Rev Dr. Heinrich "Henry" Melchior Muhlenberg

A Patriot of the American Revolution for PENNSYLVANIA. DAR Ancestor # A082598

Henry Muhlenberg

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (aka Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg) (September 6, 1711 – October 7, 1787), was a German Lutheran pastor, sent to North America as a missionary. Muhlenberg was integral to the founding of the first Lutheran church body, or denomination, in North America and is considered to be the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the United States.

Muhlenberg's family had a significant impact on colonial life in North America. In addition to Henry Muhlenberg's role in the Lutheran church, his children became pastors, military officers, and politicians. Muhlenberg is commemorated in the liturgical calendar of the Lutheran Church on October 7.

Biography

He was born at Einbeck, in the German state of Hanover. He graduated from the Georg-August University of Göttingen in 1738. He went on to become a teacher at Halle (Saale), where he also studied theology under Gotthilf Francke at the University of Halle. He entered the ministry in Germany. He served as assistant minister and director of the orphanage at Grosshennersdorf from 1739 to 1741.[1]

The Lutheran Churches in Pennsylvania had largely been founded by lay ministers. These ministers were less than effective in keeping Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf from winning over a number of converts to the Moravian Church. They then sought formally trained clergy, and in 1742 Henry answered that call by immigrating to Philadelphia in response to an official request sent in 1732 by Pennsylvania Lutherans. He arrived unheralded, and took charge of the congregation at Providence (Augustus Lutheran Church), in what is now Trappe, Pennsylvania, but he served as leader of a series of congregations from Maryland to New York. He also worked to secure control over a number of pastors of dubious character and began the task of starting new congregations among the settlers of the region. [1] In 1748 he called together The Ministerium of Pennsylvania, the first permanent Lutheran synod in America. He helped to prepare a uniform liturgy that same year, and also put together basic tenets for an ecclesiastical constitution which most of the churches adopted in 1761. Also, much of the work for a hymnal published by the Ministerium in 1786 was his own.

He frequently traveled beyond the three congregations assigned to him, traveling from New York to Georgia over the course of his forty-five years of active ministry. During this time, he ministered by his preaching not only to the German populations he was assigned to, but to colonists from the Netherlands and England as well, in their native languages.[1] The respect many of his colleagues held for him often caused them to request his assistance in arbitrating disputes between Lutherans, or in some cases with other religious groups.

He also worked to recruit new ministers from Europe and to develop a greater number of ministers from the local population.

He was eventually forced by poor health into more limited activity and retirement. He eventually died at his home in Trappe, Pennsylvania.

Dynasty

Muhlenberg married Anna Maria Weiser, the daughter of Conrad Weiser, in 1745. The couple had eleven children, and in so doing founded the Muhlenberg Family dynasty. Of their children three of his sons entered the ministry yet became prominent in other fields as well. Muhlenberg himself was very loyal to the House of Hanover, and worked to stay neutral during the American Revolution. One of his sons, though, Peter became a Major General in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and then entered Congress. Frederick served as the first Speaker of the House in the U. S. Congress. Henry Jr. became pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church at Oldwick, New Jersey. Henry Ernst was an early American scientist, and the first president of Franklin (now Franklin & Marshall) College. Several of Henry and Maria's daughters also deserve mention. Elisabeth was married to General Francis Swaine, and Sarah to Congressman Mathias Richards. Eve married Emmanuel Shulze, and their son John Andrew Schulze became Governor of Pennsylvania.

Legacy

He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on October 7 each year.

A larger than life monument of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg entitled "Man of Vision", sculpted by American artist Stanely Wanlass, can be seen at Allentown, Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg College, which is named for Muhlenberg. Lake Muhlenberg, located near the Muhlenberg campus in Allentown, also is named for Muhlenberg.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Other German settlers in Frederick, Maryland were Evangelical Lutherans, led by Rev. Henry Muhlenberg. They moved their mission church from Monocacy to what became a large complex a few blocks further down Church Street from the Anglicans and the German Reformed Church. Methodist missionary Robert Strawbridge accepted an invitation to preach at Frederick town in 1770, and Francis Asbury arrived two years later, both helping to found a congregation which became Calvary Methodist Church, worshiping in a log building from 1792 (although superseded by larger buildings in 1841, 1865, 1910 and 1930).[11] Frederick also had a Catholic mission, to which Rev. Jean DuBois was assigned in 1792, which became St. John the Evangelist Church (built in 1800).
To control this crossroads during the American Revolution, the British garrisoned a German Hessian regiment in the town; the war (the stone, L-shaped "Hessian Barracks" still stand). Afterward, many former Hessians stayed on and married into the town's families, strengthening the town's German identity.[citation needed] Wikipedia ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Religious Leader. He was the principal organizer of American Lutheranism. He was born in Einbeck, Germany, on September 6, 1711, and studied at Goettingen and at Halle. Lutherans in America in the mid-eighteenth century were found in scattered communities with no central organization and in danger of factionalism. Several congregations wrote to Halle University, asking for a pastor to take charge. Hermann Francke, a Lutheran leader of the Pietist movement at Halle, chose Muhlenberg and sent him to America. Henry arrived at Charleston on September 23, 1742. He was soon recognized by Lutheran churches as the senior Lutheran pastor in America. He set the tone for the Lutheran community in what became the United States; and almost all Lutheran Churches in America today use liturgies which were developed from the one that he proposed for American use. His plans for local church government, presented to congregations that had been accustomed to a great deal of government control, eased the transition to the "free church" model, and form the basis for plans of local church government in American Lutheran churches today. Henry M. Muhlenberg died on October 7, 1787. His epitaph (in Latin) reads: "Who and what he was, future ages will know without a stone." He was born in Einbeck, in the German state of Hanover. He was the son of Nicolaus Melchoir Muhlenberg and Anna Maria Kleinschmid. In 1745 he married Anna Maria Weiser, daughter of Conrad Weiser. They had 11 children. (bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46487586" target="_blank Thomas Fisher)]

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 18 2018, 2:42:55 UTC

"Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, a Pennsylvania Lutheran pastor, knew what he was talking about when he wrote that the black population “secretly wished the British army might win, for then all Negro slaves will gain their freedom. It is said that this sentiment is universal among all the Negroes in America."

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