Aged 23 years.
News article in the LNP (Lancaster, PA), 4 Mar 2016, pg. A17.
"The tragic story of another Coleman suitor . . . .(article about her sister Ann Coleman, who was engaged to James Buchannan) . . . The Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg an important minister and educator, fancied Ann Coleman's younger sister, Sarah.
Muhlenberg was co-rector of Lancaster’s St. James Episcopal Church from 1820-1826. Near the end of that period, he wooed Sarah.
Robert Coleman may have liked Muhlenberg even less than he liked Buchanan.
Coleman was a vestryman of St. James’ congregation — and a Lancaster County judge — and he opposed Muhlenberg’s decision to hold an evening church service. A minor matter, you might think; but the two men had clashed for years and the evening service made Coleman furious. He prohibited Muhlenberg from entering his house.
By refusing to yield to one of the most important men in Pennsylvania, Muhlenberg surely knew he might lose Coleman’s daughter. He had a more important concern, however. He wrote in his diary: “But for no earthly consideration whatever, not even the attainment of the dear object of my heart will I sacrifice what I believe to be the interests of my church. O lord, help me!'”
In the fall of 1825, nearly six years after her sister, Ann, died, Sarah also traveled to Philadelphia and died there at the age of 23.
The sisters are buried side-by-side in the Coleman plot in the southwestern corner of St. James Cemetery.
In his 1944 history of the church, Franklin & Marshall College historian H.M.J. Klein said Muhlenberg repeatedly visited Sarah’s grave and “always took away with him a spray of the sweetbrier that grew there.'”
Muhlenberg did not remain in Lancaster long after Sarah’s death. Robert Coleman had died several months before his daughter, but his son, Edward, continued his father’s cause. He said the family would give the church $5,000 if Muhlenberg resigned. Muhlenberg left the church in the summer of 1826.
This was a great loss for Lancaster.
Muhlenberg moved to the Big Apple. He established St. Paul’s College at Flushing, New York, and the Church of the Holy Communion and St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City. He also founded St. Johnland to care for homeless children and the elderly in Long Island, New York. St. Johnland Nursing Center still serves senior citizens.
In addition to being a church founder and social innovator, Muhlenberg started model schools. (While in Pennsylvania, he had directed schools in Philadelphia and Lancaster.) The committed bachelor was one of the 19th century’s foremost educators.
He also authored the first Thanksgiving hymn.
After Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Nov. 26, 1863, as the first official Thanksgiving, Muhlenberg turned the proclamation into poetry and set it to music. “The Thanksgiving Hymn” by Abe, Will and the Liberty Singers became a blockbuster hit by Christmas, 1863.
Just kidding — about the singing group and blockbuster hit, that is — but not about the hymn’s origin. Muhlenberg wrote and published many hymns throughout his life.
The master minister, educator, caretaker of the elderly and destitute youth, hymn writer and bachelor died in 1877. He was 80."