Muhlenberg family.
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.
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