Eli Thayer (1819-1899) was an American reformer, agitator, and promoter who used his considerable talent and generally progressive ideals to devise and support harebrained schemes.

Eli Thayer was born in Mendon, Mass., on June 11, 1819, the scion of an old family of comfortable means. He was well educated but interrupted his studies several times, perhaps because of financial problems but possibly because of an erratic temperament that later became more obvious. He graduated from Brown University in 1845 and soon became president of Worcester Academy, his old school. Thayer and his wife constructed a preposterous castle-type building for Oread Collegiate Institute, a women's school under Thayer's headship. Like virtually all of Thayer's projects, Oread was a curious admixture of high idealism and canny Yankee opportunism. The school offered a far more substantial curriculum than most contemporary "female academies," while it also provided Thayer with a decent income.

By 1852 Thayer had...