Genesee Wesleyan Seminary
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The Genesee Wesleyan Seminary was an academic seminary (not theological), more like an early high school. It was founded in 1831 by the Genesee Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The plan for its establishment dates to 1829 when the Conference appointed a committee for this purpose.
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[edit] Location
The seminary was located in Lima in Western New York. It was placed in the center of (at the time) a rich agricultural district. Lima was once termed the "Flower-Bed" of the "Garden" of Western New York.
[edit] First Principal
The Rev. Dr. Samuel Luckey was elected the first Principal of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, and was transferred from the New York Annual Conference of the M.E. Church to the Genessee Conference. He remained in this office until 1836, when he was elected by the M.E. General Conference as the Editor of The Christian Advocate and Journal, an important denominational periodical.
[edit] Early Years
The institution is said to have "opened most favorably," with a total enrollment the first year (1831-32) of 341, with 170-180 students attending at any one time. The Agents of the seminary solicited funds for the errection of handsome buildings. The early years of the institution was said to be ones of "great prosperity." This was especially true under the administrations of the Rev. Schuyler Seager. In 1880, Bishop Matthew Simpson of the M.E. Church described the seminary's early years thusly "no other institution in the church accomplishing apparently more in the education of active and useful young men and young women."
[edit] Schuyler Seager
Schuyler was born 8 July 1807 in Simsbury, Connecticut. He joined the Genesee Conference in 1833. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1836. That same year he was appointed Teacher of Moral Science and Belles-Lettres in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. He was chosen as Principal of the seminary in 1837. After entering pastoral ministry in 1844, he returned to the seminary in 1854, again as Principal. In 1856-57 he was made Principal of the Genesee Model School in Lima, New York, an offshoot of the seminary.
[edit] Expansion
In 1850 it was resolved to enlarge the institution from a seminary into a college, or to connect a college with the seminary. The Rev. Dr. Benjamin Franklin Tefft was elected President of this endeavor. The name was chosen as Genesee College. However, the location was thought by many not to be sufficiently central. It was resolved, therefore, to establish the college in Syracuse, New York (the beginings of Syracuse University). The seminary was continued in Lima.
[edit] Situation in 1880
The establishment of high schools in all the larger towns (and even smaller ones, eventually), and of Normal schools in different parts of New York, diminished the number of students at the Seminary. Nevertheless, Genesee Wesleyan continued under the presidency of the Rev. G.H. Bridgeman, as reported by Bishop Simpson. At that time, it had large and commodious buildings, and all the facilities of a first-class seminary.
[edit] References
- Cyclopaedia of Methodism, Matthew Simpson, D.D., LL.D., Ed., (Revised Edition.) Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts, 1880.
