Kid McCoy A minor Fortean who did Thayer a major kindness.
Jennie Selby was born in Iowa in 1869. (Her brother, Norman Selby, became the boxer Kid McCoy, who was sent to San Quentin for manslaughter in the 1920s.) She married—becoming Jennie Selby Thomas—had several kids, and the family moved its way West, a stop in Pueblo, Colorado, before ending up in the Los Angeles area. At some points, she lived in Ojai, home the Theosophical settlement Krotona. (The Barleys were some 100 miles north up the coast at about the same time, living near another Theosophical settlement, in Oceano.) Perhaps they met—because Thomas was interested in Theosophy. She recorded some of her beliefs in a 1930 article:
Jennie Selby was born in Iowa in 1869. (Her brother, Norman Selby, became the boxer Kid McCoy, who was sent to San Quentin for manslaughter in the 1920s.) She married—becoming Jennie Selby Thomas—had several kids, and the family moved its way West, a stop in Pueblo, Colorado, before ending up in the Los Angeles area. At some points, she lived in Ojai, home the Theosophical settlement Krotona. (The Barleys were some 100 miles north up the coast at about the same time, living near another Theosophical settlement, in Oceano.) Perhaps they met—because Thomas was interested in Theosophy. She recorded some of her beliefs in a 1930 article:
“The habit of copy begins in the cradle, when the babe mimics the sounds that fall upon his ears as well as every motion of the adult. We speak of teaching him by word of mouth, when our very act furnishes him a copy.
Habit has its place in strengthening our foundation for life as social beings, hence the need of early and correct association. But when an adult begins to be himself he feels the chains upon him, not only of all habits of action but of the opinions of those whom he contacts.
It takes courage to be oneself, and wisdom to do so without harm to others. But when true knowledge if gained and the path found to the center of being, then and then only can he efficiently serve his fellowmen.
Wherever one is born there latitude and longitude cross, and no one else could possibly be you. As Nature produces no duplicates, it is clear that a man’s value to humanity lies in being himself.
As surely as the Sun and Moon affect every living thing, so certain do we find the other planets contributing their power to man. ‘In the Father’s House are many mansions.’ With mathematical precision the laws of the universe operate, bringing us into being, but for lack of understanding of those laws we grope blindly until we learn the facts of our at-one-ment which is our salvation from common errors.
Many seek to establish that at-one-ment outside of themselves or in their emotional bodies before the Light of Intelligence is an inner telling and not told in books. As upon a ladder we climb from an interest in mundane affairs to that union with the central power where all things are found to work together for good.
Character founded upon basic laws brings glory to the Creator. What doe sit mean to ‘Remember thy Creator in the days of they Youth’ but that we should learn the first laws of creation as a foundation for the structure to follow?
The crowning glory of man is in being himself--but he must first learn to know himself. The heavens declare God’s handiwork.” [The Theosophist vol. 1 no. 10 October 1930.]
She had married Frederick Thomas in Indiana 28 October 1891. He worked in management, and seems to have provided the family a comfortable life. Through other marriages, she became related to Gene Fowler, the journalist, Hollywood producer, and friend of Tiffany Thayer—on 1 April 1955, her great-grandchild and his grand-child was born and named in honor of both, Jennie Gene Fowler. In the ‘30s, after forty years together, the marriage seems to have soured. The 1930 census had Jennie and Frederick living in different places—with Frederick telling the census he was widowed. (Jennie said she was married.) The break—whatever its nature—became permanent in 1939, when Frederick died. Jennie was still living alone in 1940. She had little formal education—having left school in 7th or 8th grade—and otherwise spent her life as a housewife.
Thomas outlived her husband by more than two decades. She died 22 April 1962.
