The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Gettysburg Seminary) was a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

. It was one of seven ELCA seminaries, one of the three seminaries in the Eastern Cluster of Lutheran Seminaries, and a member institution of the Washington Theological Consortium. It was founded in 1826 under prominent but controversial theologian and professor Samuel Simon Schmucker (1799-1873) for the recently organized General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States. The seminary was the oldest continuing Lutheran seminary in the United States until it was merged on July 1, 2017, after 189 years of operation, with the nearby and former rival Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia to form the United Lutheran Seminary. The new institution continues to use both campuses. The Gettysburg Seminary served the church as a pioneer in theological education creating among Lutheran seminaries the first faculty position in Christian Education in 1926, the first teacher in sociology and psychology in 1942, and the first in stewardship in 1989. Gettysburg continued to add to its trail breaking in the American scene by granting tenure to a female professor, Bertha Paulssen, in 1945, and graduating, in 1965, the first woman to be ordained by an American Lutheran church body, Elizabeth Platz (graduated in 1965 and ordained in 1970). the seminary was also the first Lutheran seminary to admit an African American theological student and seminarian, Daniel Alexander Payne, in 1835, only nine years after its founding. During the pivotal

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, the seminary, on a ridge northwest of the town, became a focal point of action on the first day of battle, July 1, 1863. The seminary gave its name to the now iconic

Seminary Ridge Seminary Ridge is a dendritic ridge which was an area of Battle of Gettysburg engagements in July 1863 during the American Civil War (1861–1865), and of military installations during World War II (1941–1945). Geography Seminary Ridge ...

, where the line of battle of the Confederate

Army of Northern Virginia The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was also the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most oft ...

was formed for the later actions on the second and third days of the battle. The headquarters of commanding Gen. Robert E. Lee was established in a stone cottage across the northwest Cashtown Road.

History

At the 1820 formation of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States, its constitution specified that the synod form plans for a seminary or seminaries. Samuel Simon Schmucker, ordained in 1820, actively lobbied for the establishment of a seminary and began theological training for students at his parsonage in New Market, Virginia. After hearing Schmucker speak in 1824 about his efforts, the Maryland-Virginia Synod recommended to the General Synod in 1825 that a seminary be established. The board of directors first met on March 2, 1826, in Hagerstown, Maryland, with the first order of business being to select a site for the seminary. They rejected proposals from Carlisle, Pennsylvania (at Dickinson College) and Hagerstown and the "Gettysburg Theological Seminary" was established on August 1, 1826. Schmucker was elected the first professor and the seminary opened with eight students on September 5, 1826, in the Gettysburg Academy building, which had opened 1810. In 1832, the seminary moved to its first building on the ridge west of the borough, the ridge now eing known as

. Following Schmucker, the seminary had "faculty chairmen" rather than presidents. The first seminary president
John Alden Singmaster
was designated in 1906. During the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

labor shortage, the seminary assisted with the county's 1942 apple harvest before German POWs became available, and a seminary auxiliary was organized in 1953.

Role in the Battle of Gettysburg

The Seminary building served as a lookout on July 1, 1863, the first day of battle. From the cupola, Brig. Gen.

John Buford John Buford, Jr. (March 4, 1826 – December 16, 1863) was a United States Army cavalry officer. He fought for the Union as a brigadier general during the American Civil War. Buford is best known for having played a major role in the first day ...

, commanding First Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, observed the opening of the battle to the west of Seminary Ridge and witnessed the arrival of the I Corps under Maj. Gen. John Reynolds marching to his relief from the south. By the late afternoon, the Union lines on

McPherson's Ridge McPherson Ridge is a landform used for military engagements during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, when the I Corps of the Union Army had a headquarters on the ridge and was defeated by the Confederate division of Major General Henry Heth. The ...

, west of the seminary, were forced back to Seminary Ridge by Confederate troops of

Heth Heth, sometimes written Chet, but more accurately Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ḥēt 𐤇 , Hebrew Ḥēth , Aramaic Ḥēth , Syriac Ḥēṯ ܚ, Arabic Ḥā' , and Maltese Ħ, ħ. Heth origin ...

