about one clue as to just how dramatic that change was:
TWO HOUR ROCK MAGIC FANTASY NEWS — …and Hogtown 101 also reminds us of one of the most unexpectedly star-studded productions to come out of 1970s Toronto:
TURNING A PUBLIC PARK INTO A PRIVATE SPA NEWS — At Toronto Life, Morgan Cameron Ross shares photo from the history of Ontario Place. Read more.
TORONTO HISTORY EVENTS
TEN OF TORONTO: WHAT DO TEN NEIGHBOURHOODS TELL US ABOUT WHO WE ARE?
Until April 30 — Myseum — 401 Richmond Street West
“Toronto is vast and diverse in people, places, and experiences. With 2.8 million of us who call this dynamic city home, we explore what it means to call Toronto a ‘city of neighbourhoods’ through the lens of 10 distinct communities and themes. In Ten of Toronto, we reflect on our shared histories by looking at the forces that have shaped the city’s neighbourhoods: geography, economy, immigration, finance, urban development, culture, inequality, and social values. Join us, steal away, and stay awhile. We invite you to discover your own path through the stories and histories we’ve unearthed for this exhibit, and lend your voice – what do neighborhoods mean to you?”
Free!
STEP BACK IN TIME: AN INTERACTIVE PHOTO EXHIBITION
March 1 to 31 — Latitude 44 Gallery Framing Décor — 2900 Dundas St. W
“To commemorate our 50th anniversary, The Junction BIA, in partnership with Latitude 44 Gallery Framing Décor, presents an Interactive Photo Exhibition & Silent Auction featuring archival Junction photography from 100 years ago! Each image is accompanied by informative signage, and as a bonus, one of the photographs will be animated with augmented reality (AR) by globally successful artist Benjamin Mitchley. You won’t want to miss this! Immerse yourself in the magical world of augmented reality while discovering how the Junction has developed throughout the years.”
Free!
I TURN MY CAMERA ON: TORONTO ALT-ROCK IN THE 1980s
March 1 to April 30 — The Local — 396 Roncesvalles
West end bar The Local will be displaying photographs taken by Jeremy Gilbert during the golden age of Toronto alt rock.
Free presumably!
TORONTO IN LITERATURE BOOK CLUB: THE BEATLE BANDIT
March 16 — 7pm — Toronto Reference Library
“The Toronto in Literature Book Club meets monthly to discuss literature set in, or near, the city of Toronto. Join us for a discussion of The Beatle Bandit: A Serial Bank Robber's Deadly Heist, a cross-Country Manhunt, and the Insanity Plea that Shook the Nation by Nate Hendley. The sensational true story of how a bank robber killed a man in a wild shootout, sparking a national debate around gun control and the death penalty.”
Free!
BY THE LAKE BOOK CLUB: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
March 14 — 7pm — Online and at Assembly Hall in Etobicoke
“Join Adrienne Shadd for a conversation about her book. Meticulously researched and based on never-before-published information on the African-Canadian community of Toronto, this book recounts the journeys of brave travellers, and the network of clandestine routes and safe houses they traversed on the underground railroad seeking freedom in Toronto, and their captivating life after they arrive.”
$10–$28, I believe.
WRITING FAMILY HISTORY — SHAPING GENEALOGY INTO SHAREABLE STORIES
March 27 — 7:30pm — Both online & at Lansing United Church — Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society
“Here’s the problem; your family, they don’t want your stuff. No one is stepping forward to say I’ll take your endless boxes of genealogy files. There’s a couple of reasons for that. First, it appears at least on the surface, they’re not interested in your family history. They’ve rolled their eyes every time you attempted to show them new-found document. ... But a book with a collection of family stories they can put on their coffee table or display on a bookshelf is much more likely to appeal to them. It’s also more likely to get read and shared. Lynn Palermo will take you on a storytelling journey demonstrating for you how to turn your research into entertaining and shareable stories. Leave this presentation armed with the first steps to starting a family history narrative and motivated to turn your boxes of documents into an expressive and lasting legacy for future generations.”
Free, I believe!
