Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg

Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg (1818–1901) was an American educator and Lutheran clergyman who served as president of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and as a Greek language and literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Family Muhlenberg was born to German Americans Frederick Augustus Hall Muhlenberg (1795–1867) and his wife Elizabeth Schaum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on August 25, 1818. Frederick A. Hall Muhlenberg was the son of Gotthilf Henry Ernst Muhlenberg a noted botanist. Muhlenberg was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where his father was a physician and a trustee of Frankin College. F. A. H. Muhlenberg had received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania where Benjamin Rush had been among his teachers. In 1848, Muhlenberg married Catherine Anne Muhlenberg. She was a granddaughter of Gotthilf Muhlenberg's brother Peter Muhlenberg, and thus a second-cousin of Frederick. They were the parents of six sons. Education and career Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg began his education at Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College) and then transferred to Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson College) from which he graduated in 1836. He then studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1840 Muhlenberg joined the faculty of Franklin College (now Franklin & Marshall College).