By April C. Armstrong *14
In this week’s installment in our recurring series, a millionaire says he was justified in assaulting a student, an alum survives after his plane is shot down, and more.
August 25, 1916—The New York Times reports that millionaire Bernard P. Bogy insisted in his bail hearing concerning an incident in which he knocked Princeton student Alexander Carver, Class of 1918, “down and nearly out. He seemed rather proud of it, and insisted he was justified…” because Carver had annoyed and insulted suffragette Lucille Foster McMillin, the wife of diplomat Benton McMillin. Carver is reported to have said he had only looked at Mrs. McMillin once, when he glanced to be sure he didn’t bump into her when he threw his chair back laughing at the next table in the dining room of the Hotel Gramatan. “Mr. Carver then leaned forward, according to his account, and a second later was struck across the neck.”
August 27, 1814—At a meeting of the Bible Society of Nassau Hall, the president (seminary student Leverett Israel Foote Huntington) urges members to be willing to work with their British counterparts despite the British still being at war with the United States and the Burning of Washington just a few days before. “However then we may differ as politicians, as Christians we are one.”1
August 30, 1943—J. Gilpin Bright ’41’s plane is shot down over Italy shortly before the Allied-Italian Armistice. He will end up walking more than 100 miles through mountains occupied by German forces before rejoining the U.S. Army.
August 31, 1868—Mary Blair Moffat, wife of Prof. James C. Moffat, opens a school for young women. Education is offered in a range of subjects, “as far as the highest authors read in College,” and includes local professors among its instructors: Stephen Alexander teaches natural philosophy, physical geography, and astronomy, Stephen G. Peabody teaches English literature, and Prof. Moffat lectures on mental and moral philosophy and history.
Did you read the previous installment in this series?
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- “Proceedings of Semi-Annual Meeting,” 1814. Nassau Hall Bible Society Records (AC038), Box 1, Folder 4. ↩︎