John peter muhlenberg biography

MUHLENBERG, John Peter Gabriel

American Philosophical Society

Philadelphia, PA

Papers:Photostats of correspondence and journal of trips to the Ohio (1784, 1797) in Muhlenberg family papers, 1769-1866. Originals in various repositories. Also letters in George Weedon military correspondence, 1777-1786.

Columbia University
Rare Book and Manuscript Library

New York, NY

Papers:1 letter (May 22, 1787) in the Alfred Berol collection.

Cornell University
Rare Books and Manuscript Collections

Ithaca, NY

Papers:1 letter (July 25, 1801) from Muhlenberg in Washington Irving's Life of George Washington, Miscellany, Volume XI, 1755-1835.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA

Papers:9 letters (1789-1790) in the Gratz collection.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC

Papers:In Muhlenberg family papers, 1773-1847.

Lutheran Theological Seminary
Lutheran Archives Center

Philadelphia, PA

Papers:2 items. Order of Worship of Peter Muhlenberg and clerical robe of Peter Muhlenberg.

Muhlenberg College Library

Allentown, PA

Papers:L

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg 1746 - 1807

Penn People

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the son of Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg and Mary Weiser, and a brother of Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg. A member of Penn’s Class of 1763, he left the College before graduation and traveled to Europe with his brothers to study at the University of Halle. As a boy and a young man, however, John Peter enjoyed fishing and hunting more than studying and aspired to join the military. His mentors in Halle recommended that he be trained not in the ministry as his father had hoped, but in commerce. Thus John Peter came to be apprenticed to a merchant in Lubeck. After enduring three years with this man, a grocer who exploited John Peter’s labor, young Muhlenberg ran away to enlist in the Royal American Regiment of Foot in the British army. He returned to Philadelphia while a secretary to one of the officers, and received an honorable discharge in 1767.

Finally turning his attention to the study of theology, John Peter Muhlenberg soon won prai

John Muhlenberg – The Patriot Pastor

John Muhlenberg – The Patriot Pastor

One of the great stories from the American Revolutionary Era happened in Virginia – the story of the “Patriot Pastor,” John Peter Muhlenberg. 

On January 21, 1776, at the Lutheran church in Woodstock, Virginia, Pastor Muhlenberg preached from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, which starts, “To everything there is a season.”

After reading the eighth verse, “a time of war, and a time of peace,” he declared, “And this is the time of war.”  He then threw off his clerical robe to reveal the uniform of a Continental Army Colonel. It turns out that Pastor Muhlenberg also had a military background, and George Washington had personally asked him to raise and command the 8th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army.

Outside the church, drums began to roll as the men in the congregation turned to kiss their wives and then walked down the aisle of the church to enlist. Within a half hour, 162 men had joined the 8th Virginia Regiment and marched on to fight for their country’s independence.

After the Revolution

Copyright ©hayduty.pages.dev 2025