trustees: John C. Ward, Cromwell K. Bartlett, and R.R. Stewart. They split the land into five blocks east to west and three blocks north to south with locations for a cemetery, a block for the school and church, a public square, and the "gospel lot," which, in 1846, became a seminary. Lots would be drawn by chance, assuming that the settlers would build on them, and immediately the town established its Christian and education-focused philosophy. A mandatory tithe on all proceeds (over a certain amount) were set aside to build a religious and educational seminary in the center of town, now the Geneseo City Park. This building, originally known as the Geneseo Manual Labor High School, was later renamed the Geneseo Seminary and was borne of the self-denial philosophy of the town's leaders. However, due to considerable debt, the Geneseo Seminary ended up closing in the year 1857 and was folded into the public school system as Geneseo Central School. Further proving their religious and educational convictions, when many of the town's founding families hadn't arrived and while the remainder battled frostbite, the settlers began a temperance society in 1836 with several families in Hanna Township and Cleveland, Illinois. Construction on the original First Congregationalist Church began in 1837 and its first communion was held on April 18, 1838 during a large hail storm that destroyed nearly all windows in the small town. Its first regular pastor was Rev. Jairus Wilcox. The Congregationalist Church was so important in Geneseo's early founding that Ms. Ella Hume Taylor wrote on the centennial anniversary of Geneseo's founding in 1936, "The history of Geneseo Colony and of the Congregational Church are so closely interwoven that, for many, to speak of one, meant the other also, for their interests were so in common. The church was a Court of Justice, settling community and family misunderstandings. At one time in the early days every adult but one, and most of the children, were members of this church, and for over eighteen years there was no other church affiliation in Geneseo, not until after the railroad went through, bringing in those of other denominations, also bringing some foreigners of different beliefs." These strong religious beliefs also strongly influenced the town's political leanings as well, being very strong abolitionists and Republicans. Ella Hume Taylor further wrote that, "scarcely had the colonists erected their cabins before Geneseo became a