31. The Eccentric Wandering Bachelor.--Hartwick (Hartwig, Hartwich,
Hardwick) was born 1714 in Thuringia, Saxony. Coming to New York in
1746, Berkenmeyer had him subscribe to the Loonenburg Church
constitution. His parish included the congregations at Rheinbeck, Camp,
Staatsburg, Ancrum, and Tar Bush. The capriciousness with which
Hartwick, who remained an eccentric bachelor all his life, performed his
pastoral duties soon gave rise to dissatisfaction. Complaints were
lodged against him with Berkenmeyer, who finally wrote against him
publicly. In 1750 Muhlenberg conducted a visitation in Hartwick's
congregations, and reports as follows: "He went to Pennsylvania too
often, and that without the permission of his congregations, etc. He
did not sufficiently prepare the young for confirmation, by simple
instruction in the Catechism; is too austere in his dealings with the
people; does not always permit them to see him; does not maintain order
at public worship; begins services an hour or two after the time fixed;
has long hymns sung and preaches long, so that those who come from a
distance must drive till late into the night and are compelled to
neglect their cattle. He is headstrong (koppich), that is, self-willed,
and will not allow any one to tell him anything or to give him advice.
He says he did not come here to learn from the people, but to teach
them. Nor did he, said they, cultivate the friendship of the old
spiritual father Berkenmeyer, while pastors were to set a good example.
Such and similar were the complaints made by his opponents." (G., 412.)
The upshot of the deliberations was that Raus was appointed vicar of the
congregations, while Hartwick agreed to spend six months in
Pennsylvania, where he previously, 1748, had participated in the
organization of the Pennsylvania Synod. In 1752 Hartwick preached to the
Dutch congregation of New York, an honor that was denied him in 1750
because of his hostility to Berkenmeyer. January 8, 1751, Hartwick
addressed a pastoral letter to his congregations, in which he not only
displays a lack of Lutheran knowledge, but also refers to Berkenmeyer as
"brother Esau" and speaks of his opponents as "Edomites" and "Esauites."
In the spring of 1751 Hartwick returned to his congregations. When it
became impossible for him to maintain his position any longer, he went
to Reading, in 1757. In the following year he returned to Columbia and
Duchess Co., N. Y. Subsequently, wandering about aimlessly, he was seen,
now in Hackensack and Providence, now (1761) as Muhlenberg's successor
in the country congregations, then in Maryland, 1763 in Philadelphia,
then in Winchester, Va., 1767 in New York, attending the unionistic
church dedication, 1774 in Boston, and ten years later again in New
York, whither he returned to ingratiate himself with the Lutherans who
had not emigrated to Nova Scotia with Houseal. Known everywhere, but at
home nowhere, and usually an unwelcome guest, Hartwick died suddenly,
July 16, 1796, at East Camp. The last lines of the dreary inscription on
his tombstone are: "The brief span of our days is seventy to eighty
years, and though it was ever so precious, its sum is trouble and
sorrow. On the wings of time we hasten to a long eternity." In the
original the epitaph reads as follows: "Hier ruhet Johann C. Hartwich
Prediger der Evangelisch Lutherischen Kirche. gebohren in Sax Gotha de
6 Jenner 1714 Gestorben den 16 Julius 1706 Seines alters 82 Jahre 6
Monat.--Das kurzgesteckte Ziel der Tage Ist siebenzig is achtzig jahr
Ein innbegrif von muh und plage Auch wenn es noch so kostlich war.
Geflugelt eilt mit uns die zeit In eine lange ewigkeit." (657.)
32. Hartwick Seminary and Dr. Hazelius.--In 1754 Hartwick 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 control of these synods. The first
director of Hartwick Seminary was Dr. Hazelius, who was born in Silesia
in 1777, and educated at the institution of the Moravians in Germany. He
came to America in 1800 and was made instructor in the classics at the
Moravian institution at Nazareth, Pa. Before long he was employed in the
theological department. In 1809, Hazelius was ordained as Lutheran
pastor of Germantown. He was connected with Hartwick Seminary for
fifteen years, when he was called to Gettysburg Seminary. Three years
later (1833) he accepted a call to the seminary of the South Carolina
Synod at Lexington, where he died in 1853. Hazelius, who did not leave
the Moravians for doctrinal reasons, held that Lutherans and Reformed do
not differ fundamentally. Accordingly, he also approved of distributing
the Lord's Supper at the same altar, to Lutherans according to their
practise, to others in the manner of the Reformed. The minutes of the
proceedings of the General Synod held at Winchester, Va., May 21, 1853,
record the following: "Whereas, It has pleased the God of all and Head
of the Church to remove from this transitory scene, and to take home to
Himself, our venerable and beloved father in Christ, the Rev. Ernest
Lewis Hazelius, D. D., we, who have been privileged to sit at his feet,
and to be instructed by him in the various departments of sacred
service, desire to unite in a public expression of our grief at his
departure from among us, and of our high regard for his name and memory;
therefore, Resolved, That we duly appreciate and gratefully acknowledge
the importance, efficiency, and happy results of his long, faithful, and
untiring labors as a minister of our Church; first a pastor, then, for
fifteen years, as the first professor and principal of Hartwick
Seminary, afterwards as professor at the Theological Seminary of this
body at Gettysburg, for two years, and, lastly, up to October, 1852, as
Professor of Theology at Lexington, in the Theological Seminary of the
Synod of South Carolina." (44.)