When President George W. Bush ran against John Kerry during the 2003 campaign there was a connection between the two that neither desired to share with the general public.

Both Bush and Kerry were both members of a secret and elite Yale University society called Skull and Bones. Over the years, Skull & Bones has numbered among its members; U.S. Presidents, Supreme Court justices, business leaders, politicians, intellectuals and other social elite. When the television program 60 Minutes first reported on Skull & Bones in October of 2003, CBS News Correspondent Morley Safer revealed that Yale graduate Alexandra Robbins managed to penetrate the secretive world of “Bonesmen”. In her book “Secrets of the Tomb”, Robbins gets about 100 members to open up about what goes on within the tomblike, windowless, granite and sandstone building at 64 High Street on the Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut.

The report touched off a new round of conspiracy theories that have followed society members almost since the year of its founding in 1832. British-born conspiracy theorist Antony Sutton wrote that the creation of a New World Order is a primary goal of the society. Additionally, the Skull & Bones society has been compared to the Illumaniti, Freemasonry, Bilderbergs, Council on Foreign Relations, and Trilateral Commission and linked to opium trading, sorcery, and even Nazism.

According to some accounts, the secret society has a hidden affiliation with two other similar societies. The number “322” appearing under the skull and crossbones on the Order’s emblem is believed to indicate the year of its founding and the fact that it is the second lodge in an international organization. Some believe that lodge number “1” is in Germany while lodge number “3” is at another American college.

What is the Wadsworth connection to Skull & Bones? Its in the very formation of the society. The majority of early Bones members are old-line Puritan families who came to North America in the very first wave of settlers in the 17th century. Among these prominent families are: Whitney, Lord, Phelps, Wadsworth, Allen, Bundy, Adams, Stimson, Taft, Gilman and Perkins. A second group of families in the Skull & Bones core earned their fortunes during the 18th and 19th centuries and won a rite of passage into the New England elite, even though they were not among the earliest settlers. The leading Skull & Bones families in this second category are: Harriman, Rockefeller, Payne, Davison, Pillsbury and Weyerhauser.

Although the Wadsworth name is mentioned among those involved in or responsible for the formation of the society, the first Wadsworth member does not show up on the list of members until 66 years after its inception. James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr., was inducted into Skull & Bones in 1898. Wadsworth went on to be elected to the U.S. Senate from New York in 1915, and to Congress in 1933.

How the Wadsworth name came to be associated with the formation of Skull & Bones is unclear and it is yet to be determined if our name should be “cleared” by further investigation or if we should be proud of our “Bonesmen” heritage. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, it’s one more example of the rich history given to us by our ancestors and perhaps one of the more intriguing of family mysteries.