Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/495

Rh, b. in Trappe, Pa., 17 Nov., 1753; d. in Lancaster, Pa., 23 May, 1815, was educated at Halle, Germany, with his brothers, and returned to his native country in 1770. In October of the same year, though not quite seventeen years of age, he was ordained to the ministry of the Lutheran church, and for several years he was his father's assistant in Philadelphia. From January till April, 1772, he labored among the Lutherans in New Jersey, and he then returned to Philadelphia. In 1773 he accepted a formal call from the New Jersey congregations and labored successfully among them for a year, when he was recalled to Philadelphia as third pastor in the large congregation in that city, and served in that capacity until April, 1779. In the latter year he accepted a call from the congregation at Lancaster, which he served until his death. Though conscientious in the performance of his pastoral duties, he devoted his leisure hours to the study of the natural sciences, especially botany, in which he excelled, being acknowledged by scientists in America and Europe as maintaining the highest rank. Various plants, discovered and classified by him, were named in his honor. He corresponded with the highest authorities in this and other sciences, and was visited, among others, by Alexander von Humboldt and Aime Bonpland. He was a member of the American philosophical society, of the philosophical and physical societies of Göttingen and Berlin, and other scientific societies in Germany, Sweden, and other countries. His works are regarded as standards by scientists. Among his publications are &ldquo;Catalogus Plantarum Americæ Septentrionalis&rdquo; (Lancaster, 1813); &ldquo;Reduction of all the Genera of Plants contained in the &lsquo;Catalogus Plantarum&rsquo; of Muhlenberg to the Natural Families of De Jussieu's System&rdquo; (Philadelphia, 1815); and &ldquo;Descriptio uberior Granimum et Plantarum Calamariarum Americæa Septentrionalis Indignarum et Circurum&rdquo; (1817). See &ldquo;Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg als Botaniker,&rdquo; by Prof. John M. Maisch (New York, 1886). &mdash; Gotthilf's son, Henry Augustus, clergyman, b. in Lancaster, Pa., 13 May, 1782; d. in Reading, Pa., 12 Aug., 1844, was educated chiefly by his father, studied theology, and was ordained pastor of Trinity Lutheran church, Reading, Pa., in 1802. Here he remained until 1828, when he was compelled to give up his charge on account of impaired health, and retired to a farm. He then entered public life and was elected and four times re-elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 7 Dec., 1829, till 9 Feb., 1838, when he resigned. In 1835 he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania. He declined the secretaryship of the navy and the mission to St Petersburg, which were offered him by President Van Buren, but was made minister to Austria, and held the office from 8 Feb., 1838, till 18 Sept., 1840. In 1844 he was again nominated as the Democratic candidate for governor of his native state, but died before the election took place. &mdash; John Peter Gabriel's son, Francis Samuel, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 22 April, 1795; d. in Pickaway county, Ohio, in 1832, received an academical education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. After serving as the private secretary of Gov. Joseph Hiester, of Pennsylvania, in 1820-'3, he removed to Pickaway county, Ohio, where he was chosen a member of the legislature. He was subsequently elected to congress to fill out an unexpired term, and served from 19 Dec., 1828, till 3 March, 1829. &mdash; Frederick Augustus Conrad's grandson, William Augustus, clergyman, b. in

, Pa., 16 Sept., 1796; d. in New York city, 8 April, 1877, was the son of Henry William Muhlenberg. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1814, studied theology under Bishop White, was made deacon, 18 Sept., 1817, and became assistant in Christ church, Philadelphia, of which the bishop was rector. He was ordained presbyter, 22 Oct., 1820, and soon afterward accepted a call to take charge of St. James's church, Lancaster, Pa., where he remained six years. Here he was instrumental in establishing the first public school in the state out of Philadelphia. He also founded, in 1828, a school at Flushing. L. I., which was merged in 1838 in St. Paul's college, in the vicinity, and for nearly twenty years was its principal. In 1846 he became rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, New York city, which had been erected by his sister, and was the earliest free Protestant Episcopal church. Not long afterward he began his efforts to secure the founding of St. Luke's hospital, at Fifth avenue and 54th street, which was opened in 1859, Dr. Muhlenberg becoming its first pastor and superintendent, which office he held until his death. In 1852 he organized the first Protestant sisterhood in the United States, and the ladies of this association afterward took charge of St. Luke's hospital. He also, in 1866, made an effective beginning toward establishing an industrial Christian settlement at St. Johnland, L. I., about forty-five miles from New York. He received the degree of S. T. D. from Columbia in 1834. Dr. Muhlenberg was largely concerned in extending and improving the hymnology of his denomination, serving on a committee appointed for that purpose, besides writing such general favorites as &ldquo;I would not live alway,&rdquo; &ldquo;Like Noah's weary dove,&rdquo; &ldquo;Saviour, who thy flock art feeding,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Shout the glad tidings.&rdquo; He also originated the &ldquo;Memorial&rdquo; movement in the Protestant Episcopal church, and wrote much on evangelical union, of which he was a strenuous advocate. His career was one of busy benevolence, the necessities of his four great undertakings &mdash; school, church, hospital, and industrial settlement &mdash; entirely absorbing his energies. He had great personal magnetism and much kindliness of manner, which especially fitted him for the educational work that occupied so large a part of his life, and for his intercourse with the poor. Besides many tracts, essays, and occasional poems and sermons, he published &ldquo;Church Poetry, being Portions of the Psalms in Verse, and Hymns suited to the Festivals and Fasts, from Various Authors&rdquo; (New York, 1823); &ldquo;Christian Education&rdquo; (1831); &ldquo;Music of the Church,&rdquo; in conjunction with Wainwright, and &ldquo;The People's Psalter&rdquo; (1847); &ldquo;Letters on Protestant Sisterhoods&rdquo; (1853): &ldquo;Family Prayers&rdquo; (1861); &ldquo;St. Johnland: Ideal and Actual&rdquo; (1867); &ldquo;Christ and the Bible&rdquo; (1869); &ldquo;The Woman and her Accusers,&rdquo; a sermon (1870); &ldquo; &lsquo;I Would not Live Alway,&rsquo; with the Story of the Hymn&rdquo; (1871); and &ldquo;Evangelical