Born in 1804, Silas Totten became Washington College's third President by a unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees on May 4, 1837. For the preceding four years, Totten had been not only Professor of Natural Philosophy at the College, but an ordained minister in the Episocopal Church. During his tenure, Totten attempted to balance the College's budgets by calling on the Church clergy and laity to support the College by sending their sons or their money.

With extra funds flowing into Washington College, President Totten oversaw work on the third College building, the multipurpose Brownell Hall, which mostly housed student sleeping quarters. In 1844, he participated in the start of fundraising for the endowment of the Brownell Professorship, a task completed in the following decade. In 1845, the College changed its name from Washington to Trinity College, to distinguish itself from other similarly-named colleges.

Totten was embroiled in the High Church-Low Church disagreements which affected the Episocopal Church and its believers more broadly. He seemingly fought the trend towards English forms of Episcopalianism, which included the creation of an Academic Senate and a Chancellor of the College. Totten suffered a physical breakdown during a vacation in the spring of 1846. Though he became increasingly unable to satisfy the forces aligned against him, Totten did not resign from Trinity College until August 2, 1848.

Totten went on to teach at William and Mary and serve as the second President of the University of Iowa, though he was chased out of the latter institution by pro-Union supporters unhappy with his publicly pro-Confederate stance. Never giving up preaching, Totten died in Kentucky on October 7, 1873.