John Thomas Dalie, 1954, after his montane adventures. A family of Forteans.
John Lamar Dalie was born 13 June 1902, according to sources, though there is some confusion around this—probably just journalistic mistakes, but still. He was the son of Lamar J. Dalie and Kathryn G. Ritter, a native of Springfield, Ohio. In 1910, Lamar worked as a real estate agent; the family owned its house free and clear, and employed a domestic servant, May Dorst. The following year comes the confusion. In August, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on the near-death of John Dalie, son of Lamar, who lived in Springfield. According to the paper, though, John was five years-old, but this seems to have been a mistake. Assuming, then, the story refers to the same person, John nearly drowned in Buck Creek, except that his shouts were heard by Robert Miller, a black man held by the city prison for failure to pay a $50 fine, who saved the young boy. (Miller was a ‘trusty,’ which seems to mean that he had some freedom to come and go.) Miller was set free that very night, and given fifty dollars, presumably from either Lamar or Lamar’s employer: the paper reported that the elder Dalie was an agent for John W. Bookwaiter, “the millionaire manufacturer.”
Ten years on, the family was still in Springfield. Lamar continued as a real estate agent, and they again had a 26 year-old servant, a black woman named Leonia Williams. John was 17 and still in school, with no job listed in the census. He had been too young to serve during the war. He eventually graduated from Springfield high, and then attended Wittenberg College, in Springfield, John married around 1928—the 1930 census gives his age at first marriage as 26—but, at the time of that census, was not living with his wife; rather, he was with his family, and unemployed. Lamar, by now in his mid-fifties, remained in the real estate game, but the family no longer had a live-in servant.
John Lamar Dalie was born 13 June 1902, according to sources, though there is some confusion around this—probably just journalistic mistakes, but still. He was the son of Lamar J. Dalie and Kathryn G. Ritter, a native of Springfield, Ohio. In 1910, Lamar worked as a real estate agent; the family owned its house free and clear, and employed a domestic servant, May Dorst. The following year comes the confusion. In August, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on the near-death of John Dalie, son of Lamar, who lived in Springfield. According to the paper, though, John was five years-old, but this seems to have been a mistake. Assuming, then, the story refers to the same person, John nearly drowned in Buck Creek, except that his shouts were heard by Robert Miller, a black man held by the city prison for failure to pay a $50 fine, who saved the young boy. (Miller was a ‘trusty,’ which seems to mean that he had some freedom to come and go.) Miller was set free that very night, and given fifty dollars, presumably from either Lamar or Lamar’s employer: the paper reported that the elder Dalie was an agent for John W. Bookwaiter, “the millionaire manufacturer.”
Ten years on, the family was still in Springfield. Lamar continued as a real estate agent, and they again had a 26 year-old servant, a black woman named Leonia Williams. John was 17 and still in school, with no job listed in the census. He had been too young to serve during the war. He eventually graduated from Springfield high, and then attended Wittenberg College, in Springfield, John married around 1928—the 1930 census gives his age at first marriage as 26—but, at the time of that census, was not living with his wife; rather, he was with his family, and unemployed. Lamar, by now in his mid-fifties, remained in the real estate game, but the family no longer had a live-in servant.
John’s wife was Constant Carlotta Zahn, born 6 October 1907, also in Springfield, Ohio, to Thomas Swander Zahn and Florence Wilder. The Zahms seemed as well-off as the Dalies. Thomas was a dentist who, in 1910, also owned the family home free and clear. He and Florence had three daughters at that time, Constance and Marjory, twins, and Ruth, about a year their junior. (Florence must have been very busy!) Almost a decade later—like I say, busy—they had a fourth daughter, Sarah. (The Biblical names could have been honoring family members, or might be a clue to the family’s religion.) Constance and John had a son in 1929, John Thomas Dalie, the first name the same as the father’s, the second the same as the maternal grandfather’s. Constance would have only been 21 at the time of the birth. That year, the city directory has them living together, and John working as an assistant manager. The next, they were apart, she and she and John Thomas were living with her parents and all three sisters. Perhaps the separation was prompted by John Lamar’s difficulty finding a job.
