Susquehanna University - 1858 to 1894

In response to charges that Selinsgrove was not a healthy place, the Selinsgrove community sent Dr. Kurtz a confident letter stating why their community was a safe and healthy place to have a school.

The second page of the letter concerning the health of Selinsgrove includes signatures of Selinsgrove citizens and physicians.

The citizens of Selinsgrove wrote the Board of managers of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Institute in Baltimore stating that they had secured subscription to give to the proper officers to have the Missionary Institute built in their town. On May 3rd 1858, Selinsgrove was selected for the site of the Missionary Institute.

Benjamin Kurtz, the Missionary Institute founder and 1st President, had put out the word that he wanted to start a school where men could learn how to be teachers of the Gospel. For the location he was seeking a farm of about fifty or sixty acres, close to a city or large town and a railroad. This document is the formal letter from the citizens of Selinsgrove announcing their subscription of $22,000 and fifty students that could attend the first year of the school's opening.