Futility Closet

Great Stork Derby

Posted in History, Oddities by Greg Ross on August 31st, 2005

When financier Charles Vance Millar died in Toronto in 1926, he willed his fortune to the woman who had the most children in the next 10 years.

And people took him up on it — in the end, four women tied at nine births apiece. Each got $125,000.

The period is known as "The Great Stork Derby."