John Christopher Hartwick

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John Christopher Hartwick ( 1714 – 1796 ), Lutheran minister in Colonial America, was born in Germany and educated at Halle pietistical seminary. He emigrated to America in 1746 to serve as a missionary to the German settlers in and around Rhinebeck in New York’s Hudson Valley.

He was an eccentric idealist and intolerant of parishioner's vices, requiring them to sign a promise that they would "forswear shooting, horse-racing, boozing, and dancing." He was forcefully removed from his first parish by fellow ministers of the area, and from there moved around the northern colonies, unable to find a congregation that would put up with his pious intolerance.

[edit] New Jerusalem

Hartwick felt that allowing the common person to own land and live so far from one another was the cause of their immorality. He envisioned a utopian community dedicated to the principles of pious living. He made a series of land deals and eventually obtained a nearly 24,000 acre (97 km²) patent from the Mohawk Indians in what would later become Otsego County, New York.

Hartwick commissioned his neighboring landowner, Judge William Cooper, to lease his land to suitable Christian settlers for the establishment of this "New Jerusalem." But Cooper essentially ignored Hartwick's criteria, and leased the property indiscriminately. Most (if not all) of his tenants had little interest in Hartwick's utopian vision for the settlement.

In 1764 Hartwick wrote an article condemning the death penalty for theft as contrary to divine law. He believed there should be government-run educational schools to replace the exclusive private schools of the day.

[edit] Hartwick Seminary

Hartwick did benefit financially from Cooper’s indiscriminate leasing deals and left instructions in his will for the founding of a public seminary, but he made the job difficult by designating Jesus Christ as his heir. Hartwick died in 1797 but the seminary did not open until 15 years later. During the 1920s, the Trustees of Hartwick Seminary voted to close the seminary and use the funds to open a new college in nearby Oneonta a few years later.

Hartwick's choice as director of the seminary was Dr. John Christopher Kunze a leading Lutheran theologian. Prominent political and religious leaders Jeremiah Van Rensselaer and Frederick Muhlenberg convinced Dr. Kunze to direct the seminary and teach theology at his home in New York City. Also benefiting from Hartwick's endowments were Rev. Anthony Braun who taught sciences and languages in Albany and Rev. John Frederick Ernst who taught elementary school on the Hartwick patent.

The school became known as the Hartwick Seminary, which eventually became Hartwick College, which was moved to the nearby city of Oneonta, New York. Hartwick College today traces its founding to the death of John Christopher Hartwick despite its actual founding in the 1920s.