he
wilderness of a Christian city whose halls of learning should influence
the coming ages. The roving life that brought Hartwick into contact with
the Indians awakened his desire to Christianize and educate them, and
the influence which he gained among them opened the way, through the
acquirement of land, for the carrying out of his favorite project. The
patent that he obtained from the Provincial government in 1761 covered a
tract of land, substantially the present town of Hartwick, which he had
purchased from the Indians for one hundred pounds in 1754. In settling
the land Hartwick required each tenant to agree to a condition in the
lease by which the tenant became Hartwick's parishioner, and
acknowledged the authority of Hartwick, or his substitute, as "pastor,
teacher, and spiritual counsellor." Owing to his desultory business
methods and the weight of advancing years, Hartwick after a time found
himself unequal to the management of this estate, and in 1791 William
Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown, became his agent, with authority to
dispose of the property to tenants. By this arrangement Hartwick was cut
off from his original design of being the spiritual director of his
tenants, and came to the end of his life without building the city of
which he dreamed.

Hartwick's last will and testament, however, shows that he never
abandoned his design, but determined that it should be carried out after
his death. The will is one of the most curious documents ever penned, a
mixture of autobiography, piety, and contempt of legal form. A lawyer to
whom he submitted it pronounced it "legally defective in every page, and
almost in every sentence." But Hartwick's only amendment of it was to
add a perplexing codicil to seven other codicils which already had been
appended.[23] The will provides for the laying out of a regular town,
closely built, to be called the New Jerusalem, with buildings and hall
for a seminary.

Hartwick died in 1796, in his eighty-third year. The task of
administering the estate according to the will was found to be almost
hopeless. The executors, aided by a special act of legislature, set
about to carry out its evident spirit. Preliminary to the establishment
of a seminary, the executors sent the Rev. John Frederick Ernst, a
Lutheran minister, to Hartwick patent, to preach to the inhabitants, and
to assist in the education of their youth. In connection with this work
Mr. Ernst came to Cooperstown in 17