Husband Maj.-Gen. John Peter Muhlenberg 1 2
AKA: John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg,3 Gen. Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg 4
Born: 1 Oct 1746 - Trappe, Montgomery Co, PA 2 4
Christened:
Died: 1 Oct 1807 - Grays Ferry (Philadelphia), PA 2 4
Buried: - Augustus Lutheran Church, Trappe, Montgomery Co, PA
Father: Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787) 1 2 5 6 7 8
Mother: Anna Maria Weiser (1727-1802) 5 9
Marriage: 6 Nov 1770 2
• Burial: : Augustus Lutheran Church, Trappe, Montgomery Co, PA.
Wife Anna Barbara Meyer 2
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
1 F Esther Muhlenberg 11
AKA: Hester Muhlenberg 10
Born:
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Spouse: Dr. Isaac Hiester (1785-1855) 12
Marr: 10 Apr 1810 11
2 M Peter Muhlenberg 10
Born: - Philadelphia, PA
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Died:
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Spouse: Sarah Coleman ( - ) 10
3 M Francis Swaine Muhlenberg 4 10
AKA: Franklin S. Muhlenberg 13
Born: 22 Apr 1795 - Philadelphia, PA 13
Christened:
Died: 1832 - Pickaway Co, OH 13
Buried:
General Notes: Husband - Maj.-Gen. John Peter Muhlenberg
In 1763 he, with his two younger brothers, was sent to Halle, Germany, where all of them studied for the ministry. He arrived in America in 1767, and in 1768 became assistant pastor of Zion's and St. Paul's Lutheran churches, in New Germantown and Bedminster, New Jersey. In 1772 he became pastor of the Lutheran Church in Woodstock, Virginia, where, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he made a spectacular resignation of the ministry for army life; took charge as colonel of the Eighth Virginia Regiment, rose to the rank of brigadier general, then to major general, and fought in many of the leading battles during the entire war under Washington's command. After the Revolution he was elected to the Pennsylvania State Legislature; in 1785 was vice president of the Philadelphia Common Council, of which Benjamin Franklin was president; served three terms in Congress (Lower House) and was then elected a United States Senator from Pennsylvania.
He was stationed in Virginia in 1776, at the breaking out of the Revolution. It was here he delivered his powerful sermon on the "duties to country," after which he threw off his robe and appeared before his people a girded warrior. A company of volunteers was raised there and then.
His statue, representing Pennsylvania, with that of Fulton, stood in the Hall of Fame in the capitol at Washington.
At the age of sixteen, with his two younger brothers, he was sent to Halle, Germany, to receive an education. Being of a bold, resolute turn of mind, and a wild American, he could not endure the restraints of the school, so he left it and joined a German regiment as a soldier. From this position he was rescued through the influence of an English officer, with whom he returned to America again. He completed his studies under his father, and prepared for ordination in the Swedish Lutheran Church. In order to accomplish this he went to England in 1772 in company with Bishop White to receive Episcopal ordination. On his return he took charge of several churches near Woodstock, Dunmore County, Virginia, where he remained until the breaking out of the Revolutionary war. Here he was in the hot-bed of Virginia discontent during the arbitrary acts of the British government, and being an ardent Whig was sent by them to the House of Burgesses, where, of course, he sympathized with the patriot cause. About the middle of January, 1776, as foreign invading armies began to land on our shores, he resolved to leave the pulpit for the army. He prepared a sermon on "the duties men owe their country," which he preached, adding at the conclusion "there is a time for all things\emdash a time to preach and a time to fight\emdash and now is the time to fight." He at once descended from the pulpit, took off his gown, which had covered a Colonel's uniform, and told his people he was ready to serve his country thenceforth. He read his commission, ordered drummers to beat for recruits, and within a few days three hundred men of his own churches had enlisted for the war. It was not long till he had a full regiment mustered into service. His first military service was in Georgia and South Carolina, but he soon joined the army under Washington. In February, 1777, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, and in that year participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and at Valley Forge held the advance of the encampment. He was also engaged in the battle of Monmouth on the retreat of the British, and was one of the captors of Stony Point under General Wayne. On the tide of war rolling south, Gen. Muhlenberg followed, and was at the taking of Yorktown in 1781. He continued in the army until it was disbanded, and received the brevet rank of Major General. He is one of the brigade commanders of the Continental army whose record was tarnished by no defeat, and whose name is not specially distinguished by any victory. He appears never to have returned to the pulpit, but sought and obtained honorable employment in civil life. Such confidence was reposed in him that he was chosen a member of the Supreme Executive Council of the State, and elected its vice-President in 1787. This body performed the functions of Governor till 1790, when Mifflin was chosen under the new State Constitution. As soon as the federal government went into operation in 1789 he was chosen a member of Congress, and served from that year to 1795; and after an interregnum of four years, during which he served in the State Assembly one year, 1797, was elected again in 1799 and served till session 1801, during which year, in February, he was chosen to represent Pennsylvania in the U. S. Senate. He seems to have resigned this post soon after, and was succeeded by George Logan, and on the following June was appointed by President Jefferson Supervisor of Federal Revenues in Pennsylvania. In 1803 he was appointed Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, which he held till his death in 1807. He died at the age of 62. All these offices he seems to have filled with scrupulous fidelity; and in a notice of his death by the Aurora it says: "In private life just, in domestic life affectionate and sincere, his body lies beside his father's at the Trappe Church."
He not only filled the foregoing numerous public trusts but was named on the commission to manage the drawing of a lottery in aid of the fund to build Perkiomen bridge on the Reading and Germantown turnpike at the crossing of that stream.