Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Olssen, William Whittingham

OLSSEN, William Whittingham, clergyman, b. in New York city, 11 May, 1827. He was graduated at Columbia in 1846, and at the Episcopal general theological seminary in New York in 1849. He was then ordained deacon in Holy Trinity church, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1 July, 1849, by Bishop Whittingham, and priest in Grace church, Brooklyn, 29 June, 1851, by Bishop De Lancey, of western New York. For two years, in 1849-'50, he served as missionary at Prattsville, N. Y. He accepted the rectorship of the Church of St. James the Less, Scarsdale, N. Y., in 1851, and held that post for twenty years. In 1871 he was appointed professor of mathematics in St. Stephen's college, Annandale, N. Y., and he was transferred to the chair of Greek and Hebrew literature in 1873. He received the degree of S. T. D. from Columbia in 1876. Dr. Olssen has published “Personality, Human and Divine” (New York, 1882); “Revelation, Universal and Special” (1885); and various sermons and essays on special occasions. He has also contributed freely to church literature.