Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/493

Rh geologist. Prom 1865 till 1873 he was professor of natural sciences and the higher mathematics in the State agricultural college. While connected with this institution he employed his vacations in exploring the cretaceous formation in western Kansas, and thus discovered forty-five new species of fossils, including Ichthyornis dispar, a bird with biconcave vertebrEe. He was president of the Kansas state teachers' association in 18(57, and of the Kansas academy of sciences in 1868-'79. From 1873 till 1879 he was lecturer on geology in the state university at Lawrence. Prof. Mudge was a frequent contributor, 1873-'80, to the "Transactions" of the Kansas academy of sciences and other societies. He also published "First Annual Report on the Geology of Kansas " (Lawrence, 18(56).

MUENSTER, Paul, clergyman, b. in Zanchtenthal, Moravia, 25 July, 1716; d. in Bethlehem, Pa., 14 Oct., 1792. He was a direct descendant of members of the Ancient brethren's church, and his parents were persecuted with such severity as to cause his father's death. In 1729 he and his mother, led by his brother, who had previously escaped but returned in order to assist them, made their way safely to Herrnhut, in Saxony, Paul carrying strapped to his back a copy of the hymnal of the Ancient brethren, which he deemed to be his greatest treasure. The volume is now in the archives of the Moravian church at Bethlehem. He entered the ministry in 1747, and, after laboring for fourteen years in England, came to this country in 1761, having received an appointment as senior minister at Bethlehem, Pa., which post he filled for thirty-one vears.

MUHLENBERG, Henry Melchior, clergyman, b. in Eimbeck, Hanover, Germany, 6 Sept., 1711; d. in Trappe, Montgomery co., Pa., 7 Oct., 1787. His parents were Nicholaus Melchior and Anna Maria Muhlenberg. His father was a member of the council of Eimbeck, and his mother was the daughter of a retired officer. In early life he attended school in his native place, but his father died when Henry was twelve years old, and his studies were interrupted for some time. At the age of twenty-one he was enabled to resume them in private, and in 1735 he entered the University of Göttingen, which had been established in that year. Here he became identified with the orthodox pietism of Spener and Francke. In 1736 he united with several students of theology in giving instruction to poor and neglected children, from which resulted in a very short time the establishment of an institution for such children, which is still in existence. In 1737 he began his theological course at Göttingen, and in 1738 he went to Halle to finish his course, where he was also at the same time employed as a teacher in Francke's orphan home. In 1739, after his ordination, he was called to the office of deacon or assistant in the church at Gross-Hennersdorf, in Upper Lusatia, and inspector of the orphan house at that place. He labored here with much success until 1741, when he accepted a call in the name of several congregations of German Lutherans in Pennsylvania to go there as a missionary. Three imperfectly organized Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania, located respectively at New Hanover, New Providence (now Trappe), and Philadelphia, had already, in 1733, sent three delegates to England, Holland, and Germany to solicit gifts for the erection of churches and school-houses, and to ask for a pastor for themselves and other Lutherans scattered throughout the provinces in the New World. The delegates were kindly received, money was collected, and now the first missionary was called, 6 Sept.,

1741. In the beginning of the following year Muhlenberg began the journey to his new field of labor; he spent some time in London, and on 13 June, 1742, embarked on a packet that was going to Georgia with provisions for Gen. Oglethorpe's colony. During the voyage he took much interest in the spiritual welfare of passengers and sailors, and preached to them in the English language. He arrived at Charleston, S. C., on 22 Sept., 1742, and on 25 Nov. he reached Philadelphia and entered at once upon his work. He labored with great zeal and under many difficulties among the three congregations that had called him, but soon extended his labors to other places in Pennsylvania and the adjacent provinces. In the early part of the 18th century German Lutherans had settled in various parts of the New World, and these he carefully sought out, ministered to their spiritual wants, and organized congregations among them. As his field of labor enlarged he petitioned his patrons in Germany for one or more pastors. In 1745 Rev. Peter Brunnholtz and two theological students arrived in Pennsylvania. Mr. Brunnholtz was placed in Philadelphia and the students at New Hanover and Philadelphia as teachers and assistants. Later others were sent over from Halle in order to take up the work where Muhlenberg had made a beginning, and previous to the Revolutionary war there were already a respectable number of co-laborers sent out from Halle. Muhlenberg was married, 23 April, 1745, to a daughter of J. Conrad Weiser, of Tulpehoken, the well-known Indian interpreter. After the arrival of Brunnholtz at Philadelphia, Muhlenberg resided at Trappe. With the arrival of more laborers the field, of which he had the oversight, extended itself more from year to year, so that about the middle of the 18th century it extended from Georgia, through the Carolinas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, to New York city and the shores of the upper Hudson. In 1748 Muhlenberg and his co-laborers organized the first Lutheran synod on the basis of the Lutheran confessions. This synod stood in very friendly relations with the Swedish Lutheran ministers, whose settlement along the Delaware dated from 1638. Muhlenberg was eminently qualified for his task. He could use four or five languages, and could endure any amount of work. During the summers of 1751 and 1752 he labored among the Dutch and Germans in New York city, and he repeated his visit in 1759 and 1760, serving congregations in New York and New Jersey. He held frequent intercourse with the Swedish ministers, delivered addresses in Latin, and occasionally preached in the English language. The first church in Philadelphia was dedicated in 1748. Later, in 1762, he reorganized the congregation under a new constitution, which has become the model for most subsequent congregations. Some part of the years 1774-'5 Muhlenberg spent in Georgia in order to re-establish peace and order among the pastors and people there, and he succeeded in giving them a new constitution and a better form of government. During the Revolutionary war he endured many trials, owing to the fact that he and his family cast their lot with the Americans. In 1776 he removed to his home at Trappe, where he resided during the remainder of his life, continuing to preach as circumstances demanded and his failing health permitted, and assisting the pastors and congregations with his counsel and advice. He carried on an extensive correspondence both with his brethren in this country and with his patrons at Halle and elsewhere in Germany. The result of his vast