TOTTEN, Silas, clergyman, born in Schoharie county, New York, 26 March, 1804 ; died in Lexington, Kentucky, 7 October, 1873. He was graduated at Union college in 1830, and ordained to the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church in Connecticut by Bishop Brownell in 1833. In the same year he was elected professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Washington (now Trinity) college, from which chair after four years he was elevated to the presidency. During the eleven years for which he held this office (1837-'48) a new building--Brownell hall --was erected for the accommodation of the students. The name of the institution was changed, at the request of the alumni, to Trinity college, the graduates were organized into a house of convocation as a constituent part of the academic body, additions were made to the scholarship funds, and a library fund was established. A chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa society was also established in the college, of which Dr. Totten was the first president. On retiring from the presidency of Trinity college, Dr. Torten accepted the professorship of belles-lettres in William and Mary college, Virginia, which he resigned in 1859, to become chancellor of the University of Iowa. In 1864 he accepted the rectorship of a parish in Decatur, Illinois, from which place he removed in 1866 to Lexington, Kentucky, where he occupied himself in teaching for the remainder of his life. Dr. Totten received his honorary degree in divinity from Union college in 1838, and that in laws from William and Mary college in 1860. He was the author of "New Introduction to Algebra" (New York, 1836); "The Analogy of Truth" (1848); and a "Letter about Jubilee College " (1848).