Rev. Jesse Hartwell was born in Massachusetts in 1795 and graduated from Brown University in 1816. He was ordained in 1821 and began his preaching at Providence, Rhode Island. He moved to South Carolina about 1822 and became pastor at High Hills Baptist Church and Sumterville Baptist Church. Hartwell was on the first Board of Agents for the Furman Academy and Theological Institution, Edgefield, SC in 1825. When the school moved to the High Hills of Santee near Stateburg in 1829, Hartwell took the theological students into his home. In 1830, he wrote “A Brief view of the Furman theological institution.” He was a teacher at Furman Theological Institution until 1834.

In 1836, Hartwell moved to Alabama, was pastor at Carlowville, president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention for five sessions, professor of theology at Howard College, and president of the Domestic Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, then with headquarters at Marion. In 1847, he moved to Arkansas and founded Camden Female Institute. In 1857, he went to Louisiana where he served as president and professor of theology at Mount Lebanon University until his death on September 16, 1859.