Namesake
He was presumably named after Methodist preacher Silas Comfort (1808–1868), a courageous anti-slavery member of the Genesee, Oneida and Missouri Conferences. While serving in St. Louis, Missouri, Comfort admitted as evidence in a church trial the testimony of a Negro, a practice which was forbidden in public trials in Missouri at the time. He was censured by his Conference, but that censure was overturned by the 1840 General Conference. The General Conference then bowed to Southern pressure and passed a resolution prohibiting the testimony of Negroes in church trials within states that forbade such testimony in public trials. That resolution was rescinded in 1844.
Read more about this topic: Silas C. Swallow