Francis Landey Patton
Theologian, educator and author
Born January 22, 1843

Theologian, educator and author Francis Landey Patton — after whom Francis Patton Primary School is named—served as president of Princeton University in the US for 14 years.

Born and raised in Warwick, he attended Warwick Academy and received his early religious education at Christ Presbyterian Church before continuing his studies overseas.

Following his ordination in 1865, he received his first posting as a minister at the Eighty-fourth Presbyterian Church in New York.

He began his career as an educator at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and was appointed Princeton's president in 1888.
 

Rediscovery of the cahow
January 28, 1951

Seven pairs of cahows, a species long thought to have been extinct, were found on three islands off Castle Harbour—an event hailed by naturalists around the world.

The team that rediscovered the birds was led by Robert Cushman Murphy, curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History. He was accompanied by Louis Mowbray, curator of the Bermuda Aquarium, and a 15-year-old schoolboy, David Wingate.

The rediscovery of the seabirds which had blanketed the Bermuda skies by the thousands four centuries ago inspired David Wingate to devote his life to rescuing them  from extinction.

As Government Conservation Officer, he led the restoration of Nonsuch Island into a  nature reserve for the island’s flora and fauna, including the cahow.

Source: Bermuda—Five Centuries by Rosemary Jones


Louis Mowbray, left, and Robert Cushman Murphy,
with a cahow.

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