Muhlenberg College - Ciarla Yearbook (Allentown, PA)

Page 25 text:

Historic Personalities Clearstory Window The Muhlenberg window has above it the seal of St. Iohn's Church, Phila- delphia, the first English Lutheran Church in America, founded under the leadership of General Peter Muhlen- berg: the seal of the United States House of Representatives, of which Frederick Muhlenberg was the first speaker: the Old Trappe Church, the oldest Lutheran church building in Pennsylvania, and built by the patri- arch, Heniy Melchior Muhlenberg: and a design representing a spray of willow branches, which reminds us of Henry Ernst Muhlenberg, pastor of Trinity Church, Lancaster, the first president of Franklin College, and one of the most eminent early American botantstsf'

Page 24 text:

'Bright are thy lawns after showers ot summer So bright and fair. 1 , ,

Page 26 text:

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg t1711-17871 ' Over two centuries ago there was born in Eimbeck, Germany, the man for whom Muhlenberg College is nam- ed-Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America. The college may be justly proud to bear the name of Muhlen- berg-pastor, missionary, administrator educator, and man of unusual talents. So remarkable Was his youth that his native town voted him a yearly stipend while he was attending the University of Goeitingen. With other students he founded the Goettingen orphan home, which is now a large institution. From a background of orphanage and pastoral work he accepted a call to three imperfectly organized Lutheran congregations among the Pennsylvania German immigrants, at New Hanover, The Trappe, and Philadelphia, arriving in America in 1742. Braving the ele- ments in the arduous life of a pioneer pastor, he soon extended his wide- spread mission Worl-: to New York, New Iersey, and Maryland and later as far south as Georgia. Being a man of linguistic ability, he preached in German, English, Dutch, and Latin, and frequently conducted public religious services every day in the week as he traveled from one settle- ment to another. In 1748 he organized all the Lutheran churches and pastors into the mother synod of Lutheranism in America, and continued to superin- tend them for thirty-nine years. His pas- toral work was aided by his excellent tenor voice and ability in playing the clavichord and organ. In 1745 Henry married Anna Mary Weiser, daughter of I. Conrad Weiser, the famous Indian scout. Of their eleven children, we shall consider the three famous sons separately. The year 1937 marks the 150th anni- versary of the death of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. On his grave at Provi- dence, Pa., is this inscription: Who and what he was future times will know without a mounment of stone.