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 1799, held religious services in the
old Academy, on the present site of the Universalist church, and had
some youngsters of the village under his instruction. His descendants
lived in Cooperstown for more than a century after him.

The main building of Hartwick Seminary was erected in 1812, at the
present site, near the bank of the Susquehanna River, about five miles
southward of Cooperstown, and some four miles eastward from Hartwick
village. The school was opened in 1815, and received from the
legislature a charter in 1816. It is the oldest theological school in
the State of New York, and the oldest Lutheran theological seminary in
America. In addition to being a theological school, Hartwick Seminary is