Early Life and Education
Muhlenberg was born to Pennsylvania Dutch parents Anna and Henry Muhlenberg in Trappe, Pennsylvania. He was sent, together with his brothers, Frederick Augustus and Gotthilf Henry Ernst 1763 to Halle. They were educated in Latin at the Francke Foundations. He left school in 1767 to start as a sales assistant in Lübeck and returned in the same year to Pennsylvania. There he received a classical education from the Academy of Philadelphia, which is today the University of Pennsylvania.
He also served briefly in the German dragoons, earning the nickname "Teufel Piet" (Devil Pete) before returning to Philadelphia. He was ordained in 1768 and headed a Lutheran congregation in Bedminster, New Jersey, before moving to Woodstock, Virginia. In 1770 he married Anna Barbara "Hannah" Meyer, the daughter of a successful potter. Together they had six children.
Muhlenberg visited England in 1772 and was ordained into the priesthood of the Anglican Church although he served a Lutheran congregation. Since the Anglican Church was the state church of Virginia, he was required to be ordained in an Anglican church in order to serve a congregation in Virginia. Besides his new congregation, he led the Committee of Safety and Correspondence for Dunmore County, Virginia. He was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1774, and was a delegate to the First Virginia Convention.
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