BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, THE ELDER. 



1779-1864. 



THE name of Professor Silliman is intimately connected 

 with the progress of science in the United States during the 

 former half of this century. In fact, his long life, his unbroken 

 connection of over half a century with Yale College, and his 

 founding of the American Journal of Science, make him prob- 

 ably the best-known figure of the period. 



Benjamin Silliman was born in North Stratford (now Trum- 

 bull), Connecticut, on the 8th of August, 1779. The home of 

 his family was at Fairfield, a few miles distant, on Long Island 

 Sound. But the Revolutionary War was then at its height, his 

 father had recently been taken out of his house at midnight by 

 a British and Tory raiding party, and his mother had sought 

 safety with friends. His earliest American ancestor on the 

 father's side, Daniel Silliman, was believed to have been an 

 emigrant from Holland, but there are reasons for presuming 

 that he belonged to an Italian Protestant family that took 

 refuge in Switzerland, and one of whose members afterward 

 came to America, possibly sojourning for a short time in Hol- 

 land. His grandfather, Ebenezer Silliman, was a graduate 

 from Yale College, a Judge of the Superior Court of the 

 colony, a member of the Governor's Council, and influential 

 in public affairs. His father, Gold Selleck Silliman, was grad- 

 uated from Yale College in 1752, was admitted to the bar a 

 few years later, and soon became prosecuting attorney of his 

 county. When the Revolution broke out he was a colonel of 

 cavalry in the local militia. At the head of his regiment he 

 joined the forces under Washington at New York, was in the 

 battles of Long Island and White Plains, and enjoyed the con- 

 fidence of his chief. He was made a brigadier general of Con- 

 necticut troops and charged with the defence of the southwest- 

 ern frontier of that colony. His activity in resisting the incur- 



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