Henry Muhlenberg facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Henry Muhlenberg |
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 A portrait of Muhlenberg, c. 1780 |
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| Born | September 6, 1711 in Einbeck, Electorate of Hanover, Germany |
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| Died | October 7, 1787 (aged 76) in Trappe, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Church | Pennsylvania Ministerium |
| Education | University of Halle |
| Title | Patriarch of the Lutheran church in America |
| Children | see Muhlenberg family |
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (born Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg; September 6, 1711 – October 7, 1787) was a German-born Lutheran pastor and missionary. He was born in Einbeck, Germany. Muhlenberg moved to the Province of Pennsylvania because Lutherans there needed religious leaders. He was very important in starting the first Lutheran church group in North America. Many people see him as the founder of the Lutheran Church in the United States.
Muhlenberg and his wife, Anna Maria, had a large family. Their children and grandchildren had a big impact on colonial life in North America. They became pastors, military officers, and politicians. His family continued to be active in Pennsylvania and national politics for many years.
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Early Life and Learning
Henry Muhlenberg was born on September 6, 1711, in Einbeck, Germany. His parents were Nicolaus Melchior Mühlenberg and Anna Maria Kleinschmid. He studied theology (the study of religious faith) at the University of Göttingen. While he was a student, Muhlenberg learned about the Pietist movement. This was a religious movement that focused on personal faith and good deeds. He was influenced by students who had worked at the Francke Foundations in Halle, a key Pietist center. With two other men, Muhlenberg started a charity school in Göttingen. This school later became an orphanage.
Starting His Work
After finishing his studies in 1738, Muhlenberg got a teaching job at the Francke Foundation's Historic Orphanage. The director, Gotthilf August Francke, was a theologian and a professor. He was also the son of the Foundation's founder, August Hermann Francke.
Muhlenberg became a pastor in Leipzig in 1739. He worked as an assistant minister and director of an orphanage in Grosshennersdorf until 1741. In 1741, Gotthilf August Francke encouraged Muhlenberg to go to Pennsylvania. German-speaking Lutherans there had asked for a trained pastor. So, in 1742, Muhlenberg sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. He then helped organize the Lutheran Church as a major religious group in North America.
Building the Lutheran Church in America
Many Lutheran churches in Pennsylvania were started by people who were not formally trained as ministers. After Nicolaus Zinzendorf convinced some Lutherans to join the Moravian Church, the Lutherans asked churches in Germany for trained pastors.
In 1742, Muhlenberg arrived in Philadelphia. He was responding to a request from Pennsylvania Lutherans from 1732. He became the leader of the Augustus Lutheran Church in what is now Trappe, Pennsylvania. He also guided other churches from Maryland to New York. He worked to make sure pastors were well-trained and helped start new churches for settlers in the area.
In 1748, he created the Pennsylvania Ministerium. This was the first lasting Lutheran synod (a governing body of churches) in the United States. That same year, he helped create a standard liturgy (a set way of performing church services). He also wrote basic rules for how churches should be organized. Most churches adopted these rules in 1761. He worked hard on a hymnal (a book of hymns), which the Ministerium published in 1786.
The dedication stone above the door of the Augustus Lutheran Church honors Muhlenberg and the other founders. It says, in Latin, that Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and his council built the church in 1743. The church was named Augustus in honor of Herman Augustus Francke. His son, Gotthilf, had convinced Muhlenberg to come to America.
Muhlenberg often traveled beyond the three churches he was first assigned to. During his 45 years as a minister, he traveled from New York all the way to Georgia. He served German-speaking people, and also colonists from the Netherlands and Great Britain in their own languages. His fellow pastors often asked for his help to settle disagreements among Lutherans or with other religious groups.
Muhlenberg worked to bring new ministers from Europe. He also helped train more ministers from the colonists themselves. The Old Stone Union Church, built in 1774 in Washington Township, New Jersey, had a church group largely organized by Muhlenberg. His oldest son, Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, also served as a pastor there. Peter later became a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Later in life, poor health meant he had to slow down and retire. Henry Muhlenberg passed away on October 7, 1787, at his home in Trappe, Pennsylvania. He was 76 years old. He is buried behind Augustus Lutheran Church, along with his wife Anna Maria and their son Peter. He had asked to be buried next to his good friend and co-founder of Augustus Church, Frederick Ludwig Marsteller.
Muhlenberg Family Legacy
Soon after arriving in Pennsylvania in 1745, Muhlenberg married Anna Maria Weiser. She was the daughter of a colonial leader named Conrad Weiser. They had eleven children and started the Muhlenberg Family line. Generations of this family were active in the U.S. military, politics, education, and ministry.
Among his children, three sons became ministers and were important in other areas too.
- Peter became a scientist and academic. He was a Major General in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Later, he was elected to the United States Congress.
- Frederick served as the first Speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress.
- Henry, Jr. became a pastor at the Zion Lutheran Church in Oldwick, New Jersey.
- Henry Ernst was an early scientist and the first president of Franklin College, which is now Franklin & Marshall College.
His daughter Elisabeth married Francis Swaine, who would become a general. Maria Salome ("Sally") married Matthias Richards, who later became a U.S. Congressman. Eve married Emmanuel Shulze, and their son John Andrew Schulze was elected Governor of Pennsylvania.
Honors and Recognition
- Henry Melchior Muhlenberg is remembered on October 7 in the Calendar of Saints. This is found in worship books and hymnals used by most Lutheran churches in the United States and Canada.
- Muhlenberg College, a college in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is named in his honor. It is connected with the ELCA.
- The "Muhlenberg Monument," called Man of Vision, is a sculpture by Stanley Wanlass. It is located on the campus of Muhlenberg College.
- Lake Muhlenberg, near the college in Allentown, is also named after him.
- The Henry Melchior Muhlenberg House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. This list is kept by the National Park Service.
- Two buildings in Philadelphia are named Muhlenberg Building. One is at 13th & Spruce Streets, and the other is at 2900 Queens Lane. These buildings were once headquarters for Lutheran publishing houses. The first is now an apartment complex, and the second is part of Drexel University's College of Medicine.
See also
- Muhlenberg family
- Johann Christopher Kunze
Other sources
- Mann, William J. Life and Times of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Philadelphia: G.W. Frederick. 1888
- Wolf, Edmund Jacob. The Lutherans in America; a story of struggle, progress, influence and marvelous growth, New York: J.A. Hill. 1889
- Frick, William K. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, Lutheran Publication Society, 1902
- Hermann Wellenreuther / Thomas Müller-Bahlke / A. Gregg Roeber: The Transatlantic World of Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg in the Eighteenth Century. Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz (January 9, 2013), ISBN: 978-3447069632
