The German Reformed Church had struggled for years in its American setting during the early nineteenth century. One of its main struggles was the establishment of a theological school to educate its clergy. In this painfully honest study, Appel describes the trials behind the early stages and the eventual success of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church in the United States. Although the seminary opened its doors in 1825, this monograph delves into its prehistory and takes the reader back to 1817 and traces the history of the school up to 1832, after it had been firmly established. This study contains a frank assessment of the situation in which the seminary arose and has remained a standard source for anyone interested in the history of the Reformed Church in America.

Theodore Appel (1823-1907) was a true polymath. In addition to his career as a pastor in the Reformed Church, he was on the first faculty of Franklin and Marshall College. His teaching duties included mathematics, mechanical philosophy, physics, and astronomy. His history of his alma mater remains a widely used cross-section of the larger history of the Reformed Church in the United States.