Frederick Muhlenberg — First Speaker of the House

Trappe has a quiet claim on the founding of the American republic. Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg lived here on West Main Street from seventeen eighty-one to seventeen ninety-one, and in those years he moved from Lutheran minister to one of the most consequential figures in the new nation's first government.

Orchained as a minister in seventeen seventy, he served Pennsylvania congregations for nine years before turning to politics. He represented Pennsylvania at the Continental Congress in seventeen seventy-nine and eighteen eighty, then presided over the Pennsylvania Assembly. When the United States Constitution took effect, Muhlenberg was elected to the first Congress and chosen as the very first Speaker of the House of Representatives, a role he held from seventeen eighty-nine to seventeen ninety-one. He was also the first person to sign the Bill of Rights. As Speaker, his signature appears at the top of the document that guarantees the liberties most Americans associate with the founding itself.