Author: Muller, Albert A.
Biography:
MULLER, Albert A. (1785-1858?: Williams)
Most library catalogues and local histories call him Muller but in some sources, including one title-page, the name is given as Mueller. His middle name Aerney sometimes appears incorrectly as Arney. Born into the well established family of his parents Johanna Magdalena and Albert Aerney Muller (d 1793) in Charleston SC, he was educated for the ministry. His BA and MA (1818) came from South Carolina College (later University of South Carolina) in Columbia SC. He married Frances Rivers on 12 Nov. 1817 in Charleston, and there his book of poetry was published. The couple had four children, two of whom died young. In 1824 Muller was rector of a church in Bristol PA, where he also tried to open a boys' school. After 1825 he travelled in the South as a missionary. In 1826 he was in Natchez MS; in 1830 he arrived in Tuscaloosa AL to serve as the rector of the episcopal Christ Church congregation. He seems to have been a Mason. He was awarded the first honorary DD degree from the University of Alabama in 1833. He was however deposed from the ministry after exhibiting scandalous behaviour, left Tuscaloosa in disgrace, was rejected also in Tennessee, and made his way to New York City where he became a hack writer. Williams observes that "his secular conviviality" caused his downfall. His last recorded letter to a friend in Alabama was a request for money. The death date is conjectural. (Benjamin Buford Williams, A Literary History of Alabama: The Nineteenth Century [1979] 21-3; Knight; ancestry.com 19 Oct. 2025; information from AA and from Dandy Doover) HJ
Other Names:
- Albert A. Mueller