Whatever the cause of their living apart, the situation was temporary, and the 1931 city directory again has them back together again, with John as a manager. They stayed in Springfield through the decade, though it seems John changed jobs. At one point, the city directory listed him as a clerk, and the 1940 census gave his job as order clerk for a magazine publishing company. John was too old for World War II—he had a fortunate birth date—and I have very little information on what happened to the family in the 1940s. Both John and Constance lost their fathers. John may have written a song, “Juke Box Julie”—at least there was one copyrighted under that title in 1941 by a John L. Dalie of Springfield, Ohio. John Thomas graduated from the same high school as his father (and probably his mother).
The Dalies’s tracks are easier to follow in the 1950s and into the 1960s. John Thomas—about 22 years old—became a new member of the “Weird Tales Club” in 1951, devoted to the fantasy magazine. He attended Kenyon College, where he received a degree in English. Around 1952, the family relocated to the Denver, Colorado, area, and the two men (at least) took up mountain climbing, joining a club. John Thomas matriculated at Denver University for graduate work. Then, in 1954, he went missing on a climbing trip up Long’s Peak. John Thomas was with a 32-member party that was hit by a “violent hail and snow storm,” when they were at about 12,000 feet. John Thomas was separated, and then lost his knapsack to the wind. Search parties came up empty, repeatedly—until, six days after he was lost, John Thomas found his way to a campground, 60-pounds lighter.
The rest of the decade was far less eventful. The Dalies were apparently active in a Henry George club—which promoted the ideas of the maverick turn-of-the-century economist. They had been in Ohio, too, apparently. In Denver, they hosted at least one luncheon. (John Thomas may have taken some courses on George.) Some in the family read about Theodore Dreiser and also seem to have been concerned with the fluoridation of water supplies.
John Thomas received a master’s degree from Denver University in 1960 and another in 1968 from the University of Colorado. His thesis was titled “The Influence of the Folk Ballad on the Poetry of Thomas Hardy.” Apparently Dalie never married, and details of his life after college are difficult to come by.
John Lamar died 11 December 1987, in Englewood, Colorado, aged 85. Constance died 30 November 1997, in Englewood, Colorado, just after her 90th birthday. John Thomas died 7 May 2003, in Denver, 73 years-old. All three were buried in Springfield, Ohio.
********
Apparently, the Dalies were enthusiastic Forteans, though the evidence of their Forteanism is scant. I do not know how they came to Forteanism-or Fort—or what they took from the movement. The evidence, such as it is, indicates that they were more intrigued by the associated political, economic, and scientific controversies than anything inherent to Fort per se.
The Dalie name first appears in Doubt 30 (October 1950), when the family was still in Ohio. In a paragraph-long list of credits for sending in material on flying saucers, Thayer thanked J.T. Dalie. So it was John Thomas, then in his early twenties, who sent in the clipping (whatever it was), but the fact that Thayer used space to append the initials suggests that John Lamar was already a member, too, and probably Constance as well. It could be that the family moved into the Fortean Society via John Thomas’s “Weird Tales” connection, but it could just as easily be that he was drawn to “Weird Tales” after being raised in a family with inclinations toward the occult or esoteric, if not the downright heretical.
It was John Thomas who also received the second of the family’s three mentions in Doubt—which may be significant or may reflect that he was the one who bothered writing. It is too hard to say from the distance of more than sixty years. In Doubt 32 (March 951), the younger Dalie was credited with calling Thayer’s attention to Robert H. Elias’s recent biography of Theodore Dreiser. There wasn't another mention for several years—until, in fact, the year that John Thomas had his mountain top scare. In Doubt 46 (October 1954), the Dalies were again acknowledged for bringing a book to Thayer’s attention, though from he way that Thayer wrote the squib it is impossible to know which of the John contributed the citation. Thayer wrote,
“A find for you who are fighting fluoridization of your local drinking water was suggested by MFS John Dalie, and we can’t thank him enough. In ordering, just say, FLUORINE, and enclose $1.50. What you get is a portfolio arrangement, handsomely done, reprints and articles compiled by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research. A wealth of material—22 items in one cover, handily arranged and indexed— resenting the anti-fluoridization story. Many of them are pamphlets covering State and Federal examination into this subject. It is a working kit for those who wish to stop this mass-doping of whole cities.”
