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{{Short description|German-born clergyman and missionary (1711–1787)}}
{{Other people|Henry Muhlenberg}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = June 2020}}

{{Infobox clergy
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name             = Henry Muhlenberg
| image            = MuhlenbergHM.jpg
| image_size       = 220
| caption          = {{Circa|1780}} portrait of Muhlenberg
| birth_name       = Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1711|09|06}}
| birth_place      = [[Einbeck]], [[Electorate of Hanover]], Germany
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1787|10|07|1711|09|06}}
| death_place      = [[Trappe, Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| church           = [[Pennsylvania Ministerium]]
| education        = [[University of Halle]]
| title            = Patriarch of the Lutheran church in America
| children         = see [[Muhlenberg family]]
| signature        = Signature of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787).png
}}
{{Lutheranism}}

'''Henry Melchior Muhlenberg''' (born '''Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg'''; September 6, 1711 – October 7, 1787), was a [[Holy Roman Empire|German]]-born [[Lutheran]] clergyman and missionary. Born in [[Einbeck]], Muhlenberg immigrated to the [[Province of Pennsylvania]] in response to demands from Lutherans for missionary work in the colony. Muhlenberg was integral to the founding of the first Lutheran church body or [[Christian denomination|denomination]] in North America, and is considered the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the [[United States]].<ref name=Kiefer>[http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/261.html Kiefer, James E., " Henry M Muhlenberg, Patriarch of American Lutherans", Biographical sketches of memorable Christians of the past]</ref>

Muhlenberg and his wife Anna Maria had a large family, and [[Muhlenberg family|they and their descendants]] had a significant impact on colonial life in North America as pastors, military officers, and politicians. He and Anna Maria's descendants continued to be active in Pennsylvania and national political life.

==Early life and education==
[[File:Coat of Arms of Henry Muhlenberg.svg|thumb|Henry Muhlenberg's [[coat of arms]]]]
Muhlenberg was born on September 6, 1711, in [[Einbeck]] in the [[Electorate of Hanover]], Germany, to Nicolaus Melchior Mühlenberg and Anna Maria Kleinschmid. He studied [[theology]] at the [[University of Göttingen]]. As a student, Muhlenberg came under the influence of the [[Pietism|Pietist]] movement through fellow students from Einbeck who had worked at the [[Francke Foundations]] in [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]], an important Pietist institution. With two other men, Muhlenberg started a [[charity school]] in [[Göttingen]] that eventually became an orphanage.<ref>Frick, William K. ''Henry Melchior Muhlenberg: Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America'' (Philadelphia, Pa.: Lutheran Publication Society, 1902), pp. 16-18</ref>

==Career==
After completing his studies in the spring 1738, Muhlenberg secured a teaching position at the Francke Foundation's Historic Orphanage. Its director, the [[theologian]] Gotthilf August Francke was the son and successor of the Foundation's founder, [[August Hermann Francke]] and a professor at the [[University of Halle]].

Muhlenberg was ordained in Leipzig in 1739,<ref>Frick, 22</ref> and served as assistant minister and director of the [[orphanage]] at [[Grosshennersdorf]] from 1739 to 1741.<ref name="Bowden">Bowden, Henry Warner. ''Dictionary of American Religious Biography'',  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977. {{ISBN|0-8371-8906-3}}.</ref> In 1741, Gotthilf August Francke encouraged Muhlenberg to accept a call from German-speaking Lutherans in Pennsylvania. Accordingly, in 1742 Muhlenberg emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean, where he essentially organized the Lutheran Church as an institution in North America.

===Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania and New Jersey===
[[Image:Old Trappe Church Exterior 1919.JPG|thumb|Exterior of the Old Trappe Church founded by Henry Muhlenberg]]
[[File:Fairview Avenue, Long Valley, NJ - Old Stone Union Church ruins.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the [[Old Stone Union Church]] in [[German Valley, New Jersey]]]]
The [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] churches in [[Pennsylvania]] had largely been founded by lay ministers. After [[Nicolaus Zinzendorf]] was successful in winning a number of converts to the [[Moravian Church]], the Lutherans asked German churches for formally trained clergy.

