The New York Times/1896/01/05/Chester D. Hartranft President

Career of the Head of the Hartford Theological Seminary and School of Sociology.

HARTFORD, Conn., Jan. 4. President Chester D. Hartranft of the Hartford Theological Seminary, and founder of the Hartford School of Sociology, is a native of Pennsylvania, and a cousin of ex-Gov. John F. Hartranft of that State. He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1861 and from the New-Brunswick Seminary in 1864. He was ordained as a clergyman in



The Rev. Dr. Hartranft, of the Hartford Theological Seminary.

the Dutch Reformed Church July 10 of that year. Prof. Hartranft has spent a number of years in German universities, and is one of the ablest Biblical scholars in the New-England theological schools. He was installed as a professor in the Hartford Theological Seminary in September, 1878, and became President ten years later, succeeding the Rev. Dr. William Thompson.

President Hartranft has received the degree of D. D. from Rutgers College. His work in this city has been of great importance, both from theological and sociological points of view. The Hartford School of Sociology was founded by him two years ago. During the first year the curriculum embraced lectureship in thirty different fields, and there are sixty lecturers, who have been assigned to work in this year's course. The list includes Prof. John Bascom of Williams College, Prof. William Z. Ripleyof Columbia College, Prof. Austin Abbott, Dean of the New-York University Law School; Prof. William Libbey, Jr., of Princeton, Prof. Roland P. Falkner of the University of Pennsylvania, Prof. Henry B. Gardner of Brown University, Prof. Lucy M. Salmon of Vassar, and Prof. W. J. Ashley of Harvard.

President Hartranft is the guiding spirit of the school, and his work, which has received attention from abroad not less than in progressive institutions in this country, is exciting wide interest. A social settlement has been established in this city in connection with the school. The President is deeply interested in the religious and social development of the masses. He is connected with the First Congregational Church in Hartford, of which the Rev. Dr. C. M. Lamson is the pastor, and is a regular attendant at its services. the Rev. Dr. Wickoff, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church at Pine Plains, N. Y., is a classmate of Prof. Hartranft.