It is worth pointing out that this is the year that the Dalies can be positively connected to the Henry George club—and Henry George was another of Thayer’s hobbyhorses, part of his general push for monetary and tex reform. Like “Weird Tales,” Henry George may have been something that led the Dalies to the Fortean Society—or it may be that, having found their way, they were either influenced to take up the study of George, or found that they were among like-minded people.
This resume is thin to the point of disappearing: it tells us that the Dalies were allied with the Fortean Society in some fringe ideas—George, flying saucers, anti-fluoridation—but not why they took these positions, or how they fit within their broader world view. Nor is there any reason to guess, based on this information, why none of the Dalies appeared in the pages of Doubt again. Deepening the mystery is the only other reference to Dalies and the Fortean Society that I have found.
In 1952, when they were relocating to Englewood from Ohio, Thayer wrote to Don Bloch, his lieutenant in Colorado, telling him to look up the family, all three. This was at a time when Bloch was agitating to correspond with more Forteans but Thayer was otherwise keeping addresses secret, to better protect the members’s privacy. (Thayer had sent out a request to Utah members telling them to get in contact with Bloch, but no one had. He told Bloch, “Sorry the Mormon branch is not more communicative. Clams will be clams.”) So connecting Bloch with the Dalies might have been a sop, but his recommendation does not read like that. He told Bloch, “They are first-class members and keep the three cards paid up. Do see them.”
That was quite a commitment the Dalies were making, paying for all three of the family, rather than just one and sharing Doubt and whatever other mailings Thayer sent out. Nonetheless, some two years later, they are off the Fortean reservation.
Whatever the cause of their living apart, the situation was temporary, and the 1931 city directory again has them back together again, with John as a manager. They stayed in Springfield through the decade, though it seems John changed jobs. At one point, the city directory listed him as a clerk, and the 1940 census gave his job as order clerk for a magazine publishing company. John was too old for World War II—he had a fortunate birth date—and I have very little information on what happened to the family in the 1940s. Both John and Constance lost their fathers. John may have written a song, “Juke Box Julie”—at least there was one copyrighted under that title in 1941 by a John L. Dalie of Springfield, Ohio. John Thomas graduated from the same high school as his father (and probably his mother).
The Dalies’s tracks are easier to follow in the 1950s and into the 1960s. John Thomas—about 22 years old—became a new member of the “Weird Tales Club” in 1951, devoted to the fantasy magazine. He attended Kenyon College, where he received a degree in English. Around 1952, the family relocated to the Denver, Colorado, area, and the two men (at least) took up mountain climbing, joining a club. John Thomas matriculated at Denver University for graduate work. Then, in 1954, he went missing on a climbing trip up Long’s Peak. John Thomas was with a 32-member party that was hit by a “violent hail and snow storm,” when they were at about 12,000 feet. John Thomas was separated, and then lost his knapsack to the wind. Search parties came up empty, repeatedly—until, six days after he was lost, John Thomas found his way to a campground, 60-pounds lighter.
The rest of the decade was far less eventful. The Dalies were apparently active in a Henry George club—which promoted the ideas of the maverick turn-of-the-century economist. They had been in Ohio, too, apparently. In Denver, they hosted at least one luncheon. (John Thomas may have taken some courses on George.) Some in the family read about Theodore Dreiser and also seem to have been concerned with the fluoridation of water supplies.
John Thomas received a master’s degree from Denver University in 1960 and another in 1968 from the University of Colorado. His thesis was titled “The Influence of the Folk Ballad on the Poetry of Thomas Hardy.” Apparently Dalie never married, and details of his life after college are difficult to come by.
