1832

William Huntington Russell, Samuel’s cousin, studied in Germany from 1831-32. Hegellian philosophy was very much in vogue during William Russell’s time in Germany. When Russell returned to Yale in 1832, he formed a senior society with Alphonso Taft. According to information acquired from a break-in to the “tomb” (the Skull and Bones meeting hall) in 1876, “Bones is a chapter of a corps in a German University…. General Russell, its founder, was in Germany before his Senior Year and formed a warm friendship with a leading member of a German society. He brought back with him to college, authority to found a chapter here.” So class valedictorian William H. Russell, along with fourteen others, became the founding members of “The Order of Scull and Bones,” later changed to “The Order of Skull and Bones“.