Totten, Silas, 1804-1873.

Silas Totten served as the second president of the State University of Iowa, from 1859 to 1862. The outlook for the future of the university was very discouraging when Totten assumed the presidency. The treasury was empty, most courses were temporarily closed, land sales to raise funds were not proceeding as expected, and tensions leading to the Civil War were mounting. Amid these difficulties, the university's Board of Trustees elected Totten and requested that he prepare a new plan of organization for the institution. For the first time, the university developed independent departments, each with its own distinct classes and course of study. Like his predecessor, Amos Dean, Totten graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York. In 1833, he was ordained as an Episcopal minister and joined the faculty of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, becoming its president in 1841. From 1841 until moving to Iowa City in 1859, he was a member of the faculty at William and Mary College in Virginia. Totten had publicly expressed sympathy with the South during the Civil War, prompting angry local reaction. In 1862 a pro-Union crowd pursued his son, a university student also sympathetic to the Confederacy. Totten's son escaped, never to return again. The incident caused Totten to resign on August 19 of that year. Totten returned to the ministry in Illinois, and, later, Kentucky. Totten was born on March 26, 1804, in Scoharie County, New York. He died on October 7, 1873, at age 69.

From the description of Papers of Silas Totten, 1859-1862. (University of Iowa Libraries). WorldCat record id: 233698674

Silas Totten was born 26 March 1804. He graduated from Union College and was professor of math and natural philosophy at Washington (now Trinity) College, Hartford, Conn. and professor of moral and intellectual philosophy and belles-lettres at the College of William and Mary from 1849-1859. He was president of the University of Iowa. An Episcopal clergyman, he served as a rector in Decatur, Ill. and in Lexington, Ky. He and his daughters ran Christ Church Seminary in Lexington where he died in 1873.

From the description of Papers, ca. 1845-1916. (College of William & Mary). WorldCat record id: 27197858