How Thomas became involved with the Fortean Society is unknown, though likely her entry was through the Southern California metaphysical community. “I have been a philosophical quester all my life, which has been a long one,” she said in 1944. “I do not remain lodged in any cult very long. I only belong to the difficult.” She first came across Fort in the mid-1930s, and thought that he might have approved of astrology by omission: since he didn’t attack it the way he attacked other sciences, astrology was therefore Fortean. Around the same time—1934—she aided in the publication of Will Levington Comfort’s last book, The Yucca Story, 1934. A writer by trade, Comfort developed a mystical philosophy in his magazine Glass Hive. He died in 1931, and Thomas worked with Manly P. Hall to bring out the book. She may also have published under the pseudonym Anne Hume, although I have not found anything under that byline.
After re-reading Fort in the form of the omnibus edition Thayer put out—“most absorbing and freeing to the mind,” she said—Thomas began writing to Thayer in June 1944, a series of letters, excerpts of which he would reprint in Doubt and from which come many of the details of this biographical sketch
July: ‘I predict that when this war is over there will be a great increase of free thinkers of there is a grain of intelligence left in the minds of the suffering ones. Freedom of thought should be added to the Four Freedoms.’
August: ‘When mineral can drop from the sky it should waken sleepers (mental) to a realization of things not being what they seem.’
September: ‘The average mind has accepted traditional thought to such an extent that they refuse to THINK.’
March, 1950: “I believe the reading of intelligent literature enables one to flower instead of whither with age. Manly Hall has been a wonderful teacher and guide. I have heard him lecture on Charles Fort. Wishing you continued success in the extension of truth.’
Unknown month, 1950: ‘I enjoy the magazine and share it with friends. I wish you success in your mode of progressive thinking. Nothing so essential now as RIGHT THINKING.’
Undated, in reference to flying saucers: ‘Man is becoming sky conscious now and the light of a new era may dawn on darkened minds. Scientists may find Charles Fort enlightening.’
She wasn’t much of a joiner— ‘I belong to no organization. I once heard an eminent Philosopher remark that it was Satan’s method to organize a new idea. It limits the thinking. True Forteans do not,’ she said. But in September 1944 she became a member of the Fortean Society.
In addition to Thomas thinking Fort might be in favor of astrology, her approbation of Manly Hall’s lecture on Fort suggests that she saw him not so much as an arch-skeptic, but as someone pointing toward greater truths—maybe Theosophical ones, maybe something else. Right thinking, for her, seems not to have been dismissing anything that was asserted confidently, but discovering those truths that needed to be asserted. She thought that Thayer himself had revealed some of these truths. Thayer had developed a theory that tuberculosis resulted not from an infection—or not solely from one—but was a sequelae of having tonsils removed. Thomas thought that a fine theory, writing (ellipses in original): 'I fail to see how Orthodox believers can accept their teachings . . . Now this Polio scare. My Fowler granddaughter who had her new baby--had Polio when we first had the epidemic. And her little boy had it. They both had their tonsils out before. DOUBT has good reason for being . . . My husband was advised not to marry me, by our family physician, as I would only be a funeral expense.’
Her name appeared three times in the pages of Doubt. The first and second contributions to the Society were clippings of standard Fortean events. One was a story about rocks falling from the sky carried in the Los Angeles Daily News. Her second clipping was about a mysterious light seen over the Midwest—it was a popular bit of Forteana, with clippings sent in by many others, including Bowring, Hoernlein, and Kerr. At least I assume she sent in a clipping on the subject—the credit only goes to a “Thomas” and it is entirely possible there was another Fortean with that surname. (Both credits Doubt 11, Winter 1944.)
It was in the 1950s that she made a name for herself in Fortean circles. Dreiser had broken with Thayer in a huff—he was considering suing him in 1937—and refused to let Thayer see any of the Fortean material he had collected. Thayer was thinking of writing Fort’s biography, a task that would be impossible without access to the material. He mentioned the sad situation a few times in Doubt. As it happened, Jennie was friends with Lorna Smith, an acquaintance and sometimes helpmate of the author who had stayed in contact with Helen Dreiser afar Theodore died. Jennie Thomas approached the widow Dreiser through Lorna. Eventually, Mrs. Dreiser agreed to give the material to Thayer.
