Henry Augustus Philip MUHLENBERG, Congress, PA (1782-1844)

1782-1844

MUHLENBERG, Henry Augustus Philip, (father of Henry Augustus Muhlenberg and nephew of John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg and of Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg), a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Lancaster, Pa., May 13, 1782; pursued classical studies; studied theology and was ordained to the Lutheran ministry by the ministerium of Pennsylvania in 1802; pastor of Trinity Church, Reading, Pa., from April 1803 to June 1829; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-first Congress; reelected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-second through Twenty-fourth Congresses and reelected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress and served from March 4, 1829, until his resignation February 9, 1838; chairman, Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Twenty-second through Twenty-fifth Congresses); unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor in 1835 and 1837; Minister to Austria from February 8, 1838, to September 18, 1840; was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1844, but died in Reading, Pa., August 11, 1844, before the election; interment in Charles Evans Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present