1842

Charles Loring Brace

• August 16, 1842 — Brace enters Yale University at age sixteen. He forms deep friendships with John Hull Olmsted and Frederick John Kingsbury.

Scroll & Key; John Addison Porter; William L Kingsley; Leonard Case Jr; Theodore Runyon

• Scroll and Key was established by John Addison Porter (Class of 1842), with aid from Leonard Case Jr. (Class of 1842), Theodore Runyon (Class of 1842), and William L. Kingsley (Class of 1843), after disputes over elections to Skull and Bones.
  • Source: Maynard Mack & A. Bartlett Giamatti, A History of Scroll and Key 1842–1942 and 1942–1972 (1978). Confirmed in David Alan Richards, Skulls and Keys: The Hidden History of Yale's Secret Societies (2017), Chapter 4: "The 'Opposition' of Scroll and Key (1843–1855)."
  • Quote: "Scroll and Key was established by John Addison Porter, with aid from several members of the Class of 1842 (including Leonard Case Jr. and Theodore Runyon) and a member of the Class of 1843 (William L. Kingsley), after disputes over elections to Skull and Bones Society." — The Cary Collection catalog entry for Mack & Giamatti.

1842–1856 — Early Years in Rented Quarters

• The society initially met in rented facilities in downtown New Haven, without a permanent home.
  • Source: SAH Archipedia, "Scroll and Key Society Building" — http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CT-01-009-0040
  • Quote: "Initially, the society's meetings took place in rented facilities in downtown New Haven."

John Addison Porter

• 1842 — Porter graduates from Yale College. The Scroll and Key Society is formally recognized as a senior society at Yale. This is also the year Charles Loring Brace enters Yale as a freshman.

Source: Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University, 1866–7, p. 246