The Muhlenberg family was one of the most prominent German-American families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its members included eminent clergymen, military leaders, political figures, and a botanist. The family patriarch was the Lutheran clergyman Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg (1711-1787); his three oldest sons were John Peter Gabriel, known as Peter (1746-1807), Frederick Augustus Conrad (1750-1801), and Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst, known as Henry (1753-1815, APS 1785). Henry's son was Henry Augustus (1782–1844).

Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg was born in 1711 in the electorate of Hanover. He was educated at the local German and Latin school and then, after a brief hiatus due to lack of funding, enrolled at the Georg-August University of Göttingen to study theology. After graduating in 1737, Muhlenberg accepted a position as preceptor at the orphan school of Halle. The orphanage had been the first building of what was by then an extensive community with a school, residences, artisan shops, gardens, an apothecary, and a publishing house. It was known as the Franckesche Stiftungen (Francke Foundations), after its founder August Hermann Francke (1663-1727), a pastor who practiced a Lutheranism that was marked by biblical revivalism and social activism. When Muhlenberg arrived at Halle, the Stiftungen were under the leadership of August Hermann's son Gotthilf August Francke (1696-1769). Muhlenberg was deeply influenced by the brand of Pietism for which Halle was known. He would remain under the direction and supervision of the authorities of Halle for the remainder of his life.

In 1739 Muhlenberg began his career as a Lutheran preacher. That year he was called to serve as pastor and teacher in Grosshennersdorf in Upper Lusatia in Germany. In 1741 Francke selected him to answer a call for a pastor by three Pennsylvania congregations: Philadelphia, New Hanover, and Providence (now Trappe). Muhlenberg accepted, and in 1742, he arrived in Pennsylvania. He lived in Trappe for roughly two decades, until he moved to Philadelphia.

In Pennsylvania, Muhlenberg found mostly poorly organized congregations in want of adequate spiritual care. He was also faced with critics and rivals, including self-ordained pastors, and the leader of Moravian Pietism Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760). In an effort to bring greater unity to the Lutheran churches, Muhlenberg organized the congregations into one church body, called the "Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium in North America." In addition to English he taught himself Dutch in order to minister to congregants who were unfamiliar with German. He also oversaw the calling, ordination and placing of pastors, helped erect church buildings, removed unqualified ministers, and published a common Lutheran hymnal. He traveled extensively through the North American colonies in his quest to mediate in congregational disputes and to serve congregations without a minister and German communities without Lutheran churches. And he recorded all of this in great detail in journals that ultimately covered more than four decades, from his arrival in North America in 1742 to his death.

Muhlenberg firmly believed that a pastor's work should focus on the spiritual care of his charges. During the American Revolution, which he viewed with significant skepticism, he remained critical of the political activities of Lutheran ministers, including his two eldest sons. Both were Lutheran ministers who avidly supported the Patriot cause. The elder Muhlenberg, in contrast, tried to remain passive, and he believed his congregants would be best served if they followed his example. At one time, he refused an appeal by a member of the Continental Congress to prepare a statement for circulation among German colonists, exhorting them to support the Patriot cause, by arguing that "all intelligent members of our Lutheran congregations are faithful of His Royal Majesty, our sovereign. It is not proper for a clergyman to prepare such a statement as you demand." By 1775 he knew that he could not continue to serve his congregation in Philadelphia, the capital of the colonies. Later that year he left Philadelphia to return to Trappe, a then heavily German settlement about twenty-five miles from the city. He continued to serve as pastor of Trappe's Augustus Lutheran Church until his death in 1787. Because of his tireless work on behalf of the promotion and organization of Lutheranism in North America, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg is known as the "Patriarch of the Lutheran church in America."

In 1745 Muhlenberg married Anna Maria Weiser, the daughter of Johann Conrad Weiser, Jr., the interpreter and diplomat between the colony of Pennsylvania and Native Americans. The Muhlenbergs had eleven children, seven of whom reached adulthood. All of them were born in Trappe, Pennsylvania.

In 1763 the elder Muhlenberg sent his three sons Peter, Frederick, and Henry for their education to Halle. Their father planned to enroll them first in the orphan school of the Franckesche Stiftungen and then at the university at Halle. He hoped that his sons would study theology and become ministers, like himself. However, it soon seemed evident that the eldest son Peter was poorly suited for the ministry. When Gotthilf August Francke recommended that Peter pursue a career in commerce instead, Peter apprenticed himself to a merchant in the city of Lübeck. Poor treatment by his master compelled him to run away after three years. To the chagrin of his father, he enlisted in the Royal American Regiment of Foot of the British army. He returned to Philadelphia in 1767, when he received an honorable discharge.