John Lamar died 11 December 1987, in Englewood, Colorado, aged 85. Constance died 30 November 1997, in Englewood, Colorado, just after her 90th birthday. John Thomas died 7 May 2003, in Denver, 73 years-old. All three were buried in Springfield, Ohio.
********
Apparently, the Dalies were enthusiastic Forteans, though the evidence of their Forteanism is scant. I do not know how they came to Forteanism-or Fort—or what they took from the movement. The evidence, such as it is, indicates that they were more intrigued by the associated political, economic, and scientific controversies than anything inherent to Fort per se.
The Dalie name first appears in Doubt 30 (October 1950), when the family was still in Ohio. In a paragraph-long list of credits for sending in material on flying saucers, Thayer thanked J.T. Dalie. So it was John Thomas, then in his early twenties, who sent in the clipping (whatever it was), but the fact that Thayer used space to append the initials suggests that John Lamar was already a member, too, and probably Constance as well. It could be that the family moved into the Fortean Society via John Thomas’s “Weird Tales” connection, but it could just as easily be that he was drawn to “Weird Tales” after being raised in a family with inclinations toward the occult or esoteric, if not the downright heretical.
It was John Thomas who also received the second of the family’s three mentions in Doubt—which may be significant or may reflect that he was the one who bothered writing. It is too hard to say from the distance of more than sixty years. In Doubt 32 (March 951), the younger Dalie was credited with calling Thayer’s attention to Robert H. Elias’s recent biography of Theodore Dreiser. There wasn't another mention for several years—until, in fact, the year that John Thomas had his mountain top scare. In Doubt 46 (October 1954), the Dalies were again acknowledged for bringing a book to Thayer’s attention, though from he way that Thayer wrote the squib it is impossible to know which of the John contributed the citation. Thayer wrote,
“A find for you who are fighting fluoridization of your local drinking water was suggested by MFS John Dalie, and we can’t thank him enough. In ordering, just say, FLUORINE, and enclose $1.50. What you get is a portfolio arrangement, handsomely done, reprints and articles compiled by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research. A wealth of material—22 items in one cover, handily arranged and indexed— resenting the anti-fluoridization story. Many of them are pamphlets covering State and Federal examination into this subject. It is a working kit for those who wish to stop this mass-doping of whole cities.”
It is worth pointing out that this is the year that the Dalies can be positively connected to the Henry George club—and Henry George was another of Thayer’s hobbyhorses, part of his general push for monetary and tex reform. Like “Weird Tales,” Henry George may have been something that led the Dalies to the Fortean Society—or it may be that, having found their way, they were either influenced to take up the study of George, or found that they were among like-minded people.
This resume is thin to the point of disappearing: it tells us that the Dalies were allied with the Fortean Society in some fringe ideas—George, flying saucers, anti-fluoridation—but not why they took these positions, or how they fit within their broader world view. Nor is there any reason to guess, based on this information, why none of the Dalies appeared in the pages of Doubt again. Deepening the mystery is the only other reference to Dalies and the Fortean Society that I have found.
In 1952, when they were relocating to Englewood from Ohio, Thayer wrote to Don Bloch, his lieutenant in Colorado, telling him to look up the family, all three. This was at a time when Bloch was agitating to correspond with more Forteans but Thayer was otherwise keeping addresses secret, to better protect the members’s privacy. (Thayer had sent out a request to Utah members telling them to get in contact with Bloch, but no one had. He told Bloch, “Sorry the Mormon branch is not more communicative. Clams will be clams.”) So connecting Bloch with the Dalies might have been a sop, but his recommendation does not read like that. He told Bloch, “They are first-class members and keep the three cards paid up. Do see them.”
That was quite a commitment the Dalies were making, paying for all three of the family, rather than just one and sharing Doubt and whatever other mailings Thayer sent out. Nonetheless, some two years later, they are off the Fortean reservation.
