HIS CHILDHOOD AND EARLY HOME. 3 



Bridgeport, of which the latter, however, at the time 

 when Professor Silliman was born, was only an in- 

 significant hamlet. Answering in some degree to 

 the local situation of the family, was the considera- 

 tion which they appear to have enjoyed in the com- 

 munity in which they resided. In earlier times in 

 New England the communal feeling was stronger, 

 the distinction of ranks more marked, and social 

 affairs more under the guidance of recognized lead- 

 ers or leading families, than at present. Such ap- 

 pears to have been the rank of the Sillimans of Fair- 

 field in the last century. Ebenezer Silliman, the 

 grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was a 

 graduate of Yale College in the class of 1727 ; he 

 pursued the profession of law, became a Judge of 

 the Superior Court of the Colony, and was a mem- 

 ber of the Governor's Council. He was the propri- 

 etor of a large landed estate, and an influential man 

 in public affairs. His son, Gold Selleck Silliman, 

 the father of Professor Silliman, was likewise gradu- 

 ated at Yale College in 1752. After engaging for a 

 short time in business, he studied law, and became a 

 successful practitioner at the bar, as is indicated by 

 his holding the office of Prosecuting Attorney for the 

 County. He had interested himself in military 

 affairs, and at the outbreak of the Revolutionary 

 struggle was a colonel of cavalry in the local militia. 

 But during the most of the war he held the rank of 

 Brigadier- General, and was charged with superintend- 

 ing the defence of the southwestern frontier of Con- 

 necticut, which, on account of the long occupation 

 of the city of New York, and West Chester County, 

 as well as Long Island, by the British, was a post 



