(This story was originally written and recorded for Retrocast 41, released on February 26, 2026.)
On Monday, March 22, 1909, 13-year-old Mylon Henry Roche, Jr. was the luckiest boy in his 5th-grade class at the Hubbard School on Kenyon Street in Washington, DC.
That’s because his presence in class proved to be too much of a distraction, so he was sent home after being there for just one hour.
It’s not that Mylon had done anything wrong. In fact, it was the complete opposite situation. Mylon had done everything right when he saved the life of 6-year-old Clara Margerie (Marjorie) Buscher the day before.
Here’s how it all unfolded:
Marjorie and several of her girlfriends decided to go to the lower lake at the Soldiers’ Home, which was about two blocks from her home. Upon their arrival, they took great pleasure in feeding breadcrumbs to the swans swimming on the lake.
But, at one point, Marjorie spotted a swan gracefully swimming near the shoreline, so she bent over to pet it. Then, suddenly, she lost her footing on the wet soil, and down she went into the lake.
Struggling to stay afloat, her friends began screaming, which caught the attention of Mylon Roche. Without hesitation, he jumped in the water to save her.
He told the Washington Times:
“Well, I’ll tell you how it happened, although it was nothing more than any boy ought to have done when a little girl might have been drowned.
“I was sailing my boat over on the other side of the lake and needed a piece of string to fix it, so I went to the boathouse to get the string. When I got near the house, I saw some little girls crying and running away from the lake. I asked one of them what was the matter and she said, ‘Margerie has fallen into the water.’ So I went over and got her out.”
‘”Didn’t you think you ought to have run for somebody to help you?” Mylon was asked.
‘”No, why, she had gone under the water twice just as I got there, and I was afraid she might drown, so I jumped in and pulled her onto the land. That’s all.”
Once safely ashore, Mylon took Marjorie to her home at 630 Park Rd and told her mom what had happened. He then returned to his home – just one block away at 455 Park Rd and a short distance from where the rescue had taken place – where he dried off, changed his clothes, and spent the remainder of his Sunday at the movies.
What he wasn’t prepared for was the commotion that took place when he arrived at school the next day. Not only was he declared a hero, but the press showed up to interview him. So, his teacher rewarded Mylon by giving him the rest of the day off. Marjorie’s dad, Fire Captain Andrew Buscher, declared that he would take steps to bring Mylon’s act of bravery to the attention of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Whether he followed through with that submission is unknown, but a search of their database confirms that Mylon was never a recipient of the Carnegie Medal.