In 1742, Muhlenberg immigrated to [[Philadelphia]], responding to the 1732 request by Pennsylvania Lutherans. He took charge [[Augustus Lutheran Church]] in present-day [[Trappe, Pennsylvania]]. He also provided leadership to a series of congregations elsewhere, including those from [[Maryland]] to [[New York (state)|New York]], where he worked to secure control over less qualified pastors and started new congregations among the settlers of the region.<ref name="Bowden"/>

In 1748, he formed the [[Pennsylvania Ministerium]], the first permanent Lutheran [[synod]] in the United States. He helped prepare a uniform [[liturgy]] the same year and wrote basic tenets for an ecclesiastical constitution,<ref name=Kiefer/> which most of the churches adopted in 1761. He did much work on a [[hymnal]], published by the Ministerium in 1786.

The dedication stone of the [[Augustus Lutheran Church]], above its door, is dedicated to Muhlenberg and its other founders. It reads, in Latin, translated into English: "Under the auspices of Christ, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg with his Council, J.N.Crosman, F.Marsteller, A.Heilman, J.Mueller, H.Haas, and H.Rebner, erected from the very foundation this building dedicated by the Society of the Augsburg Confession. A.D.1743." The name of the first church—Augustus—was adopted in honor of Herman Augustus Francke, founder of the Halle Institutions, whose son, Gotthilf, had persuaded Muhlenberg to accept the call of the three United Congregations in America.

Muhlenberg frequently traveled beyond the three congregations assigned to him. During his 45-year ministry, his journeys reached from New York to [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. He ministered to the [[German language]] populations he was assigned to, and also to colonists from the [[Netherlands]] and [[Great Britain]] in their native languages.<ref name="Bowden"/> His colleagues requested his help in arbitrating disputes among Lutherans, or in some cases, with other religious groups.

Muhlenberg worked to recruit new ministers from Europe and to develop more ministers from the colonists. Built in 1774 in [[Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey|Washington Township, New Jersey]], the Old Stone Union Church housed a congregation largely organized by Muhlenberg.<ref>Pitney, Henry Cooper. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ic8wAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA174 ''A History of Morris County, New Jersey: Embracing Upwards of Two Centuries, 1710-1913''], p. 174. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1914. Accessed September 24, 2015. "The stone church was built by the same congregation as a union church in 1774. This old church was peculiarly built, it had no gable end nor steeple, the roof sloping down to the walls on four sides. Inside there were galleries on three sides, the little pulpit box standing on one leg under an immense sounding board. First among the Lutheran preachers in the valley was Rev. Heny Melchior Muhlenberg, D.D., known as the 'Father of American Lutheranism' (remembered by Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania), a man of great learning and deep piety."</ref> His eldest son, [[Peter Muhlenberg|Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg]], also served as pastor there and served as a major general in the Continental Army.<ref>
{{cite web
  | title       = Old Stone Church
  | url         = https://fusiontables.googleusercontent.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=CARD&q=select+*+from+1ylVntQG1BVFdn8kNlkpWS3Bh9zZkvzojM33_Weo+where+col0%3D122&tmplt=3&cpr=1
  | date        = 2015
  | publisher   = Morris County Heritage Commission
  | access-date  = 2015-09-24
}}
</ref>

Poor health forced him into limited activity and retirement. On October 7, 1787, Muhlenberg died at his home in [[Trappe, Pennsylvania]], at age 76.<ref name=Kiefer/> He is interred in the rear of Augustus Lutheran Church, as are his wife Anna Maria and their son Peter. At his request, he was buried next to the grave of his good friend, sponsor, and Augustus Church co-founder, Frederick Ludwig Marsteller.

==Legacy==
[[File:Muhlenberg House 2.JPG|thumb|The [[Henry Melchior Muhlenberg House]] in [[Trappe, Pennsylvania]], named in Muhlenberg's honor]]
Soon after arriving in Pennsylvania in 1745, Muhlenberg married Anna Maria Weiser, the daughter of colonial leader [[Conrad Weiser]]. The couple had eleven children and founded the [[Muhlenberg Family]] dynasty, generations of which were active in the U.S. military, politics, academia, and ministry.

Among his children, three sons entered the ministry and became prominent in other fields, a fourth, [[Peter Muhlenberg|Peter]], became a scientist and academic, a [[Major General]] in the [[Continental Army]], and later was elected to the [[United States Congress]]; [[Frederick Muhlenberg|Frederick]] served as the first [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]] in the U.S. Congress after his election to office; Henry, Jr. became pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church at [[Oldwick, New Jersey]]; and [[Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg|Henry Ernst]] was an early scientist and the first president of Franklin College, which is now [[Franklin & Marshall College]].