“Hail to thee, blithe spirit!,” Thayer wrote in Doubt 49 (August 1955), when he announced the reconciliation. “All hail to Jennie Thomas!” He wrote a long encomium to “No one deserves a greater share of gratitude for that than Jennie Selby Doubting Thomas,” he said, and dedicated the book to her—before it was written. Indeed, that was the only part of the book which was ever written—a biography of Fort waiting for Damon Knight a decade after Thayer passed. Thayer also made her an Honorary Life Member of the Fortean Society—relieving her of having to pay dues—and she accepted. As far as I know, that was her last interaction with the Society.
Habit has its place in strengthening our foundation for life as social beings, hence the need of early and correct association. But when an adult begins to be himself he feels the chains upon him, not only of all habits of action but of the opinions of those whom he contacts.
It takes courage to be oneself, and wisdom to do so without harm to others. But when true knowledge if gained and the path found to the center of being, then and then only can he efficiently serve his fellowmen.
Wherever one is born there latitude and longitude cross, and no one else could possibly be you. As Nature produces no duplicates, it is clear that a man’s value to humanity lies in being himself.
As surely as the Sun and Moon affect every living thing, so certain do we find the other planets contributing their power to man. ‘In the Father’s House are many mansions.’ With mathematical precision the laws of the universe operate, bringing us into being, but for lack of understanding of those laws we grope blindly until we learn the facts of our at-one-ment which is our salvation from common errors.
Many seek to establish that at-one-ment outside of themselves or in their emotional bodies before the Light of Intelligence is an inner telling and not told in books. As upon a ladder we climb from an interest in mundane affairs to that union with the central power where all things are found to work together for good.
Character founded upon basic laws brings glory to the Creator. What doe sit mean to ‘Remember thy Creator in the days of they Youth’ but that we should learn the first laws of creation as a foundation for the structure to follow?
The crowning glory of man is in being himself--but he must first learn to know himself. The heavens declare God’s handiwork.” [The Theosophist vol. 1 no. 10 October 1930.]
She had married Frederick Thomas in Indiana 28 October 1891. He worked in management, and seems to have provided the family a comfortable life. Through other marriages, she became related to Gene Fowler, the journalist, Hollywood producer, and friend of Tiffany Thayer—on 1 April 1955, her great-grandchild and his grand-child was born and named in honor of both, Jennie Gene Fowler. In the ‘30s, after forty years together, the marriage seems to have soured. The 1930 census had Jennie and Frederick living in different places—with Frederick telling the census he was widowed. (Jennie said she was married.) The break—whatever its nature—became permanent in 1939, when Frederick died. Jennie was still living alone in 1940. She had little formal education—having left school in 7th or 8th grade—and otherwise spent her life as a housewife.
Thomas outlived her husband by more than two decades. She died 22 April 1962.
How Thomas became involved with the Fortean Society is unknown, though likely her entry was through the Southern California metaphysical community. “I have been a philosophical quester all my life, which has been a long one,” she said in 1944. “I do not remain lodged in any cult very long. I only belong to the difficult.” She first came across Fort in the mid-1930s, and thought that he might have approved of astrology by omission: since he didn’t attack it the way he attacked other sciences, astrology was therefore Fortean. Around the same time—1934—she aided in the publication of Will Levington Comfort’s last book, The Yucca Story, 1934. A writer by trade, Comfort developed a mystical philosophy in his magazine Glass Hive. He died in 1931, and Thomas worked with Manly P. Hall to bring out the book. She may also have published under the pseudonym Anne Hume, although I have not found anything under that byline.
