Stork Derby Rewarded Nine-Child Mothers

In 1926, wealthy Toronto lawyer, financier, and practical joker Charles Vance Millar left the remainder of his estate to whichever woman in the city gave birth to the most children during the following 10 years. His unusual bequest launched the Great Stork Derby, in which 11 families competed through much of the Great Depression. The dispute reached the Supreme Court of Canada, which upheld the clause but excluded stillborn children and those born outside marriage. Annie Katherine Smith, Kathleen Ellen Nagle, Lucy Alice Timleck, and Isabel Mary Maclean each had nine qualifying children and received $110,000.

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