wick purchased
21,500 acres of land in Otsego Co., N. Y., which he endeavored to
colonize with a Lutheran congregation. "The lease was to contain a
clause pledging every colonist to unite with the church within a year;
to recognize Pastor Hartwick or his representative as his pastor and
spiritual adviser; to attend his services regularly, decently, and with
devotion; to contribute to the maintenance of the church, school, and
parsonage according to ability; to have his children baptized, and to
send them to school and confirmation instruction until they were
confirmed. The validity of the lease was to depend on the fulfilment of
these conditions." (454.) The plan failed, and Hartwick, in a will,
executed shortly before his death, left his estate, valued at about
$17,000, to found a theological seminary. Among the conditions were
that heathen authors should never be read in this institution, and that
a catechism be prepared and agreed upon by pastors of various churches,
in which, all controversial points being avoided, the essential
questions of the Christian religion were to be answered by classic
Bible-verses containing the Christian doctrines. A request was appended
to the will, in which Congress was asked to promote in every possible
way the undertaking planned by him "in the interest of humanizing,
civilizing, moralizing, and Christianizing, not only the aborigines of
North America, but all other barbarous peoples with whom the United
States may have connection or intercourse." (658.) In 1797 the income
of Hartwick's estate was used to pay Dr. J. C. Kunze, of New York, for
his theological instruction, Rev. A. T. Braun, of Albany, for
instruction in the classics, and Rev. J. F. Ernst for teaching the
children on the patent (Otsego County) where the seminary was to be
located. The foundation for a building was laid in 1812, which was
dedicated December 15, 1815, and opened by Dr. Hazelius and A. Quitman
(later renowned as a lawyer, statesman, and general) with 19 students.
A charter was obtained in 1816 containing the provision that the
director must always be a Lutheran theologian, and that the majority of
the trustees must be Lutherans. When the English congregations separated
from the New York Ministerium in 1867, Hartwick Seminary remained in
their hands. In 1871 the trustees requested the Franckean, Hartwick, New
York, and New Jersey Synods each to nominate three trustees, the
institution thus coming under the co