Muhlenberg Family Papers
The Muhlenberg Family Papers, purchased by Muhlenberg College at auction in 1976, consists of an estimated 1,900 documents comprising mostly letters written by or to members of the Muhlenberg political dynasty. The collection has been indexed and digitized, but remains inaccessible to scholars because we do not have intellectual control of the contents. By transcribing these documents, you are helping to make this valuable collection available to the world.
The bulk of the collection contains the papers of Henry A. P. Muhlenberg (1782-1844) and members of his immediate family. Henry served as a Pennsylvania representative to the U.S House of Representatives (1829-1838), was an unsuccessful candidate for governor (1835 and 1844), and served as the first U.S. Minister to the Austrian Empire (1838-1840). His correspondence spans the period between 1814 and his death in 1844, with the bulk from 1829 through 1844. Correspondents include politically significant figures of the time, including Daniel Webster, James Buchanan, and DeWitt Clinton, among many others. A significant portion deals with the contentious gubernatorial race of 1835 between Henry and incumbent Governor George Wolf, which resulted in a split of the Democratic Party.
Henry A. P. and Rebecca Muhlenberg Correspondence (completed)
About ten percent of the collection consists of letters between H.A.P. Muhlenberg and his wife, Rebecca (1781-1841), daughter of Pennsylvania’s fifth governor, Joseph Hiester, during Henry’s decade in Congress and term in Austria. A preliminary perusal of the contents reveals discussion of social life in Washington, food, fashion, their health and that of their family, weather, Christmas, cholera outbreaks, continued emotional distress over the long-ago death of an infant daughter, and political ambition. Interspersed are references to debates over slavery and nullification, the Bank War, and the attempted assasination of President Jackson.
We began our transcription project with this selection of 211 letters between husband and wife. We are excited about the window that this collection provides, not only into state and national politics of the era, but into the familial, social, and cultural lives of the correspondents and their circles. As archivists and historians, we seek evidence of the lives of those whose stories have too often not been included in the historical record.
We are working to prioritize future groupings of documents by theme; we want our volunteers to discover the narratives in as cohesive a way as possible.
You may view a typed genealogical record of the Muhlenberg and Hiester families here; bolded names indicate individuals who are represented by documents in the collection. We hope in the future to create an interactive family tree that will allow for easier navigation.
Correspondence of Muhlenberg Women (completed)
This collection contains forty-eight letters written by the sisters and nieces of Henry A.P. and Rebecca Muhlenberg, as well as by their daughter, Rosa Catharine Muhlenberg Nicolls (1821-1867). The first group contains 25 letters from the sisters of Henry and Rebecca Hiester Muhlenberg. Fifteen of these letters are addressed to Henry A.P. Muhlenberg from his older sisters, Mary Catherine Muhlenberg Musser (1776-1843) and Susanna Elizabeth Muhlenberg Schmidt (1779-1836). Their letters to him span from the decade prior to his service as a congressman in Washington, DC to mid-way through that period. Ten letters are written by Elizabeth Hiester Pawling (1778-1827), Rebecca Muhlenberg’s older sister, to both Henry and to Rebecca, between 1801 and 1808. ”Betsey” is referred to often early in the Henry-and-Rebecca collection. Interestingly, this period represents time prior to Rebecca and Henry’s marriage, and pre-dates and spans the time that Henry was married to their other, younger, sister, Mary Elizabeth (1784-1806).
The second group of letters contains nine letters written by Rosa Catherine Muhlenberg Nicolls (1821-1867), the daughter of Henry A.P. and Rebecca Muhlenberg, to whom they often refer in their correspondence (see above). Additionally, there are letters from nieces on both Henry and Rebecca's sides: Elizabeth Pawling Ross (1807-1882), Emma Elizabeth Muhlenberg (1833-1900), Elizabeth Spayd Hubley (1799-1848), Henrietta Augusta Musser McLenegan (1804-1856), and Anna Duchman Muhlenberg ( 1807-1881).
All of these letters by Muhlenberg women were previously classified merely under the heading “Family Matters;” we are eager to have your help in uncovering the contents!
Muhlenberg Brothers: Letters of Hiester H. and Henry A. Muhlenberg
These sixty-seven letters are written by Hiester Henry (1812-1886) and Henry Augustus Muhlenberg (1823-1854), sons of Henry A.P. and Rebecca Muhlenberg. They write to each other, as well as to their parents and other family members. Henry writes primarily from Dickinson College where he was a student. Hiester, eleven years older, writes mostly from Reading where he was a practicing M.D.
German-Language Documents
The Muhlenberg Family Papers collection contains eighty-two documents written in German, among them a handful of letters written by some of the founding members of the religious and political dynasty: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and his sons, John Peter Gabriel, Frederick Augustus Conrad, and Gotthilf Henry Augustus. The bulk of this correspondence, once again, was sent to Congressman and Ambassador Henry Augustus Philip Muhlenberg (1782-1844). The many different hands to be found in this portion of the collection increases the challenge of tackling the German script. If you tackle this challenge, please consider reaching out to us to become a proofreader, as well!
The Speaker’s Journal
Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg (1750-1801) was the second son of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and Anna Maria Weiser Muhlenberg. Sent abroad to be educated in Germany and ordained as a minister in 1770, Muhlenberg later became engaged in politics and served in the First United States Congress as Speaker of the House.
This ninety-eight page manuscript, written in German, contains the journal, kept primarily from 1770 through 1772, as well as other material, and it opens at the point of Frederick’s ordination in October 1770. It contains accounts of his travels through Pennsylvania on behalf of the United Evangelical Lutheran congregations, his proposal and marriage to Catherine Schaeffer of Philadelphia, remarks on theology and community, and transcripts of letters, including one to his brother, John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg.
The journal was translated and published in 1905 by Rev. J. W. Early in the Lutheran Church Review, vol. 24. We are making the original journal available digitally for the first time, taking this opportunity to offer the journal again to be transcribed and translated through Trexler Transcribes by those engaged in learning the German language and script.
In 1952, the journal, which had been in the possession of Raymond E. Hollenbach, an amateur local historian, was gifted to Muhlenberg College through the generosity of Allentown attorney Robert E. Bittner. It was thanks to the efforts of Dr. Preston A. Barba, then-emeritus professor of German, that Mr. Royersford agreed to have the journal become part of the College’s Pennsylvania German Collection, which Dr. Barba was instrumental in building.