UPPER CANADA’S KILLING FIELDS: TWO FAMOUS 19th CENTURY DUELS AS TOLD BY THE LOSER’S RIVERDALE DESCENDANTS
March 28 — 6:30pm — Online — The Riverdale Historical Society
“In 19th century Upper Canada, dueling allowed a gentleman to restore or reaffirm his honour. So, a side glance at a party, a wanton gesture, or an unwise comment could precipitate a challenge framed according to strict rules imported from across the Atlantic. It’s true that legally, the duelist who killed his opponent was a murderer. But he had little to fear, for judges trod lightly and this class of criminal escaped punishment. Two famous duels killed the ancestors of two Riverdalers who will tell their stories and explore the aftermath of each unpunished murder. John Ridout, killed by Samuel Peters Jarvis in 1817, is Andrew Fitzgerald’s ancestor. Robert Lyon, killed by John Wilson in 1833 in a duel commemorated as The Last Fatal Duel, is Elizabeth Abbott’s Great-great-great Uncle.”
Free with registration, I believe!
OUT OF THE SHADOWS: WOMEN & THEIR WORK IN 19TH CENTURY TORONTO
March 29 — 7pm — Northern District Library (Room 224)
“Author and historian Elizabeth Gillan Muir will present an illustrated talk on the influential role women had in the life of the growing city of Toronto during the nineteenth century. Based on the extensive research Dr. Muir did for her recently published book An Unrecognized Contribution: Women and Their Work in 19th-Century Toronto.”
Free!
TALES FROM THE HOLLOW
March 29 — 8:30pm — The Beaches Sandbox (2181 Queen Street East) — The Beaches & East York Historical Society
Author and historian Scott Kennedy presents the story of Hogg’s Hollow and York Mills.
Free!
BLACK HISTORY IN ONTARIO: ONLINE SERIES
This is a series of three online talks hosted by the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, each one beginning at 7:30pm:
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (April 13)
“Adrienne Shadd will discuss her research for her book The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto!, co-authored by Afua Cooper and Karolyn Smardz Frost. Her discovery of freedom seeker Deborah Brown, who settled just north of Bloor and Bathurst streets, led to the unearthing of a community of neighbours in this York Township west area, some of whom were immortalized by William Still in his famous work, The Underground Railroad. She will also talk about some of the research and personalities that are profiled in the new 2022 edition of the book.”
THE SEARCH FOR ALFRED LAFFERTY, BLACK EDUCATOR AND LAWYER (April 20)
“In 1869 Alfred M. Lafferty, M.A., Richmond Hill, was a witness to the marriage of William Denis Lafferty, a black farmer who lived in Etobicoke. Who was the man with the same surname and a university degree? Hilary J. Dawson’s research uncovered the story of the Lafferty family, and the successes, challenges, and tragedies they faced. The Lafferty parents arrived from the United States in the 1830s as freedom-seekers. They were illiterate and penniless, yet gave their children the best education they could afford. Alfred Lafferty won prizes for excellence at both Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto. He would become the first Canadian-born black lawyer in Ontario. This presentation will show the resources Hilary used to develop a picture of the Lafferty family.”
BLACK HISTORY IN ONTARIO, 1793–1965
“Winston Anderson will be presenting a timeline of events from the passing of the Act To Limit Slavery in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, to 1965 when MPP Leonard Braithwaite pushed for the Separate Schools clause on segregated schools for Blacks to be officially removed from the provincial education policy. He will be discussing a number of people of Black heritage, both free and enslaved people, who shaped Toronto.”
$35
STREETCARS AND THE SHIFTING GEOGRAPHIES OF TORONTO
April 20 — 8:30pm — Online — The Toronto Railway Museum
“What can photos taken by streetcar enthusiasts reveal about the changing nature of cities? This is the question explored by Brian and Michael Doucet in their book Streetcars and the Shifting Geographies of Toronto: a visual analysis of change. The Doucets carefully and meticulously rephotograph these images taken in the 1960s and 70s to bring them into dialogue with contemporary planning, policy, political and public debates.”
ERNEST HEMINGWAY IN TORONTO
April 27 — 2pm — Brentwood Library
“Ernest Hemingway lived in Toronto during 1923 while he worked for the Toronto Star newspaper. He had moved to the city from France with his pregnant wife Hadley, as she preferred to give birth in North America. Their son, John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway, was born at Wellesley Hospital, in Toronto, on October 10, 1923. This special centennial presentation considers the role the area played in Hemingway's apprenticeship as a writer, and in his personal life.”
Free!
Great read this week! Thanks