Two interlinked Forteans intent on reforming science.
Thomas Graydon and Cornelius O’Connor were briefly affiliated with the Fortean Society during the mid-1940s, Graydon more than O’Connor. Thayer linked them, as both wanted to reform science, though they had very different ideas about what the new physical laws would look like—and were never really interested in what Fort had to say, or even what Thayer had to say about Fort. They were focused on their own goals: two more in “the greatest aggregation of Academic Cranks the world has known,” as The Canadian Theosophist described Thayer’s Fortean Society.
Cornelius O’Connor was the older of the two, born 17 February 1874 in Troy, New York to Daniel and Mary O’Connor, both Irish immigrants. In 1880, for some reason, the family was in Sacramento, California. Daniel was a laborer, and Cornelius had a younger sister, named Margaret, although later she would be known as Mary. By 1900, the family was back in New York, and Daniel had died. Cornelius, then 26, worked as a telegraph operator. Ten years later, Cornelius was no longer living with the Two Marys. He was in Manhattan, married to Stella Jane—daughter of Scot and Irish immigrants—and working as a stock broker. Stella Jane had been born in Canada, and only moved to the United States in 1902. Cornelius went off to war in 1917.
Sometime thereafter he and Stella moved to San Jose, California—I cannot find them in the 1920 census, but they show up in a 1926 city directory. Stella died in 1929. By the time of the next census, Cornelius was in San Diego, living with his mother and sister. His mother passed, and some time after 1935, Cornelius and his sister Mary moved north, to Burlingame, California, a suburb of San Francisco. Neither worked, living on Cornelius’s retirement savings. He died in 1955 and was buried next to Stella Jane in Glendale, California.
Thomas Graydon and Cornelius O’Connor were briefly affiliated with the Fortean Society during the mid-1940s, Graydon more than O’Connor. Thayer linked them, as both wanted to reform science, though they had very different ideas about what the new physical laws would look like—and were never really interested in what Fort had to say, or even what Thayer had to say about Fort. They were focused on their own goals: two more in “the greatest aggregation of Academic Cranks the world has known,” as The Canadian Theosophist described Thayer’s Fortean Society.
Cornelius O’Connor was the older of the two, born 17 February 1874 in Troy, New York to Daniel and Mary O’Connor, both Irish immigrants. In 1880, for some reason, the family was in Sacramento, California. Daniel was a laborer, and Cornelius had a younger sister, named Margaret, although later she would be known as Mary. By 1900, the family was back in New York, and Daniel had died. Cornelius, then 26, worked as a telegraph operator. Ten years later, Cornelius was no longer living with the Two Marys. He was in Manhattan, married to Stella Jane—daughter of Scot and Irish immigrants—and working as a stock broker. Stella Jane had been born in Canada, and only moved to the United States in 1902. Cornelius went off to war in 1917.
Sometime thereafter he and Stella moved to San Jose, California—I cannot find them in the 1920 census, but they show up in a 1926 city directory. Stella died in 1929. By the time of the next census, Cornelius was in San Diego, living with his mother and sister. His mother passed, and some time after 1935, Cornelius and his sister Mary moved north, to Burlingame, California, a suburb of San Francisco. Neither worked, living on Cornelius’s retirement savings. He died in 1955 and was buried next to Stella Jane in Glendale, California.