Upon his return Peter Muhlenberg attended first a private English school and then received theological training from Charles Magnus von Wrangel (1730-1786, APS 1768), provost of the Swedish Lutherans. It seemed as though Peter would follow in his father's footsteps after all. In 1769 he was licensed as a Lutheran minister and subsequently served the congregations at Bedminster and New Germantown, New Jersey. In 1770 he married Anna Barbara (Hannah) Meyer, daughter of a successful potter. They had six children. In 1770 he answered the call for a pastor by a German Lutheran congregation at Woodstock, Virginia. Since the established church of Virginia was the Anglican church, Muhlenberg traveled to London to receive ordination as an Anglican priest.

Unlike his father, Peter Muhlenberg was an early supporter of the Revolutionary cause. He led the Committee of Safety and Correspondence for Dunmore County, Virginia, was elected to the House of Burgesses (1774), and served as a delegate to the First Virginia Convention. In 1776 Muhlenberg received a commission to raise and command a regiment of the Continental Army. In 1777 he was made Brigadier General. His brigade was placed under the command of General Nathanael Greene (1742-1786). He participated in many important battles, including Brandywine (September 1777), Germantown (October 1777), Charlestown (1780), and Yorktown (1781). Muhlenberg's excellent abilities as a commander earned him the respect of fellow officers such as George Washington (1731-1799, APS 1780) and Baron von Steuben (1730-1794). He eventually became von Steuben's second in command. In 1783 Muhlenberg retired with the rank of brevet major general. He was a founding member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

Muhlenberg did not return to the ministry after the war. Instead, he dedicated his subsequent life to a career in politics. After completing a survey of the bounty lands assigned to Virginia veterans, he moved to Pennsylvania. In 1784 he was elected as representative of Montgomery County to the state's supreme executive council. He was vice-president of Pennsylvania from 1787 to 1788. The following year he was elected to Congress on the anti-Federalist ticket. Two years later he failed in his bid for reelection, but he was returned as representative in 1793 to 1795 and 1799 to 1801. In 1799 he managed the successful gubernatorial campaign of Thomas McKean, and he actively supported Thomas Jefferson in the race for the presidency. In 1801 he became a U. S. Senator; however, he resigned the position when President Jefferson chose him as supervisor of U.S. customs in the district of Pennsylvania. He occupied this lucrative position until 1803, when he became collector of customs for the port of Philadelphia. Muhlenberg also served as a trustee of Franklin College in Lancaster, and he was President of the German Society of Pennsylvania in 1788 and from 1802 until his death in 1807.

Peter's younger brothers Frederick and Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst, known as Henry, met their father's expectations in that they received a classical education at the Franckesche Stiftungen and then enrolled in the University at Halle. In 1770 they returned to Philadelphia, where they were ordained Lutheran ministers.

In late 1770 Frederick became an assistant to his brother-in-law, Reverend Christian Emanuel Schulze, in Tulpehocken, Berks County. In 1773 he answered a call from Christ, or Swamp, Church in New York City. However, the arrival of the British in 1776 compelled this outspoken supporter of the Revolution to leave the city. He initially settled in his family's hometown of Trappe. This was not an easy time for the Muhlenberg family. The peaceful settlement of Trappe, including its church and schoolhouse, was occupied by American troops as well as by Philadelphians who sought to escape the British. Muhlenberg wrote to Pastor Schulze in 1777 that "During the year I had untold trouble because of the army being here, and my house being filled with Philadelphians. I am still overrun with strangers." His father noted in his diary around the same time that Frederick was host to "eleven persons in one small house and with increasing scarcity of money and provisions." In the meantime, his brother General Peter Muhlenberg was encamped not ten miles from his hometown.

Shortly after his removal to Trappe, Frederick Muhlenberg ministered to several congregations in the area. However, in early 1779, perhaps inspired by his older brother's example, he decided to resign his ministerial office and to enter politics. His first bid for public office was successful; he was elected to the Continental Congress in 1779. Over the following years, he was elected to various public offices in Pennsylvania, including as delegate and president of the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Constitutiona in 1787. He was elected to Congress as a pro-administration candidate; however, he was reelected three times as an anti-administration and finally as a Republican candidate, serving in all from 1789 to 1797. He is perhaps best known as the first Speaker of the House of Representatives, an office to which he was elected in 1789 and then again in 1793. After 1797 he continued to play an important role in Pennsylvania politics, first as the president of the Council of Censors, and then as the receiver general of the Pennsylvania Land Office, a position he held until his death in 1801 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Like Peter and Frederick, Henry also became a minister; but unlike his older brothers, he remained faithful to his vocation. Having been ordained at the tender age of seventeen, Henry served as his father's assistant in Philadelphia for about a decade. Like his brothers, he was an early supporter of the Revolution. In 1777, when the British army approached Philadelphia, he fled to his parents' home in Trappe. It was then, during this period of involuntary leisure, that Henry commenced his serious study of botany.

