Marceline Missouri town where Walt Disney lived during his early childhood. Fearing that crime was becoming rampant in his area of Chicago, Elias Disney decided to move his family to the country. His brother, Robert, owned a farm in Marceline, a small town northeast of Kansas City, so Elias decided to move there too, and he bought a small farm just north of town. He moved his family there in 1906, and the young Walt thrived. He loved the farmyard animals and the rural atmosphere, both of which would figure prominently in his early cartoons. Walt began school in Marceline, and adoringly tagged around after his big brother, Roy. The two brothers found their workload around the farm increased when older brothers, Herb and Ray, tiring of Elias’s domination, ran away from home. Walt, punished for drawing on the side of the farmhouse with tar, was given drawing materials by his aunt Margaret, and he began some of his earliest artwork. He even received a small payment for drawing a horse belonging to a neighbor. Eventually, Elias became ill and had to sell the farm. In 1911, he moved the family to Kansas City to begin a new life. The U.S. issued a 6¢ Walt Disney commemorative postage stamp in Marceline on September 11, 1968.
