Genesee Wesleyan Seminary

The Genesee Wesleyan Seminary was the name of two institutions located on the same site in Lima, New York.

The Genesee Wesleyan Seminary was founded in 1831 by the Genesee Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church after the Conference appointed a committee for to establish the seminary in 1829. In 1849 there was a substantive attempt to upgrade the institution to a truly college-level entity and Genesee College was created to replace the seminary. By the end of the Civil War, changes in regional economic patterns towards rail lines and away from canals made the location at Lima seem unfavorable, and plans by civic leaders in Syracuse for a new university in that city led to the removal of Genesee College to Syracuse in 1870, where it became the basis of Syracuse University.

The Genesee Wesleyan Seminary remained opened at Lima until 1941. ^[1] Although vacant through the war years of World War II, in 1947 a new Genesee Junior College opened on the grounds in 1947, again under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This junior college closed in 1951 and the Elim Bible College has operated on the grounds since that time. Two seminary buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. ^[2]

History

The Seminary depicted in 1870

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Luckey was elected the first Principal of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, upon which he was transferred from the New York Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to its Genesee Conference. He remained in this office until 1836, when he was elected by the Methodist Episcopal General Conference as the Editor of The Christian Advocate and Journal, an important denominational periodical.

Opening in 1831, there were 341 students the first year. The Agents of the seminary solicited funds for the erection of handsome buildings.

Under the administrations of the Rev. Schuyler Seager, the seminary grew. Seager was born 8 July 1807 in Simsbury, Connecticut.^{[ citation needed ]} He joined the Genesee Conference in 1833.^{[ citation needed ]} He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1836.^{[ citation needed ]} That same year he was appointed Teacher of Moral Science and Belles-Lettres in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary.^{[ citation needed ]} He became Principal of the seminary in 1837.^{[ citation needed ]} He entered pastoral ministry in 1844 and then returned to the seminary in 1854, again as Principal. ^{[ citation needed ]} In 1856-57 he was made Principal of the Genesee Model School in Lima, New York, an offshoot of the seminary. Maria Hyde Hibbard served as Preceptor. ^[3]

Joseph Cummings was appointed President of Genesee in 1854, a position he held until 1857. ^[4]

After the removal of Genesee College, Genesee Wesleyan seminary flourished 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. The institution did not survive the early World War II years.

Notable alumni

• Anna Smeed Benjamin, social reformer ^[5]
• Adolphus W. Burtt, South Dakota Attorney General ^{[6] [7]}
• George H. Durand, served in the United States Congress for the state of Michigan. ^[8]
• Mary Galentine Fenner, poet and litterateur
• Charles Henry Fowler, President of Northwestern University from 1873–1876.
• Merton W. Herrick, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
• Kenneth Keating, US Senator and ambassador
• Henry A. Patterson, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
• Henry Jarvis Raymond , journalist and politician who was a founder of The New York Times
• Sarah Amelia Scull , Greek scholar and author of Greek Mythology Systematized, who became one of the leading Greek scholars in the world during her time. ^{[9] [10]} and Catalogue on Greek Art. ^[11]

Genesee College

Main article: Genesee College

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 to be Genesee College. However, the location was thought by many not to be sufficiently central in local economic transportation networks. It was resolved, therefore, to remove the college to Syracuse, New York, where it became the nucleus of Syracuse University. The college, its libraries, its students and faculty, and the college's two fraternity chapters all relocated to Syracuse.

Notable alumni

• Belva Ann Lockwood (October 24, 1830 – May 19, 1917) was an American attorney, politician, educator and author. ^[12]

References

1. "Genesee Wesleyan Seminary Collection An inventory of the collection at the Syracuse University Archives". library.syracuse.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-07.
2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
3. Graham, Frances W.; Gardenier, Georgeanna M. Remington (1894). "MRS. MARIA HYDE HIBBARD.". Two Decades: A History of the First Twenty Years' Work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York : 1874–1894. Press of R.J. Oliphant. p. 32. Retrieved 25 January 2024– via Internet Archive. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
4. Joseph Cummings Papers, Box 1, Folder 1, "Biographical Materials. Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Illinois
5. Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). "BENJAMIN, Mrs. Anna Smeed". A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Charles Wells Moulton. pp. 74–75. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
6. Tefft, B. D. (1851). Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary (PDF). Lima, NY: Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. p. 11.
7. "Aged Resident of Kalispell Dead" . Great Falls Tribune . Great Falls, MT. January 10, 1917. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
8. "Durand, George Harman, (1838 - 1903)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
9. "Study of Greek Art".
10. Scull, Sarah Amelia (1 January 1880). Greek Mythology Systematized. Porter & Coates – via Internet Archive. sarah amelia scull.
11. "Sarah Scull Residence".
12. James Goche (May 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Genesee Wesleyan Seminary and Genesee College Hall". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 2009-09-01.

Further reading

• Simpson, Matthew. Cyclopaedia of Methodism (rev. ed.). Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1880.
• Beadie, Nancy. Education and the Creation of Capital in the Early American Republic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.