Muhlenberg, who had no formal instruction in botany, set out on a regimen of self-study and to collect specimens for his herbarium. Much of his early work focuses on the fauna around Trappe and, after 1780, on the region around Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had accepted a call as pastor. He kept detailed journals of his journeys through the Pennsylvania countryside and he also gathered information about plants from other places. In 1791 he wrote that his collection exceeded 1,100 different North American plants. His herbarium was the earliest professional one collected by a native-born American. (The American Philosophical Society purchased the herbarium after Muhlenberg's death in 1815; in 1898 it was deposited at the Academy of Natural Sciences.)

After the Revolution he corresponded with leading European naturalists about botanical topics, especially grasses and reeds. By 1811 Muhlenberg wrote that he had collected more than 320 species of grasses and reeds alone. He also actively promoted the study of botany in the United States by, for example, encouraging the collection of seeds and plants in the different states. He also eagerly exchanged ideas, seeds and plants with fellow botanists. In 1785 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. Two years later he became founding president of Franklin College in his hometown of Lancaster.

In 1801 and again in 1803, some of Muhlenberg's observations were published by Der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, a German journal dedicated to the natural sciences. In 1813 he published an extensive list of annotated plant names in his Catalogus Plantarum Americae Septentrionalis, a catalog of North American plant species. His catalog of American grasses and reeds, titled Descriptio uberior graminum et plantarum calamariarum Americae septentrionalis indignarum et circurum, was published posthumously, in 1817. Muhlenberg named more than 100 species of plants. In addition to his work on botany, he also published a two-volume German-English dictionary (1812).

Muhlenberg's goal to publish a comprehensive catalog of North American plants never materialized. However, over the course of four decades, he collected a massive amount of detailed information on a great variety of plants. When he died in 1815 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he left thousands of manuscript pages of notes and journals that deal primarily with botany. "The pious, the learned Muhlenberg is no more!" wrote the Philadelphia botanist and physician Dr. William Barton (1786-1856, APS 1813). "With him has fallen one of the oldest, the strongest pillars of that extensive fabric his exertions contributed so largely to raise—the edifice of botanick science in America."

Muhlenberg was married to Mary Catherine Hall. They had eight children. One of their sons was Henry Augustus. He was educated under the personal direction of his father as well as his uncle John Christopher Kunze (1744-1807, APS 1780), a Lutheran pastor and teacher in New York. From 1802 to 1828, Henry Augustus was a pastor at Trinity Church in Reading, Pennsylvania. During this time he served the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania as secretary (1821 to 1824) and president (1825 to 1828). In addition, he served as a Jacksonian Democratic in Congress from 1829 to 1838, and he was United States Minister to Austria from 1838 to 1840. Three times he was the Democratic nominee for governor of Pennsylvania. He lost the bid twice, in 1835 and 1837; he died in his home in Reading from complications of a stroke two months before the election in 1844. Throughout his political career, Henry Augustus not only helped shape Pennsylvania's Jacksonian party but he was also instrumental in building support for the Jacksonians among Pennsylvania Germans.

Henry Augustus's first wife was Mary Elizabeth Hiester. She died during childbirth in 1806, only one year after their marriage (the child survived). In 1808 Henry Augustus married Rebecca Hiester, the sister of his first wife. They had six children. His biography of his uncle Peter, titled The Life of Major-General Peter Muhlenberg was published after his death, in 1849.

This collection consists of c. 100 items pertaining to several members of the Muhlenberg family, including Peter and Gotthilf Henry Ernst (usually referred to as Henry) Muhlenberg, and several additional descendents of Henry Melchior. They include letters, certificates, and commissions dated between 1769 and 1866. The material is in English, German and Latin.

The bulk of the material consists of correspondence by or to Gotthilf Henry Ernst, Frederick, and Peter Muhlenberg. Several letters are from Frederick and Gotthilf Henry Ernst to their father, written in 1771 and 1772. There are also various notes and forms signed by Frederick Muhlenberg when he was Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Material related to Gotthilf Henry Ernst includes one letter with botanical information, including lists of plants (1804). There is also an undated excerpt from his notebooks, and there is a body of correspondence between Muhlenberg and Stephen Elliott, dated 1808 to 1815. Also included are nineteen letters written by the Moravian missionary Christian Frederick Denke to Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg in 1798 and 1799, and in 1811. The letters are in German. Denke, who signed his name in the Anglicized Denkey, corresponded with Muhlenberg mostly about botany. All of the letters include lists of plants; they may have accompanied shipments of specimens. Some of the letters also mention Denke's excursions, including the one dated July 1, 1799, in which he describes a journey to the Delaware.

