When I came across the name of my distant cousin “Wathel” Rogers recorded in the 1920 census, I thought surely it had been transcribed incorrectly and was meant to have been “Walter”. I checked the photograph of the actual census from Kit Carson County, Colorado and found that it was not a mistake. Sometimes the names can be difficult to decipher but this was not the case.
In the1930 census “Wathel” became “Mathel”. I considered for a moment that “Wathel”, now “Mathel”, might have been “Martha” and that he was possibly a she. However, in the 1940 census “Mathel” returned to his former self as “Wathel”. Good grief. With low expectations, I turned to the Internet hoping to find evidence that “Wathel” was “Walter”. Perhaps someone had heard of him.
I quickly learned that “Wathel” was indeed “Wathel”. I also learned that a “Walter”, who was not “Wathel”, played an important role in his life.
The “Walter” was none other than Walter Elias Disney, better known as Walt Disney. Wathel Rogers was one of Disney’s “Imagineers”. In 1995, he was a recipient of the prestigious Disney Legends award. Wathel started as an animator with The Walt Disney Studios in 1939, lending his talents to such classics as Pinocchio, Bambi, and Alice in Wonderland to name but a few. He was also a gifted sculptor and inventor known for bringing inanimate objects to life. His legacy rests in his development of Disney’s Audio-Animatronics®.
Wathel’s crowning achievement was the “robotic” yet very lifelike Abraham Lincoln, which debuted at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 in the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction. In addition to lending his technical expertise, Wathel also lent his body. Mr. Lincoln’s prerecorded gestures and movements were Wathel’s as well.
Wathel passed away August 25, 2000. I read somewhere that people like finding presidents in their family trees along with Mayflower passengers, Civil War heroes and famous Native Americans. I’m counting this one.
Kenfolk: Utlauts
Relation: 3rd cousin, 2x removed
Common ancestors: Wathel’s 2nd great grandparents Calvin and Susannah (Rainey) Maxwell are my 4th great grandparents
References:
http://www.waltdisney.org/blog/look-closer-great-moments-mr-Lincoln
https://d23.com/wathel-rogers/