Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787)

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: Thomas Fisher