He remained with the Republican party until the impeachment of President Johnson. He was a Democratic candidate for Congress in this district in 1874, and also later, in the first instance nearly defeating Senator George F. Hoar, reducing the Republican majority from 7,000 to 300.
He was interested in the solution of the polygamy question in Utah, and, in connection with such men as Amos A. Lawrence, Edward Everett Hale and other members of the old Emigrant Aid Society, was concerned with plans for the elimination of the evil by the principle formerly put into force in Kansas. In recent years he has written much of history, illustrating his life work and the principles which have governed his actions in political and philanthropic work. He kept fully abreast of the times, with a keen interest in current events, and was always in sympathy with genuine progress.
Mr. Thayer was engaged after leaving Congress by the Hanibal and St. Joe Railroad Company, at a very large salary, to act as its land agent in New York City. He was there from about 1864 until 1870. He was also an expert in matters of invention, acting as a referee in such cases, for which he received large sums. He studied law, but was never admitted to the bar.
During the war time he originated a plan for the establishment of a great port of entry on the peninsular between the York and the James rivers in Virginia, and obtained a bond for a deed of the land. He considered the natural advantages of that locality a rival to New York. His plan, however, was divulged to certain heavy capitalists in New York, and they by some means obtained possession of the property and frustrated his scheme. He said he would have carried the thing through had he obtained the land, but the capitalists undertook it and failed.
He had a very keen sense of humor and a sharp wit. It was most amusing of itself to hear him tell humorous stories and preserve his grim countenance from the suspicion of a smile.
Mr. Thayer took the initiative in developing the south end of Worcester for manufacturing by erecting, more than fifty years ago, the building formerly known as the Adriatic mills on Southgate Street. He was influential in the erection of the junction shop formerly the property of the late Col. James Estabrook, and for many years occupied by the Knowles loom works on Jackson Street. This building, like the Oread Institute, was constructed of the stone taken from Oread Hill. He laid out and improved several streets and tracts of land in the vicinity of the Oread and had under consideration at the time of his death the opening up of a large area on the summit of Pakachoag Hill, at the rear of Holy Cross College.
He was the last surviving member of the Emigrant Aid Society, director of the Mutual Redemption Bank, member of the Worcester Society of Antiquity and the American Irish Historical Society. Belonging to no clubs, he was essentially a home man. Throughout the country he was familiarly known as the “Father of Kansas.”
He was married in 1846 to Cardina M. Capron of Millville, Mass., and seven children were born as a result of the union.
LATE PUBLICATIONS ON HISTORY OF INTEREST TO THE MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
BY THE SECRETARY-GENERAL.