After re-reading Fort in the form of the omnibus edition Thayer put out—“most absorbing and freeing to the mind,” she said—Thomas began writing to Thayer in June 1944, a series of letters, excerpts of which he would reprint in Doubt and from which come many of the details of this biographical sketch
July: ‘I predict that when this war is over there will be a great increase of free thinkers of there is a grain of intelligence left in the minds of the suffering ones. Freedom of thought should be added to the Four Freedoms.’
August: ‘When mineral can drop from the sky it should waken sleepers (mental) to a realization of things not being what they seem.’
September: ‘The average mind has accepted traditional thought to such an extent that they refuse to THINK.’
March, 1950: “I believe the reading of intelligent literature enables one to flower instead of whither with age. Manly Hall has been a wonderful teacher and guide. I have heard him lecture on Charles Fort. Wishing you continued success in the extension of truth.’
Unknown month, 1950: ‘I enjoy the magazine and share it with friends. I wish you success in your mode of progressive thinking. Nothing so essential now as RIGHT THINKING.’
Undated, in reference to flying saucers: ‘Man is becoming sky conscious now and the light of a new era may dawn on darkened minds. Scientists may find Charles Fort enlightening.’
She wasn’t much of a joiner— ‘I belong to no organization. I once heard an eminent Philosopher remark that it was Satan’s method to organize a new idea. It limits the thinking. True Forteans do not,’ she said. But in September 1944 she became a member of the Fortean Society.
In addition to Thomas thinking Fort might be in favor of astrology, her approbation of Manly Hall’s lecture on Fort suggests that she saw him not so much as an arch-skeptic, but as someone pointing toward greater truths—maybe Theosophical ones, maybe something else. Right thinking, for her, seems not to have been dismissing anything that was asserted confidently, but discovering those truths that needed to be asserted. She thought that Thayer himself had revealed some of these truths. Thayer had developed a theory that tuberculosis resulted not from an infection—or not solely from one—but was a sequelae of having tonsils removed. Thomas thought that a fine theory, writing (ellipses in original): 'I fail to see how Orthodox believers can accept their teachings . . . Now this Polio scare. My Fowler granddaughter who had her new baby--had Polio when we first had the epidemic. And her little boy had it. They both had their tonsils out before. DOUBT has good reason for being . . . My husband was advised not to marry me, by our family physician, as I would only be a funeral expense.’
Her name appeared three times in the pages of Doubt. The first and second contributions to the Society were clippings of standard Fortean events. One was a story about rocks falling from the sky carried in the Los Angeles Daily News. Her second clipping was about a mysterious light seen over the Midwest—it was a popular bit of Forteana, with clippings sent in by many others, including Bowring, Hoernlein, and Kerr. At least I assume she sent in a clipping on the subject—the credit only goes to a “Thomas” and it is entirely possible there was another Fortean with that surname. (Both credits Doubt 11, Winter 1944.)
It was in the 1950s that she made a name for herself in Fortean circles. Dreiser had broken with Thayer in a huff—he was considering suing him in 1937—and refused to let Thayer see any of the Fortean material he had collected. Thayer was thinking of writing Fort’s biography, a task that would be impossible without access to the material. He mentioned the sad situation a few times in Doubt. As it happened, Jennie was friends with Lorna Smith, an acquaintance and sometimes helpmate of the author who had stayed in contact with Helen Dreiser afar Theodore died. Jennie Thomas approached the widow Dreiser through Lorna. Eventually, Mrs. Dreiser agreed to give the material to Thayer.
“Hail to thee, blithe spirit!,” Thayer wrote in Doubt 49 (August 1955), when he announced the reconciliation. “All hail to Jennie Thomas!” He wrote a long encomium to “No one deserves a greater share of gratitude for that than Jennie Selby Doubting Thomas,” he said, and dedicated the book to her—before it was written. Indeed, that was the only part of the book which was ever written—a biography of Fort waiting for Damon Knight a decade after Thayer passed. Thayer also made her an Honorary Life Member of the Fortean Society—relieving her of having to pay dues—and she accepted. As far as I know, that was her last interaction with the Society.
