Background
Hartwick was a native of the dukedom of Saxe-Gotha in the province of Thuringia in Germany and studied at the University of Halle. He was educated in the Lutheran Pietism movement. Hartwick emigrated to America in 1746 to serve as a missionary to the German settlers in and around Rhinebeck in New York’s Hudson Valley.
He was an eccentric idealist and intolerant of parishioner's vices, requiring them to sign a promise that they would "forswear shooting, horse-racing, boozing, and dancing." He was forcefully removed from his first parish by fellow ministers of the area, and from there moved around the northern colonies, unable to find a congregation that would put up with his pious intolerance.
Read more about this topic: John Christopher Hartwick
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