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“.
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