's and Pender's divisions. Before the troops could dig in on Seminary Ridge, a further attack by Pender's division broke the line. The I Corps streamed across Seminary Hill and through the town of Gettysburg, covered by a delaying action on the grounds by the famed

Iron Brigade The Iron Brigade, also known as The Black Hats, Black Hat Brigade, Iron Brigade of the West, and originally King's Wisconsin Brigade was an infantry brigade in the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. Although it fought ent ...

. The Confederate

occupied the seminary grounds and held them until the Army's retreat on July 4, 1863. There was no further infantry combat on the seminary grounds, but it continued to play a prominent role in the battle. The seminary building had begun to be used as a field hospital for soldiers of both armies during the first day, and this continued throughout the engagement and after the battle was over. Artillery was posted on the hill and participated in action against Union artillery on Culp's and Cemetery Hills on July 2 and 3. Confederate soldiers ransacked the house of seminary President Schmucker, an outspoken abolitionist. Confederate troops also used the seminary building cupola as a lookout, although there is no hard evidence that General Robert E. Lee, whose headquarters were just across the Cashtown Road to the north of the seminary, ever entered the cupola. The seminary contains multiple commemorative markers and monuments along its main drive, called Seminary Ridge (formerly, Confederate Ave). The park commission had placed two Confederate 3" rifles, two other Confederate guns, and two Union 12-pounders ("False Napoleon") along the avenue by 1912.

Subsequent campus history

In 1868, some seminary land was purchased for the Gettysburg Springs Railroad (now Springs Avenue) and the faculty expanded to a fourth professor (James W. Richard) in 1889. In 1895, during the battlefield commemorative era, the Gettysburg Park Commission telfordized the seminary's north–south avenue (resurfaced in 1927). In 1896, the seminary had two academic buildings, four professor dwellings, a hospital, and approximately . The cornerstone of the Church of the Abiding Presence was laid in 1940 and construction was completed in 1942. In about 1960, the seminary purchased the nearby Elsie Singmaster Lewars home and in 1961, the Adams County Historical Society moved from the courthouse basement to Old Dorm (added to the NRHP in 1974). In 2011, the society moved into Wolf House, also owned by the seminary. The 2011 "Crossroads Campaign" planned $1.8 million of fundraising for chapel renovations.

Merger

In January 2016, the seminary's board announced a merger with the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While originally planned as a closure of both schools with the formation of a new institution, that plan was canceled over accreditation issues and a merger of the two schools was completed 1 July 2017, under the name United Lutheran Seminary.

Notable alumni

Cornelius L. Keedy Cornelius Luther Keedy (March 28, 1834 – March 25, 1911) was an American pastor, physician, and academic administrator. He served as owner and president of Kee Mar College for 25 years. Life Keedy was born March 28, 1834, in Rohrersville, M ...

(1834–1911), pastor, physician, and academic administrator *Daniel Payne (1811–1893), first ordained Black Lutheran pastor in the United States and leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church * Elizabeth Platz, first Lutheran woman ordained in the United States, (1970), served her entire active ministry as campus pastor at the University of Maryland. * William Morton Reynolds (1812–1876), minister, college president, and translatorRichard W. Solberg, ''Lutheran Higher Education in North America'' (1885), p. 64; Townsend Ward, "Memorial notice of the Rev. William M. Reynolds, D. D." in ''The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'', Vol. 1, p. 10

References

External links

Internet Archive of the former Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg website

Lutheran Theological Seminary, Main Building, Gettysburg, Adams County, PA
at the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS)
ATS profile for Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg

Official site for United Lutheran Seminary
{{authority control American Civil War sites Cemeteries in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1826 Gettysburg Battlefield Lutheran cemeteries in the United States Lutheran seminaries School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Universities and colleges in Adams County, Pennsylvania 1826 establishments in Pennsylvania Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Adams County, Pennsylvania 2017 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Educational institutions disestablished in 2017