Also included is correspondence between Peter Muhlenberg and Nathanael Greene, George Washington, Baron von Steuben, Thomas Jefferson, and other officers and public figures. A large body of material, including petitions and public notices as well as letters to Thomas Jefferson, Albert Gallatin, Benjamin Rush and other prominent Americans, relates to Peter Muhlenberg's activities after 1784. A letter by Henry A. Muhlenberg refers to his biography of General Muhlenberg. Eight letters by Henry A. Muhlenberg refer to his attempt to run for governor of Pennsylvania in 1844. There are also two letters by William Augustus relating to St. Paul's College (1840s).

Also included in this collection are various certificates issued to Gotthilf Henry Ernst Muhlenberg. They include his degree certificate from Halle as well as membership certificates in various scientific organizations in Europe and the United States.

22 volumes of Henry Muhlenberg's botanical notebooks are included, written in Latin and German. 2 volumes of Henry Muhlenberg's journals are included, which have a record of daily occurrence and also feature prescriptions, notes of questions asked candidates for the Lutheran ministry, the plan of a barn, etc. There is also a biographical account of Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787).

Several of the items are military commissions to Peter Muhlenberg (not General John Peter Muhlenberg) including documents signed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Of particular interest is Muhlenberg's commission as paymaster of the U.S. Army, signed by Andrew Jackson, and Muhlenberg's letterbook that documents more than four years of his tenure as paymaster, from 23 May 1838 to 3 December 1842.

Finally, there are several items related to Frank P. Muhlenberg's military career and involvement in Abraham Lincoln's funeral. They include two commissions, signed by Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, as well as the Special Orders that named Muhlenberg to the "Guard of Honor to remain on duty near the body of the late President" (24 April 1865).

Physical description

Ca. 100 items.

Provenance

Series I: Presented by Rev. Frederick A. Muhlenberg, 1891, and Mrs. Jesse Wagner, 1952; accessioned, 1952 (1952 89901). See in-house shelf list for additional accession information. Series II: Calendarium florae (volume 8): Presented by Henry Muhlenberg, 1785. Henry Muhlenberg Journals (volumes 16 and 17): Presented by Hiester Muhlenberg, 1954; accessioned, 1956 (1956 1143ms, 1144ms). Other volumes presented by Rev. Frederick A. Muhlenberg, 1890.

Originals in William L. Clements Library, Essex Institute, New-York Historical Society, Harvard University Library, Indiana Historical Society, New York Public Library, Henry E. Huntington Library, Yale University Library, and Wisconsin Historical Society.

Alternate formats available

The certificates and diplomas are also available on microfilm (Film 371, Reel 11).

Peter Muhlenberg's letterbook is also available on microfilm (Film 371, Reel 9).

Early American History Note

The collection contains miscellaneous papers from this prominent Pennsylvania family. Some of the material is in German. Included in the collection are diplomas and various certificates of family members, including Peter Muhlenberg's original certificate of membership in the Society of the Cincinnati. There is a significant amount of correspondence from Christian Dencke to the Muhlenbergs in 1798-1799, a period when he was setting up a mission to Indians in Ontario. The letters, in German and Latin, seem to discuss natural history.

Although some of the correspondence listed in MOLE is of photostats, the collection contains an original letterbook kept by Peter Muhlenberg from 1838-42 while stationed in Georgia with the army.

• Society of the Cincinnati

• Certificates.
• Diaries.
• Diplomas.
• Family Correspondence
• General Correspondence
• Journals (notebooks).
• Letterbooks.
• Military Records
• Travel Narratives and Journals

• Ohio River Valley -- Description and travel.
• United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Personal histories.

• Alexander, William, 1726-1783
• Elliott, Stephen, 1771-1830
• Gallatin, Albert, 1761-1849
• Greene, Nathanael, 1742-1786
• Hand, Edward, 1744-1802
• Muhlenberg family.
• Muhlenberg, Henry A. (Henry Augustus), 1823-1854
• Muhlenberg, Henry Augustus Phillip, 1782-1844
• Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior, 1711-1787
• Muhlenberg, Henry, 1753-1815
• Muhlenberg, John Peter Gabriel, 1746-1807
• Sargent, Winthrop, 1753-1820
• Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von, 1730-1794
• Washington, George (1732-1799)

• American Revolution
• Military History
• Native America
• Pennsylvania History
• Religion