The son of
Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, he was born in
Trappe,
Pennsylvania. He was educated at
Franckesche Stiftungen in
Halle starting in 1763 and in 1769 at the
University of Halle. He returned to Pennsylvania in September 1770 and was ordained as a Lutheran minister. He served first in Pennsylvania and then as a pastor in
New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from
Princeton University. He married Mary Catherine Hall in 1774, with whom he would go on to have eight children. Despite his family beginning to take root in Philadelphia, Muhlenberg found he had no choice but to flee Philadelphia upon the outbreak of
Revolutionary War hostilities in the region. Returning to his hometown of Trappe, he took up the study of botany. He served as the pastor of
Holy Trinity Church in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania from 1780 through 1815. In 1785, he was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society. In 1787, he was also made the first president of
Franklin College. In 1779 he retired and devoted himself to the study of
botany. He is best known as a botanist.
Muhlenbergia, a well-known genus of
grasses, was named in his honor. His chief works are
Catalogus Plantarum Americae Septentrionalis (1813) and
Descriptio Uberior Graminum et Plantarum Calamariarum Americae Septentrionalis Indiginarum et Cicurum (1817). Muhlenberg discovered and identified the
bog turtle while conducting a survey of plants in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1801 the turtle was named
Clemmys muhlenbergii in his honor, (with a
common name of Muhlenberg's tortoise). ==Family==