His daughter Elisabeth married future general Francis Swaine. Maria Salome ("Sally") married the future U.S. Congressman [[Matthias Richards]].<ref name='Wallace'>{{cite book | last1 = Wallace | first1 = Paul A. W. | title = The Muhlenbergs of Pennsylvania | url = https://archive.org/details/muhlenbergsofpen00wall_0 | publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press | year = 1950 | location = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | pages = [https://archive.org/details/muhlenbergsofpen00wall_0/page/90 90]| quote = She was only fifteen when, on May 8, 1782, she was married to Matthias Richards, a prosperous saddler of Boyertown, Pennsylvania.}}</ref> Eve married Emmanuel Shulze, and their son [[John Andrew Schulze]] was elected [[Governor of Pennsylvania]].
[[image:Old Trappe Church Interior 1919.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Interior of the Old Trappe Church]]

==Legacy and honors==
*Henry Melchior Muhlenberg is commemorated on October 7 in the [[Calendar of Saints (Lutheran)|Calendar of Saints]] in worship books and hymnals such as the [[Lutheran Book of Worship]], [[Lutheran Worship]], [[Evangelical Lutheran Worship]], [[Lutheran Service Book]], and in supplementary ecumenical common liturgies and lectionaries used by most Lutheran congregations in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]].
*[[Muhlenberg College]], an [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America|ELCA]]-affiliated institution in [[Allentown, Pennsylvania]] is named in his honor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=College History |url=https://www.muhlenberg.edu/aboutus/collegehistory/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=Muhlenberg College |language=en}}</ref>
*The "Muhlenberg Monument", named ''Man of Vision'' and sculpted by American artist Stanley Wanlass, is located on the campus of Muhlenberg College.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Man of Vision - The Muhlenberg Monument - Stanley Wanlass|url=https://stanleywanlass.com/man-of-vision-the-muhlenberg-monument.html|access-date=2020-06-25|website=stanleywanlass.com}}</ref>
*[[Lake Muhlenberg]], located near the college in [[Allentown, Pennsylvania|Allentown]], is named in his honor.
*The [[Henry Melchior Muhlenberg House]] was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]], maintained by the [[National Park Service]] of the [[United States Department of the Interior|U.S. Department of the Interior]], in 2000.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
*The Muhlenberg Building at 13th & Spruce Streets in Center City Philadelphia and the Muhlenberg Building at 2900 Queens Lane in [[Northwest Philadelphia]]. The former is a 1922 [[Collegiate Gothic]] high-rise designed by Clarence Edmond Wunder that served as the headquarters for the United Lutheran Publication House (ULPH)--the official press of the [[United Lutheran Church in America]] (ULCA) until the 1960s; the latter is a distinctive U-shaped two-story structure of [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]] and [[Federal architecture|Federal]] architectural style with red brick, white wood, and limestone trim that served as the headquarters of ULPH's successors Muhlenberg Press and then its successor, [[Fortress Press]] of the [[Lutheran Church in America]] (LCA). Both contained the editorial offices of ''[[The Lutheran]]'', the bi-monthly magazine of both the ULCA and the LCA. The former building now functions as an apartment complex, while the latter is now part of Drexel University's College of Medicine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=United Lutheran Publication House |url=https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/20091 |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=Philadelphia Architects & Buildings |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Muhlenberg family]]
*[[Johann Christopher Kunze]]

{{Portal|Saints}}
{{clear}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==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}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSV6vK_JbRYC |last=Riforgiato |first=Leonard R. |title=Missionary of Moderation: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and the Lutheran Church in English America |publisher=Bucknell Univ Press |year=1980|isbn=9780838723791 }}

==External links==
{{Category commons}}
*[http://www.elcm.org/muhlenberg/muhlenberg.html Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716025242/https://www.elcm.org/muhlenberg/muhlenberg.html |date=July 16, 2020 }}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090425165416/http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/yourti17151.html Early Evangelical Lutheran Heroes in America]}}, Holy Trinity, New Rochelle, NY
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior |short=x}}
*{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Muhlenberg, Heinrich Melchior |year=1905 |short=x}}
*{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior|year=1900 |short=x}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhlenberg, Henry}}
[[Category:1711 births]]
[[Category:1787 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century American Lutheran clergy]]
[[Category:18th-century Lutheran theologians]]
[[Category:German emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:German Lutheran missionaries]]
[[Category:Lutheran missionaries in the United States]]
[[Category:Muhlenberg College]]
[[Category:Muhlenberg family|Henry]]
[[Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar]]
[[Category:People from Einbeck]]
[[Category:People from the Electorate of Hanover]]
[[Category:People from Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]