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Senate Years of Service: 1801-1801 Party: Democratic Republican
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MUHLENBERG, John Peter Gabriel, (father of Francis Swaine Muhlenberg, brother of Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, uncle of Henry Augustus Philip Muhlenberg, and great-great-grandfather of Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg),
a Representative and a Senator from Pennsylvania; born in Trappe,
Pa., October 1, 1746; pursued classical studies; attended the Academy of
Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania); studied in the University
of Halle, Germany, 1763-1766; apprenticed to a grocer, absconded, and served in
a German regiment of dragoons; returned to Philadelphia in 1766; studied
theology and was ordained in 1768; pastor of Lutheran churches in New
Germantown and Bedminster, N.J.; moved to Woodstock, Va.; on a visit to England
in 1772 was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church; member, Virginia house of
burgesses 1774; chairman of the committee of safety for Dunmore County, Va.;
during the Revolutionary War, raised and commanded the Eighth Virginia (German)
Regiment; commissioned brigadier general of the Continental Army in 1777, and
brevetted major general in 1783; returned to Pennsylvania and settled in
Montgomery County; elected a member of the supreme executive council of
Pennsylvania in 1784 and served as vice president 1785-1788; elected to the
First Congress (March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791), the Third Congress (March 4,
1793-March 3, 1795), and the Sixth Congress (March 4, 1799-March 3, 1801);
presidential elector in 1796; elected to the United States Senate and served
from March 4, 1801, until his resignation on June 30, 1801; appointed by
President Thomas Jefferson supervisor of revenue for Pennsylvania in 1801 and
collector of customs at Philadelphia in 1802, in which latter capacity he
served until his death at Grays Ferry, Montgomery County, Pa., October 1,
1807; interment in the Augustus Lutheran Church Cemetery, Trappe, Pa.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography; Hocker, E.W.
The Fighting Parson of the American Revolution: A Biography of General
Peter Muhlenberg. Philadelphia: published by author, 1936; Muhlenberg,
Henry Augustus.
Life of Major General Peter Muhlenberg. Philadelphia: Carey
and Hart, 1849.
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