Friedrich Bernhard Müller, a.k.a. Fred or Ben, was born in what was then the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg and baptized at the Lutheran Church in Eisenberg on 1 Aug 1828, as the son of shoemaker, Christian Friedrich Müller, & his wife, Catharine Rosine Wilhelmine née Trillhose. He must have learned his trade from his father because 20-year-old shoemaker, "Bernhard Muller", arrived at New York City on 21 Sep 1848 aboard the ship, "George Skolfield", which had sailed from Bremen.

On 17 Apr 1850, he and widow, Johanna Flamme née Hornemann, were married at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, MO. Her first husband had been Wilhelm Flamme, a blacksmith in Wittenberg, who arrived with Rev. Gruber's group in 1839. The 1850 US census enumerated 22-year-old shoemaker, "Bernhart Miller", in Perry County, MO's Brazeau Township with his new wife and step-son.

His wife's family had arrived in New Orleans aboard the brig, Weser, on 29 Dec 1835 (though NARA misfiled their manifest with those from 1826). They hailed from the Sudheim area of the Kingdom of Hanover and may have initially settled in the Sudheim area of Cape Girardeau County, MO, which later became known as Kurreville.

In 1857, Mueller and his brother-in-law, Christian Magwitz (husband of his wife's sister, Hanna 'Caroline' Amalie Hornemann), purchased 200 acres in the Farrar, MO area and divided it into two equal parcels. He served briefly in the US Civil War in 1861 as a volunteer for 3 months. In 1872, he sold his 100 acres to Peter Schmidt, although Christian Magwitz subsequently purchased 60 acres of it in 1874. Most of it is now owned by the David Stueve and Edward Lohmann families.

After leaving Perry County, the Mueller family spent a brief amount of time near Renault in Monroe County, IL (~20 mi south of St. Louis) before continuing onward to a few locations in Randolph County, IL: initially near Red Bud and finally to Chester, where he owned a shoe store in his later years. He was an avid reader of newspapers and an active member of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, where JAFW Mueller was head pastor from 1875-1900.

Bernhard died 29 Nov 1899 and Johanna followed on 10 Apr 1917. Both funerals were conducted at St. John's and they were both buried in Evergreen Cemetery.