IN ASSEMBLY, January 22, 1834. PETITION Of the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. To the honorable the Legislature of the State of New-York. The memorial of the undersigned RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH: That the Genesee conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, at their session in Perry, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, appointed a committee of their body to inquire into the expediency of establishing a seminary of learning under their management; and in case the same should be thought practicable, to recommend to the conference at its next annual session, a suitable location for such seminary. The committee, taking into account the comparative paucity of literary institutions in the western district; the productiveness of the soil, the increasing population and growing wealth of the country; the industry, enterprize, and active habits of the people; could not doubt that the time had come when such an institution was needed; and being determined so to advise the conference, they encouraged several villages to invite the location by taking up subscriptions in aid of the undertaking, payable on condition that they should be favored by the conference with the location of their seminary. The people of Lima, wishing to proceed cautiously and understandingly, inquired after the proposed relations of the contemplated seminary to the Genesee conference, and were referred by the committee to the act of incorporation of the seminary of the Genesee and Oneida conferences, passed in the year 1825, and amended in the year 1829; which act was read at a public meeting of [Assem. No. 50.] 1 the citizens of Lima, convened for that purpose:-Whereupon, it was resolved by the meeting to solicit the location of said seminary at Lima. At the meeting of the conference at Rochester, in July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty, pursuant to the recommendation of their committee, the conference resolved upon the establishment of a seminary of learning, to be located at Lima, in the county of Livingston, with the understanding that the said institution should stand related to the conference as that at Cazenovia originally did. The institution was designed for the instruction of youth of both sexes, in literature, science, and the fine arts: and also, as soon as practicable, to combine with literature practical instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts. The conference at the same time designated nine persons as their agents or trustees, to execute the designs of the conference in erecting and establishing said seminary; and at each successive session of the conference, they have been re-appointed to manage said seminary, and report their doings to the conference. The conference have employed one or more of their members in soliciting funds in aid of the undertaking, which is the only agency which has been employed. Funds have been subscribed to the amount of thirty-six thousand dollars. An eligible scite, embracing about eighty acres of land, has been secured; a permanent stone edifice, one hundred and thirty feet long, four stories high (with the basement) has been erected and furnished, together with out-buildings: a learned and competent faculty has been obtained. There are four teachers in the male and three in the female department. The school has been classified and the appropriate studies prescribed; and the school has been in successful progress for and during the term of eighteen months last past; during which time, there have been three regular examinations, which have been highly creditable to the institution. There have been more than two hundred scholars in attendance at one time, and the whole number that have been taught is about five hundred. The success hitherto attending the efforts which have been made, and the present prospects of the school, encourage the hope, that the institution, devoted as it is exclusively to learning and science, and guarded as the students are in their morals, will soon exert a happy influence in community, and become a lasting blessing to the west. But the conference have already experienced much inconvenience from the informal association of their board of trustees, and fear that they cannot conduct the affairs of the institution to happy results without legislative aid in their legal incorporation; and being impressed that they could not accept the act passed by your honorable body last winter, without sacrificing their faith, pledged to their subscribers respecting the character and relations of the seminary, did, at their last session, appoint the following persons as their trustees, viz: Abner Chase, Glezen Fillmore, Loring Grant, Richard Wright, Micah Seager, Francis Smith, Augustus A. Bennett, Ruel Blake, Asahel Warner, John Lowber, John Copeland, Lewis A. Birdsall, and Israel Chamberlayne. And the said conference did also designate your memorialists as their committee, to humbly pray that your honorable body do pass such an act to incorporate their trustees aforesaid, and their successors, as trustees of said institution, as will secure to the conference the right of electing the trustees; without the exercise of which right they cannot keep their agreement with their numerous and liberal subscribers, investing said trustees with power to hold, buy, take by devise, lease, sell, and otherwise manage real estate to the use and benefit of said institution, together with such powers and immunities as are usual in incorporations of literary institutions, And we, and the conference by us represented, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c. ISRAEL CHAMBERLAYNE, JOHN COPELAND. Dated at Lima, this 13th Nov. 1833, |