Genesee College - Genesee Wesleyan Seminary

Genesee Wesleyan Seminary

In 1832, the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary was founded by the Genesee Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lima, New York, south of Rochester. 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 Genesee 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.

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 construction of buildings. In 1880, Bishop Matthew Simpson of the M.E. Church described the seminary's early years thus "no other institution in the church accomplishing apparently more in the education of active and useful young men and young women." The early years of the institution were said to be ones of "great prosperity." This was especially true under the administrations of the Rev. Schuyler Seager. Seager 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.