Muhlenberg, << MYOO luhn burg, >> Henry Melchior (1711-1787), was a key figure in organizing Lutheran churches in America. Muhlenberg was born on Sept. 6, 1711, in Einbeck, Germany. In 1741, he responded to a request from Lutherans in the Philadelphia area for a pastor. When he arrived from Germany in 1742, he found the Lutheran movement disorganized and weak. Muhlenberg worked to teach Lutheran beliefs and build a strong, stable, religious identity among Lutheran colonists. He was the leader of the Pennsylvania Ministerium, which oversaw Lutheran expansion throughout the colonies and provided missionary pastors for new churches until the late 1700’s.
Muhlenberg’s oldest son, John, a Lutheran minister, served in the United States Congress (see Muhlenberg, John Peter Gabriel ). His second son, Frederick Augustus Conrad, also a Lutheran minister, served as the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 to 1791 and also from 1793 to 1795. Frederick’s grandson William, an Episcopal clergyman, founded Flushing Institute, one of the first church-sponsored U.S. schools, which opened in 1828. He died on Oct. 7, 1787.
