This one is kind of a guess—but a good guess. Even though I don’t know much about Jesse Douglas’s concept of Forteanism.
Douglas gets a few mentions in Doubt. The first was in June 1943’s story on ‘Scientifiction,’ in which he is listed as associated with science fiction. That same issue notes he had sent in material, although Thayer did not have the space to consider it.
Douglas—or someone with the last name Douglas—received credit five more times: Spring 1946 (#14); December 1948 (#23); April 1949 (#24); July 1950 (#29); October 1950 (#30). The first regarded radioactive straw (Thayer didn’t believe in any such thing); the second had to do with a mysterious fire in Macomb—a fire covered by lots of Forteans and caused Thayer to formulate a Fortean law: Cherhcez la Wonet; the third was a report—again, sent in by many—on Ivan Sanderson’s investigation of strange tracks on a Florida beach—he thought them from a lost penguin, but they turned out to be a hoax; the fourth concerned a supposed rain of bullfrogs in West Memphis, Arkansas; the last had to do with a flying saucer sighting, but Thayer was not more explicit than that.
The last also gave a better clue to the identity of the Fortean, as the surname was spelled with two esses, Douglass. (Thayer mis-spelled names a lot.)
But the biggest clues come from the last mention, in April 1955 (issue #48). Thayer notes that the cover of the winter issue—featuring a grimacing face captioned “Joy to the World—received much praise, so much that some suggested it be made into a Christmas card.Thayer noted that it was a Christmas card, from Jesse Douglas—one S, again—who had joined the Fortean Society as a undergraduate at the University of Minnesota and sent in the card—drawn by a fellow Fortean and Gopher, last name Swisher—from Panama.
Well, it just so happens--thanks to ancestry.com--I can find a Jesse Douglass attended the University of Minnesota in the 1940s and later went to the Canal Zone in Panama. And his middle name was the same as Thayer’s: Ellsworth. He was a Midwesterner, too.
Here’s a brief biography.
Douglass was born 11 July 1918 in Minnesota to Jesse E. Douglass (a doctor) and Dagney Douglass. In 1920, they were living at the Minnesota State Sanitarium. In 1930, they were living in a county TB hospital in Wisconsin, the family now expanded by the a second son, David.The 1940 census saw him and the rest of the family at the Jasper County TB hospital in Missouri. Jesse the younger was 22, working 52 hours per week as an assistant at a university.
The 1939 yearbook for the University of Minnesota has him graduating with a BA in the arts, and gives his home as Missouri. That same year, the school newspaper--Minnesota Chats—noted he contributed to his dorm’s paper, “The Pioneer Piper.”
He served in the Navy from 1942 to 1945.
Douglass became a doctor, and travelled to the Panama Canal Zone in the mid-1950s, presumably for professional reasons.
The 1955 Christmas card was the last mention he received in Doubt.
Douglass died in 1996.
Douglas gets a few mentions in Doubt. The first was in June 1943’s story on ‘Scientifiction,’ in which he is listed as associated with science fiction. That same issue notes he had sent in material, although Thayer did not have the space to consider it.
Douglas—or someone with the last name Douglas—received credit five more times: Spring 1946 (#14); December 1948 (#23); April 1949 (#24); July 1950 (#29); October 1950 (#30). The first regarded radioactive straw (Thayer didn’t believe in any such thing); the second had to do with a mysterious fire in Macomb—a fire covered by lots of Forteans and caused Thayer to formulate a Fortean law: Cherhcez la Wonet; the third was a report—again, sent in by many—on Ivan Sanderson’s investigation of strange tracks on a Florida beach—he thought them from a lost penguin, but they turned out to be a hoax; the fourth concerned a supposed rain of bullfrogs in West Memphis, Arkansas; the last had to do with a flying saucer sighting, but Thayer was not more explicit than that.
The last also gave a better clue to the identity of the Fortean, as the surname was spelled with two esses, Douglass. (Thayer mis-spelled names a lot.)
But the biggest clues come from the last mention, in April 1955 (issue #48). Thayer notes that the cover of the winter issue—featuring a grimacing face captioned “Joy to the World—received much praise, so much that some suggested it be made into a Christmas card.Thayer noted that it was a Christmas card, from Jesse Douglas—one S, again—who had joined the Fortean Society as a undergraduate at the University of Minnesota and sent in the card—drawn by a fellow Fortean and Gopher, last name Swisher—from Panama.
Well, it just so happens--thanks to ancestry.com--I can find a Jesse Douglass attended the University of Minnesota in the 1940s and later went to the Canal Zone in Panama. And his middle name was the same as Thayer’s: Ellsworth. He was a Midwesterner, too.
Here’s a brief biography.
Douglass was born 11 July 1918 in Minnesota to Jesse E. Douglass (a doctor) and Dagney Douglass. In 1920, they were living at the Minnesota State Sanitarium. In 1930, they were living in a county TB hospital in Wisconsin, the family now expanded by the a second son, David.The 1940 census saw him and the rest of the family at the Jasper County TB hospital in Missouri. Jesse the younger was 22, working 52 hours per week as an assistant at a university.
The 1939 yearbook for the University of Minnesota has him graduating with a BA in the arts, and gives his home as Missouri. That same year, the school newspaper--Minnesota Chats—noted he contributed to his dorm’s paper, “The Pioneer Piper.”
He served in the Navy from 1942 to 1945.
Douglass became a doctor, and travelled to the Panama Canal Zone in the mid-1950s, presumably for professional reasons.
The 1955 Christmas card was the last mention he received in Doubt.
Douglass died in 1996.
